Ya'll will get a kick out of this..

[bimmerlover]

I have to tell another stupid me story.. to get to my technical question.

So Saturday night (a week ago), I spent 6 hours in the emergency room because my boyfriend had an accident on his mountain bike. So the entire time I'm in there.. i'm listening to children screaming and people in pain. When I walked out of there at 11:45pm.. my nerves were REALLY shot.
So I hop in my 84 318 and my boyfriend manages to get in the passenger seat (but moans the entire time). <Hang tight.. I'm getting to the good part.>
So.. I see that the parking spot directly in front of mine is empty, so rather than back out of it, I decide to pull on through. "Baby.. isn't there a <WHAM>". "Yes dear.. I guess there was a concrete parking barrier there." I throw it in reverse and back up.. thinking I probably didn't damage anything important. Well.. immediately the car was running really rough and the temperature climbed up almost immediately. I figured.. radiator. When we got to the pharmacy, I got out with a flashlight and saw that over half of my fan was broken off, but the oil pan and radiator were okay.
So my next step, a day or so later.. was to take off the fan and discover that it still ran terrible. I figured the next thing in line to get damaged was the waterpump, so I ordered one of those and replaced it tonight.. and guess what? STILL runs rough. There's a strange engine noise at idle and when I'm moving (especially up any sort of hill) it sounds like really bad detonation. Did I kill it? Any idea guys?

Sorry it was so long. Thanks!

[RobertK]

I'm not familiar with the SOHC 4 bangers in the earlier E30s but my guess would be maybe there is some kind of crank positioning sensor may be damaged.

Could you elaborate a little more on the sound it makes and does it make the same pattern sound when the car is moving or only when acclerating or revving the engine? (ie. metal on metal, etc.)

[Nick325is]

I assume there is no oil leaking out on anything right Rachel? Its a possiblity that you messed up one of the pulleys if the fan was cracked.
I need more info to figure anything else though.
Good luck with it.


Nick

[RobertK]

That could go in hand with what I suggested prior. If the crank pulley or vibration dampener (assuming an 84 318 has one) was warped or damaged it could throw the crank postioning sensor off as well. (also assuming it has a CPS)

[Operator62]

Just a shot in the dark here. Check your clamp on your distributor. Make sure it is tight, and check to be sure your timing is correct. That small impact may have somehow caused your distributor to rotate slightly and advancing your timing which would cause the detonation, and the rough idling.

[bimmerlover]

Hm yeah.. you guys are right on. My dad just told me that the timing is way off.
I don't know what caused that though.. certainly not the impact.
I'm working on it now.. so I gotta run. I'll keep you posted though.

Thanks

[bimmerlover]

Hey. I can't believe nobody laughed at me!
I have really good news. Turns out..
When I bumped into the oil pan, the engine gave enough that the
distributor did get pushed against the firewall and turned like 3/4 of an inch.
So after a new waterpump, fan, & adjusting the distributor .. its purring like a kitten again:-)

I love my dad!

Thanks for the help guys.

Rachel

[MitchFong]

mm wouldnt it be nice to know a girl that has good taste in cars, let alone be like yours.. You would never see that where i live, its cavalier or civic here.. And if you dont have a hugggge wing your nothing.. lol

[jht3]

we've all done dumb things

i pulled into a parking spot at the local VatoZone and clipped the curb surrounding the tree planter thing and knocked the paint off the corner of my bumper. boy was i pissed and still am

i've also blown way too many fuses by forgetting to disconnect the battery first

isn't it nice when you do fix it though

[Nick325is]

Glad to hear you got if fixed Rach.



Nick