Cough, Splutter, Death

[onebigmart]

Hi all,
Got my '98 318i tourer 2 months ago, all was well until...

around 2 weeks ago I had a lapse in power just as I was booting it to join a motorway, as if my foot had slipped off the gas. Then a couple of days (&~300 miles later) the power died completly. The car started up straight away after, but after a couple of miles the revs were bouncing all over the place & the car was juddering, then power was resumed. I checked in for my next service early - "OIL SERVICE" + diagnostics at an indy BMW specialist. Nothing showed up on his diagnostics, however my plugs were very warn for the 7k life they had with green - blue deposits, I had them & my h-t leads changed & filters too.
The problem was still there, the above symptoms would happen ever 50 milies or so, then clear, I tried some STP injector cleaner - no joy, then a story about a contaminated batch of fuel hit over here (see bbc news-I'm not allowed to post URL yet) & silicon was wrecking O2 sensors, it was around this tijme myy car died on the motorway & I had to be recovered.

The recovery guy said he could hear a ticking & he suspected the valve post air-flow meter (a-f-m) was at fault & that the exhaust re-circ gases were going bach through my a-f-m the wrong way - maybe due to a faulty gasket. Or that the O2 sensor is at fault.

Any ideas as this time I've got to pay thhru the nose at a proper BMW garage this time as my indy guy is in the states for a week. Cheers guys.

[onebigmart]

The guy replaced the a-f-m a couple of months before I purchased the car, he gave me the old one as a spare - I tried that & still same errors. Leading me to think this has been an on-going issue IU have to get to the root of???

[amancuso]

Does the problem usually occur when you are really getting on the gas pedal? If so perhaps the problem could be the EGR Valve or a clogged catalytic converter?

[onebigmart]

The problem seems random, I thought I'd pin-pointed it to just after a blast of gas - it was fine when I booted it, then the problem occurred if I let off, then re-applied the gas, now the car starts up & revs fine at cold, but splutters over 2.5k & once warm, then dies - totally un-driveable.

[e36bmdub]

hmm i say rip out the engine, bore it out and build it up with a turbo kit :)

[onebigmart]

mmmm top idea, my g/f will just think it's an expensive repair if I hold the horses whilst she's in the passenger seat!!!

[dieseldriver99]

There are two places you can check:
Make sure you have newer fuel filter.
Make sure that the EGR valve is not stuck.

Hi all,
Got my '98 318i tourer 2 months ago, all was well until...

around 2 weeks ago I had a lapse in power just as I was booting it to join a motorway, as if my foot had slipped off the gas. Then a couple of days (&~300 miles later) the power died completly. The car started up straight away after, but after a couple of miles the revs were bouncing all over the place & the car was juddering, then power was resumed. I checked in for my next service early - "OIL SERVICE" + diagnostics at an indy BMW specialist. Nothing showed up on his diagnostics, however my plugs were very warn for the 7k life they had with green - blue deposits, I had them & my h-t leads changed & filters too.
The problem was still there, the above symptoms would happen ever 50 milies or so, then clear, I tried some STP injector cleaner - no joy, then a story about a contaminated batch of fuel hit over here (see bbc news-I'm not allowed to post URL yet) & silicon was wrecking O2 sensors, it was around this tijme myy car died on the motorway & I had to be recovered.

The recovery guy said he could hear a ticking & he suspected the valve post air-flow meter (a-f-m) was at fault & that the exhaust re-circ gases were going bach through my a-f-m the wrong way - maybe due to a faulty gasket. Or that the O2 sensor is at fault.

Any ideas as this time I've got to pay thhru the nose at a proper BMW garage this time as my indy guy is in the states for a week. Cheers guys.

[onebigmart]

Cool, will scour the forums for id info on fuel filter & EGR valve - nobody's mentioned the O2 sensor - as I mentioned earlier that was a big story here in England...i'll try & post the URL next...

[onebigmart]

www

[onebigmart]

.

[onebigmart]

telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/01/nfuel301

[onebigmart]

"dot"

[onebigmart]

xml

[onebigmart]

you get the idea - I'm not allowed to post URL etc yet....but this was a big story at the same time as my car died

[amancuso]

heh, thanks for the info, if you haven't yet changed the o2 it could be the cause based on this article. I believe the 98 318 should have 2 o2's one pre and one post cat. The one that theoretically could have failed is the pre cat sensor. Also I don't think it would cause the car to die out, at worst it would give you idle/fuel efficiency problems.

[onebigmart]

Thank you all for your help amancusco, dieseldriver & e36bmdub.....I'm gonna have to action these pointers tomoz as it's 17:25 here, thanks again for the pointers.... a great welcome to the forum.

If anyone has any p.s.'s I'll check again in the a.m. before I get my BIG hammer out!!!

[onebigmart]

There are two places you can check:
Make sure you have newer fuel filter.
Make sure that the EGR valve is not stuck.

Anyone any idea how I check for a stuck EGR????? Cheers

[onebigmart]

bit the bullet & took it the garage - diagnostics indicate faulty knock sensor, gotta wait for one to arrive on Monday, been quoted £150 + fitting (~£150ish), ouch!!! Fingers crossed that's all. Gonna swat-up on knock sensors...

[SimonSingh]

Where about are you from mate?

You could source those parts for much less!