Broke down at work

[Themachine]

Replace cooling components this weekend and think there is still air in the system as I had to top off this morning. New magnaflow cat 2 years ago new injectors 2 years ago maf and oxy sensor 2 years ago. I am pulling codes for oxy sensor. Car might have massive vaccuum leaks as that is next for my maintanance. Drive is 1 mile to work, was fine at first but when I slowed down to pull into work it started bogging and stalled. Started back up and barely got it into a parking spot then stalled again. Lots of exhaust smoke and the car smelled horrible. Car did not even reach full temp but did feel hot for a 1 mile drive. I did about 200 miles this weekend since cooling system was overhauled. Any help is appreciated as I am stuck work and will be doing an on spot repair if I can find what it is.thank you.

[Richard81]

Are you driving an E36? If you're not, it would be better for you to post this in the correct subforum. The folks there would recognise this more easily if it was common to your car.

Off the top of my head, it seems like a helluva lotta fuel is going into your chambers hence the black smoke. Find the fuel pressure regulator on the engine. It will have a small vacuum hose connecting it to the intake manifold. Pull one end (regulator end is best) and sniff. You should not smell fuel. If you do and especially if its a strong smell of fuel, well, your fpr's diaphragm has ruptured and fuel is being sucked into the im and into the chambers directly through the vacuum tube. With the vacuum hose off, you can also prime the engine and start it as well and see if fuel leaks it. That rarely does even on a bad regulator.

There is no repair or workaround to this if it is the issue. To get your car home, Ziptie the vacuum hose in the middle to cut off vacuum influence on the regulator. Whatever fuel drips through the regulator will stop there. Or stopper the regulator - you can use jbweld since its destroyed. Then tie off the loose vacuum hose to prevent vacuum leaks into your im. Then drive home. If that works heck you can continue to use the car while waiting on a new unit to arrive in the mail.

im- intake manifold. fpr - fuel pressure regulator.

Good luck.

p.s. If you had massive vacuum leaks, you would have a very rough idle. Since you didn't complain about that on your post cooling system overhaul 200 mile trip, I doubt you have that problem.

[Themachine]

1992 325i. I am going to replace oxy sensor and hope that helps. I started the car and it idle fine gave it some throttle and it seemed ok just cut out a small bit. I'm not going to drive it just incase it stalls again I'll be replacing the sensor Wednesday and checking spark plugs tonight.

[JDStrickland]

Holy cow! You are posting something akin to, "I baked some cookies and now my pool is empty. What happened?"

O2 Sensors will have no affect on overheating. Spark plugs will have no affect on overheating -- although they will affect a rough idle and things such as that.

"Lots of exhaust smoke and the car smelled horrible," is a clue that we can work with. The symptom set here would begin with, "I baked some cookies, now the house is full of smoke." With a symptom like this, you burned the cookies or the oven was dirty before you started.

You have exhaust smoke, this is a bad sign. It indicates a damaged engine. Since you are noting temperature issues, then possible engine damage points to the head gasket or the head itself. It's time to do a compression test before you do anything else. My guess is that you are not going to fix this in the parking lot at work. Call a friend with a pick up truck, and stop by UHaul for a trailer, and drag this car where it can be fixed.

POINT OF ORDER
Your profile indicates a 7 Series, we are a group devoted to all things 3 Series. We can't help you much with the specifics of your car.

[Themachine]

Jdstrickland you must not have seen my second comment it is a e36 325i obd1 m50b25. I had the compression checked 1 month ago to see what kind of condition my motor is in and it was fine. The car is 25 years old and could be many things causing this stalling misfires and hesitation. I think the exhaust smoke is from it running rich due to vaccuum leaks which fouled out my o2 sensor spark plugs and possibly my cat. Also have a nice exhaust leak from the muffler and possibly exhaust manifold. I am just trying to narrow down what it could be from the symptoms my car is showing.thanks for your response and looking into my thread any more advice would be appreciated.

Also started it a second time and it ran fine gave it some more throttle and let it get up to temp. I am going to leave it at work till I get that o2 sensor I. On wednesday. I have yet to drive it since I parked it there.
Thanks.

[Richard81]

The main thing you're not paying attention to is that you did not do anything to cause this problem. Your recent cooling system repair could have screwed things up, but you did 200 miles on it after that with no issue. It can't be a big vacuum leak. You would have noticed it then. And small leaks don't cause such big problems.

It is something that went bad due to wear and tear and age. A sensor or something.

