Project 1992 BMW 325i

[BLINGMW]

V6 or V8 Mustang?

dunno, I'd have to search up bimmerforums and others, it's pretty common

I never had to diagnose coils, so GL with that :wink:

If you do plan on hanging onto the car, buy a Bentley manual ASAP, it's probably in there. $59 @ Bimmerworld. Tell him I sent you, maybe he'll at least laugh. :lol: Damn it's $50 @ Amazon, nevermind....

[Sijray21]

slightly cheaper on half.com - LINK

scratch that - amazon is cheaper

[CaptainHenreh]

You could test all the coils... if there is one or two bad it should be apparent

Yeah... start it up, plug and un-plug and see if any of them *doesn't* make it run worse.

[Jeff]

Looks good Pete! I need to find another killer deal to fix quick so I can retake the throne! :oops: 8) :lol: Is this car OBD-2? If not what does the data plug look like? I have that Matco scanner I could bring up saturday.

[BLINGMW]

OBD1, codes can be harvested by flooring the gas in a certain pattern. But if the light's not on, there aren't any.

[PDenbigh]

Yep, Chan's right (no surprise there) but thanks a bunch for the offer Jeff.

I did some browsing on Bimmerforums and found that if I turn the ignition to "run" and quickly push/relase the gas peddle 5 times the CEL will blink the codes.

Mine blinked 1222 = Lambda Control #1 which I can only infer to mean the O2 sensor before the Cat.

I tested each coil and all tested out ok. So, I'm down to either the O2 sensor or a vacuum leak. I'm going to put the Ford O2 sensor in tomorrow sometime and see how it feels!

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll keep you posted.

[PDenbigh]

Well, repalced the O2 sensor and it didn't help at all. However, the CEL still reads O2 sensor!

Which leads me to believe that I have a vacuum leak. I read that these cars can sometimes develop leaks at head/pastic intake joint. I'm going to dig in and see how it looks.

A vacuum leak could explane why the CEL states O2 because it is probably ready way out of range if it's getting unmetered air.

I can detect a "woosh" sound from the intake side when the hood is up, but I'm not sure if that's just these cars sound...

Thoughts?

[CaptainHenreh]

There's always the old brake cleaner/starter fluid trick.

But really, as you say, the plastic M50 manifolds *do* occasionally warp and crack.

I saw an M3 manifold on craigslist for cheap. But you can probably do better.

Also -- F&K Auto parts *had* an E36 M50 in their yard for 600 dollars. You could probably get it for less if you pick it up. I don't know if they still have it or not, but it might be worth a call.

[PDenbigh]

Thanks for the tips Rex. $600! That's more than I paid for the whole car ;-). (now had I paid $2k for the car, $600 would be fine).

Got all the intake crap taken apart tonight only to find that it all looks good. Ever get to a point that you're just hoping to see something aweful? Like, a hole in the underside of the intake or a melted vacuum hose? Sadly, I took all of that apart and didn't find a darn thing wrong.

I'm going to try your coilpacks, MAF, and TPS tomorrow and see how that goes. If that fixes the problem I'll look for new/used packs or whatever I find is wrong. Thanks again for hooking me up.

In happier news I replaced the dome light and it fades on and off all cool and expensive like. Had to get something accomplished this evening!

[PDenbigh]

Thanks to Rex's Generosity I got the car running flawlessly this afternoon. The problem was the coilpacks. I put all of Rex's used ones on and it ran like a champ! (MAF and TPS were fine after all).

Earlier today I removed the headliner and sunroof. Talk about a jigsaw puzzle of an assembly! Wow. Took me a good 30 minutes to get it apart once it was out of the car! I found a broken clip that will prevent full operation of the the sunroof. I'm going to check a few JY's.

Also I will be redoing the headliner while I have it out.

[ScottyB]

go Pete go!

[Feersty]

Petey's the man.

[CaptainHenreh]

Thanks to Rex's Generosity I got the car running flawlessly this afternoon. The problem was the coilpacks. I put all of Rex's used ones on and it ran like a champ! (MAF and TPS were fine after all).

And now I know my coilpacks are good! Everyone's a winnar!

Pete, Ebay is the place for coil packs. Normally you can get a full set for under 100 bucks.

[PDenbigh]

Yep, scored 5 last night for $60 shipped :-). (surely one of mine is good!)

[Nis01]

wow Pete. Very impressive getting the car running so quickly. Never cease to amaze me. Good luck with the car.

[Hunter]

I was just reading through your posts and was thinking "bad coilpack" the whole time. It just happened to me last spring and your symptoms sound pretty much identical. If you end up needing another extra coilpack I could bring you one, I think I have 3 extras sitting around.

[PDenbigh]

Ebay is great.

Rear seat in the car was in rough shape. Looks like she carted her dog around quite often.

Anyhow, scored this on ebay.

(click for larger pic).



New on left, old on right. New one must be out of a newer car as it is designed slightly different in the center/rear. But, snapped right in, fits and looks great.

[.RJ]

When does the turbo go on?

[Maengelito]

Ebay is great.

Rear seat in the car was in rough shape. Looks like she carted her dog around quite often.

well, you did find all sorts of scandalous things back there from some uva sorostitute, didnt you? i'd burn that old seat :wink:

[PDenbigh]

Ebay is great.

Rear seat in the car was in rough shape. Looks like she carted her dog around quite often.

well, you did find all sorts of scandalous things back there from some uva sorostitute, didnt you? i'd burn that old seat :wink:

No joke. There's no market for a busted seat, so it's actually in the dumpster. Burning would be fun though...