My 1988 e30 325ix - Garage'd

[mike.bmw]

Good call on the injectors!

Were the original ones single pintle? New ones multi-pintle?

[jeenyus]

Today I got some injectors. Tapatalk just fucked up reply I typed up so I'll make this quick.

I got injectors that are made for a Ford Contour. Same shit as the m20 basically, it better.



Old ones were worthless. Dirty and old, probably my issue starting was a poor flowing injector(s).


How the old one sits in the rail and the new one.


Installed.

[ThatM20Guy]

I appreciate the encouragement. The regulator got replaced some time last year so it should be fine, but then again, who knows. Haha! I'm gonna have to get some pressure testers and possibly a DIY smoker.

Smoke test would be good. I got one last Saturday and found a leak on the oil return tube. The o-ring was bulging out so it had a sizable gap. Never would have found it without the smoke.


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[jeenyus]

Sounds like it's time for a maf conversion and fuel cell ;)

It wouldn't be a fuel pressure regulator would it?

Hope you can figure it out. Still hunting idle/suspension issues over here.


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I appreciate the encouragement. The regulator got replaced some time last year so it should be fine, but then again, who knows. Haha! I'm gonna have to get some pressure testers and possibly a DIY smoker.

[ThatM20Guy]

Sounds like it's time for a maf conversion and fuel cell ;)

It wouldn't be a fuel pressure regulator would it?

Hope you can figure it out. Still hunting idle/suspension issues over here.


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[jeenyus]

New gas cap. Trying to figure out my fueling issue day by day. Still leaning toward the injectors, but who the fuck knows. Seems all the logical/easy stuff is out of the way.



Over the weekend I cleaned out the AFM as well as I could. I cleaned some more contact and grounding point for the starter and alternator. I unplugged all the injectors, one-by-one while the car was running to make sure my issue wasn't a faulty injector, but most definitely isn't that.

It just kind of seems like my fuel is depressurizing while the car is off (hence the fuel cap replacement). I'll keep looking.

[jeenyus]

Here are what the fog lights look like during the day. Match my blinkers fairly well.

[jeenyus]

Got a good amount of cleaning done on the ix. I cleaned my grounding cable that's connected to my oil pan as it was so coated in grim. It solved my starting issue this far. Car doesn't short out like it was doing before. I don't have a before and after picture of the cable, but before I cleaned it, it was a black cable. After cleaning it, it was shinny.

I also cleaned my distributor box. I redid the heat wrap on it as well. It was in rough shape.

Before.


After.


Much better.

I got around to finishing my fog lights as well. I ended up painting the housing black. The inside was so beat I didn't have a choice. It doesn't make a difference in output either.

Painting.


Together.


I used RTV to seal the lens.

Installed they work great and match my parking lights pretty damn well!


The drivers side I haven't been able to get to work yet. I know exactly why it isn't working as well. It's so rusted there is no continuity. Here is a picture of the old bulb to give you an idea.

The base where the bulb sits is super rusted. I can tell at some point this driver side fog broke, sat broken for a while, them the owner must have replaced the lens. I only know this because the fog projector lens is pitted in a very distinct pattern and as well, the old seal was some shoddy silicone seal.

I'll be able to get it working soon and post pictures of the output.

[bradnic]

great idea on the lens swap! gonna do the same on my IX

[jeenyus]

Replaced my ignition coil. Car still having issues... I ran some BG44K in it and I noticed a significant change in the "ticking" with the injectors. Part of me is thinking there is an issue there causing some problems. Part of me thinking I have an electrical gremlin I need to resolve as well. Car runs great when it runs great...



I also have been planning on redoing my foglights for a while and finally I'm starting the project. I found some cheap Chinese foglights on eBay, and since the price point was cheaper than the actual replacement lenses, I'll use the lens on them to put on my OEM fog lights.

When I ordered the lenses they were titled as "amber" but the picture was yellow so I naturally thought a goldish color.



They showed up orange! Aaand I love them being orange! So last night I separated the lens from the body.


It was super easy! Excited to see how these look with light shining through them!

[jeenyus]

Two little things. Bought some missing push clips for the kick panel under the steering wheel. Little detail, but looks much better.



Then decided the rear screws holding the license plate on needed to be freshened up. My friend had some left over POR15 so I just ran a light coat on them after sanding off the rust.



I think Wednesday I'll be getting a new ignition coil. Tested it and it was totally off spec.

[jeenyus]

Pulled out the multimeter. I couldn't find an OBD1 reader, only a OBDII reader so I traced it from the fuse all the way to the fuel pump. Once I realized the pump was getting power, I must have pushed on it a certain way and caused it to start. I decided to look into it further and found a frayed wire at the top soldered connection that was grounding out the pump!

I fixed the wire, pushed it to the side basically and it started right up! Replaced the coolant temp sensor and car is running strong again!

[jeenyus]

I ordered and received a coolant temp sensor. It showed up Friday afternoon. As I was driving home from work, the car died completely. No lights on or really anything other than a dead pedal. I would press on the gas pedal, over and over and no response. So, I pulled the car over to the side of the road and called a tow truck. The wouldn't start and I wanted to get off the highway.


This morning I went to try and swap out the coolant temp sensor, but decided to see if just plugging in the new one would allow me to start the car. The car turned over, but in a very weak fashion and then died. Now I'm thinking it's possibly something else. I'm going to go grab an OBD1 scanner and see if that helps narrow down the issue. :/

[jeenyus]

Alright! I checked my coolant temp sensor and it's out of range. Totally explains a lot, but I won't get too excited till I get a new one and it fixes the issues I'm having.

Here are the resistance specs.


Here is the resistance with the engine hot.


Here is the resistance with the engine cold.


It's under... it explains how when my car warms up the idle shoots above 1k, the engine is compensating for the low reading. It also explains why resetting the battery also fixes the issues temporarily, cause it baselines the DME. Fingers crossed over here. I'll post the results when I get a new sensor.

[jeenyus]

Ditch the AFM and DME. There's a glitch in your car somewhere, messing with something. It's probably 2 or 3 layers of fubar deep, which means replacing 1 part at a time will never fix it. Megasquirt fixed my issue. Of course I ran into another issue then, lack of tuning knowledge, but over time that's been mitigated. It's cheap compared to other stand alones, but it's still a big mod to do price wise starting at $800 for a plug in kit. Mayber a miller maf + chip will fix the issue.

You can try replacing the engine harness with a NEW i harness and then extend the oil pressure lines. Don't even bother with a new harness. Also, get a new CPS and a a refurbished AFM. That'll cost you over a grand, I think.

You're making great progress. I've been where you are, it sucks and it feels so pointless and hopeless.

Thanks Kershaw. I'm taking the multimeter to everything. I actually replaced the CPS, which didn't change anything, but the car did run smoother till it reevalulated the readouts from the car and the DME updated, then it ran like shit again.

Last night I was thinking about this whole journey down the rabbit whole and I think the issue I'm looking for started when i replaced the two coolant temp sensors (brown and blue). So I'm actually gonna get a new coolant temp switch and test it against the one i have in there now. I am getting a feeling that the coolant temp sensor is still bad even after replacing it, maybe it was faulty, i dont know. I'll know more when i check the readout tonight and then compare it to a different one.

I mean, it makes sense it could be the blue temp sensor. It has similar symptoms like, dying when you start it, idling issues, cold start issues, etc. With how much is tied to this sensor, it's very probable. 15$ is a lot cheaper than a new DME...