Your o2 sensors are not causing this issue. Its a back end driveability sensor, not a front end one. Take them out of the equation. Find the harness connector for the sensor and unplug that. Start the engine. And then continue diagnosis to find the real problem at the front end of the engine.

You can start with checking the regulator like I described earlier. It takes 3 minutes in and out.

[Themachine]

There is a small vaccuum hose under the intake that was leaking fuel so I assume you are correct. How hard is this to change out?

[Richard81]

There is a small vaccuum hose under the intake that was leaking fuel so I assume you are correct. How hard is this to change out?

You assumed right.

It is not difficult to change out if you are a seasoned wrencher. Just that you can't go fast because you're working in a tight space and you don't want to screw anything else up. Maybe 30-45 minutes. I'll ask a friend to post detailed instructions in your thread here sometime later. But there are DIYs available on google - you can check those too.

Until then, do the workaround I suggested earlier to get the car running. Reconnect the vacuum hose to the intake manifold and the regulator. Ziptie the vacuum hose or something to prevent a vacuum leak. And JBweld the appropriate nozzle on the regulator. Then start the engine, watch it for awhile and drive it home if you can and report back here.

If this works, you will be able to fix your car without your colleagues watching you. And we would have found a new way to deal with this issue. Unfortunately, ideas like this can only be tested on a busted car.

[Themachine]

I forgot to mention that I got the car home lastnight. I pulled the plugs and they looked ok it was running fine so I drove it 10 miles or so then went home. Thismorning when I went to leave it started misfiring and stalling immediately so I didn't drive it.

[Richard81]

Well try what I suggested anyway and go for a test drive and tell us how it feels. If you can, test on the highway as well. We need to check this temp workaround out. It will help others down the line if found to be viable.

[Themachine]

Is it possible that this is ecu related?? My code reader from peake research is not responding to the car. This has happened a few times but usually I end up getting it to read the code but this time it won't stop reading error. It seems that all of my cars symptoms could be caused by a bad ecu.

[Richard81]

Is it possible that this is ecu related?? My code reader from peake research is not responding to the car. This has happened a few times but usually I end up getting it to read the code but this time it won't stop reading error. It seems that all of my cars symptoms could be caused by a bad ecu.

No. If the ecu is busted, the engine won't start and run.

How does the engine run with the regulator's vacuum outlet stoppered up (and the vacuum hose tied off) ? Did you go for a test drive ?

[Themachine]

To dark when I got off work to go digging as I'm in an apartment complex in the woods with no garage. I did start it let it idle smooth for about a min then I smelled a little bit of gas from the throttle body area. Tomorrow afternoon I'll see if I can locate the line from the intake to the regulator and try what you suggested. I'm gonna figure out how to do a video on here that way if what you said help I can post my results in real time. Thanks Richard.

[Richard81]

Thank you.

The video would be neat as well but not essential. You will need to upload it to youtube or vimeo and then post the link etc etc maybe too much work for something straightforward enough to explain in words if it works. But its up to you.

You can put in for a new fuel pressure regulator. Also put in for a new coolant sensor. You might as well change that. Coolant sensors go bust far more often than regulators and you beat the odds on the rarer thing so best not to take the chance here. Bad coolant sensors cause hard or no starting when the weather is cold.

Cts will run you $20-$30 oem. The regulator will run you $40 new.

Oh btw, get a new iat air temp sensor. About $20 new oem. Might as well - it is an important driveability sensor for the car, although it is not known to cause problems. But all these sensors are also used by the engine to fine tune the fuel air mix, and after 20 years they would have surely lost their sensitivity. New ones are cheap so why not.

First check to see where your iat is located. Make sure its not in the bumper. If it is, then better to leave it alone.

[Nanniepoo]

Temp sensor that is in the bumper/brake cooling duct is for the OBC. Not engine related. I think that's an E34 thing.

I believe IAT for an M50 manifold will be in the manifold, behind the throttle body (towards rear of car), M52 manifold it's underneath, in line with the throttle body.

[Richard81]

Thank you for the clarification on the bumper iat.

IAT for the M50 manifold would be under the im intake manifold, to the right of the throttle body, almost directly under the brake booster to im fitting.

[Themachine]

Any other suggestions? My code reader wasn't working still so I unhooked the battery and ran the hazards. Rehooked the battery up today but still getting e 10 from the peake scanner. Started the car and drove it around the lot and it was all good. Still worried to take it on the road because something is wrong and could stall out again.
Also can't really find the fuel pressure regulator it's been dark out and some people say it's near the fuel filter and others say under the intake manifold.