Brief introduction, my first post/thread here. I've seen this site from searches for years, not sure why I never joined. I was already established at Bimmerfest, got good advice there, it now seems to be dying a slow death. Have owned two E30s, both '87 325i, coincidentally made 2 days apart. My first one, bought in 2002, now has 450k miles, the second, a near cherry bought with 208k in 2013 was totaled in a freeway rear ender.
Alternate title: "car heals itself."
I hate it when they heal themselves. Aren't supposed to do that.
About 3 weeks ago I charged the battery and took it for a spin, first time in almost a year. I'm thinking, 'oh hell yes, I dig this car.' All I needed was to weld in a new CAT. So a week later I try to start it again. Nothing, just grinding that is. I put some starter fluid in the airways, still nothing. So I consult the E30 no start guide protocol, pretty sure it's no spark but I give it one quick test - disconnected a spark plug, put some #12 multi strand in the socket, hooked a jumper cable to ground, this so I could shoot for a spark while grinding it (my buddy out of town). It cranked over a few times, no spark, suddenly it not only sparked, it started up. Hooked the plug back up, it ran great. This car is still incredibly fast, even with 450K.
I welded in a CAT, passed smog, paid for tags, it ran great for a weak. Then started a lurching miss, with a check engine light flash, on the way home one night. The miss was so sudden and thorough seemed it had to be electric. Just a few times though.
The next night I was driving home and it really started missing. Then would hit 2, 3 seconds no power at all, suddenly starting back up. I pulled over, it died, wouldn't start. I missed with the spark plug wires, pushing them in at the distributor and tugged on the TPS wire back and forth. The latter as the miss was reminiscent somewhat of one on my other, now totaled E30, when the wire to the CPS strayed up to contact one of the pulleys, wearing off insulation, and grounding intermittantly (going to look at that in detail today).
Anyway, twice I got it to start back up after a full stall by messing with those items. I made it a block from home and it stalled again. This time I first tried plug wires - no start - then moved the CPS wire back and forth - no start. After about 15 minutes I pulled out a piece of wire in the trunk and tried the first accidental electro shock thing, hooked it to a spark plug socket, sure enough, after some grinding and no spark, suddenly the spark jumped and it started.
I'm going to look at a bunch of things, but who knows, I was hoping this might ring a bell with someone.
One update to all of that, my take now is that the fiddling with wires was a coincidental looking fix though the first plug gap spark might have awakened something, my best guess now is a bad coil. Search indicates that a dying coil will perform normally until it gets hot and will then cut out.
I should add that I tried swapping in a spare ECU which I tested years ago, I thought I may have hit a break but it also starting missing and then cut out after a spell. Just as well, it's nice to have a functioning spare.
Alternate title: "car heals itself."
I hate it when they heal themselves. Aren't supposed to do that.
About 3 weeks ago I charged the battery and took it for a spin, first time in almost a year. I'm thinking, 'oh hell yes, I dig this car.' All I needed was to weld in a new CAT. So a week later I try to start it again. Nothing, just grinding that is. I put some starter fluid in the airways, still nothing. So I consult the E30 no start guide protocol, pretty sure it's no spark but I give it one quick test - disconnected a spark plug, put some #12 multi strand in the socket, hooked a jumper cable to ground, this so I could shoot for a spark while grinding it (my buddy out of town). It cranked over a few times, no spark, suddenly it not only sparked, it started up. Hooked the plug back up, it ran great. This car is still incredibly fast, even with 450K.
I welded in a CAT, passed smog, paid for tags, it ran great for a weak. Then started a lurching miss, with a check engine light flash, on the way home one night. The miss was so sudden and thorough seemed it had to be electric. Just a few times though.
The next night I was driving home and it really started missing. Then would hit 2, 3 seconds no power at all, suddenly starting back up. I pulled over, it died, wouldn't start. I missed with the spark plug wires, pushing them in at the distributor and tugged on the TPS wire back and forth. The latter as the miss was reminiscent somewhat of one on my other, now totaled E30, when the wire to the CPS strayed up to contact one of the pulleys, wearing off insulation, and grounding intermittantly (going to look at that in detail today).
Anyway, twice I got it to start back up after a full stall by messing with those items. I made it a block from home and it stalled again. This time I first tried plug wires - no start - then moved the CPS wire back and forth - no start. After about 15 minutes I pulled out a piece of wire in the trunk and tried the first accidental electro shock thing, hooked it to a spark plug socket, sure enough, after some grinding and no spark, suddenly the spark jumped and it started.
I'm going to look at a bunch of things, but who knows, I was hoping this might ring a bell with someone.
One update to all of that, my take now is that the fiddling with wires was a coincidental looking fix though the first plug gap spark might have awakened something, my best guess now is a bad coil. Search indicates that a dying coil will perform normally until it gets hot and will then cut out.
I should add that I tried swapping in a spare ECU which I tested years ago, I thought I may have hit a break but it also starting missing and then cut out after a spell. Just as well, it's nice to have a functioning spare.
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