Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

New owner, no start.

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    New owner, no start.

    Well hello there, after a bit of a search, I bought myself a problem, under the form of a 1987 325e.



    The car was parked for around 5 years according to his father, while his kid who owned the car said 10... (but whatever). Car wasn't starting, but can't be that bad, right? Paid $1500 for a 2 door coupe with stick shift. Could be worse, but I could've waited longer until I found a working i, oh well. Car is fairly clean, bit rotted in the trunk behind the rear left wheel, but overall, the car is in better shape than my '05 Corolla...

    Today, I decided to give the car a go. New fuel, octane booster (just in case), checked the oil, added coolant even tho I knew it would piss most of it on the ground (rad hose rubbed and was leaking). The car would start, work for 5 seconds and then shut down. Every time. It had one of those 80s/90s anti-theft wired to the lights and the fact that it shut down within the same interval every time made me suspect the stupid box. So I've done the obvious thing, which is follow the wires from the silly box, find where it's opening the factory circuit, rip it out, join back the two wires together and that should be it. Well, not this time.



    Still the same problem. I've noticed this relay holder taped without a relay in it, but since I haven't bought a Bentley manual yet, I still don't know what it is. Oh, and there's also that big white connector that was zip-tied under the dash, from what I've seen so far, it's for the abs module?



    Just like I don't know where that blue yellow wire connector goes. I saw three potential spots under the tach, but not knowing where it goes doesn't help much.




    Thank you for your potential help and patience.

    #2
    The relay holder is almost certainly for the ABS relay. The big connector goes to the ABS computer.

    The green plug on the back of the instrument cluster is just for speed signal. There are multiple spots but only one thing is ever plugged in there, a reference for the cruise control.

    Most of the stuff under the dash there is not necessary for the car to start, just the big white plug mounted to the steering column and some of the stuff attached to it. There's a black wire (with yellow stripe I think? can't remember off hand) coming out of there which is the main ignition power, if that's unplugged the car will never start. It exists because on automatics the transmission goes between it for the neutral safety. On manuals, the two ends just plug together. Lots of aftermarket security systems tap in there because it's convenient.

    Comment


      #3
      Having recently bought an 87 eta that hadn't run in years I can say with a fairly high degree of likelihood that you should swap in a set of known good injectors before spending another dime...or looney
      Seat Shocks....I have passed the baton to John Christy from Ninestitch. Email John or Garrett at ninestitch1@gmail.com

      https://www.r3vlimited.com/board/sho...86#post4944786
      Alice the Time Capsule
      http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=360504
      87 Zinno Cabrio barn find 98k and still smells like a barn. Build thread http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/show...20#post3455220

      Comment


        #4
        Yeah, kind of sounds like it’s running by virtue of the cold start injector throwing fuel and when it backs off the engine becomes starved for fuel so it stalls.

        My sons eta is an 87 also, we replaced all the fuel lines (rubber ones), filter, under car pump, fpr, and cleaned up the injector tips, and used new injector O rings right away when we first bought it. It’s a good way to get familiar with things and get that Bentley manual asap.

        Always search for vacuum leaks. The car can stall pretty easily from even just pulling the dipstick.
        My son has the 1987 325e, 2 door, 5speed
        I daily the 1989 325i, 4 door, 5speed

        Comment

        Working...
        X