So, I have paid for the bumper swap for changing the metal ugly bumpers for my E30 to the later model plastic ones. And I have a huge box of plastic bumper strips, bumper shocks, and screws sitting in my office waiting for the E30 to be out of the shop.

Since the AFM died, I switched over to the Miller MAF, and all was swell for quite a few months. Then the car randomly loses power where if I catch it in time, clutch in and rev the motor, it will run normally. If I leave it in gear, and try to floor it, it's like the throttle is disconnected from the car and the rev just drops and then the engine dies.

I have it at a very good shop, hopefully they can fix it. The problem with older cars is that there is no fault code, so you have to wing it with experience.

I know when everything is fixed and the new bumpers go on I will love it, but sometimes living with a classic car is a pain in my ass. Sometimes, it's a good thing I don't have any garage space for another car.

 

Having gotten to know an E30 intimately in the past few weeks, I am starting to love those things. How many miles on it? We have some terrible interior parts for sale and a set of bottle caps if you're looking.

 

Oh and get me wrong, I love the car.

It's just that there are weird things that baffled a few mechanics that you either know how to fix it or you don't, because there are no codes to help you, and because it only happens randomly.

The car has over 200K miles, and I am almost done with the restore.

After the bumper goes on, I'll be getting some 17" BBS' with a slight drop from H&R kit so I won't be at the position I am at right now where no one sells grippy high performance tires in 14' any more.

 

I had a weird issue like that with a 1985 325es I had. Turned out, after a buttload of money at the dealer, that the ECU was bad. Intermittent stalling followed by no start conditions, and I could save it just like you mention.

Hope this helps.

 

I wish I still had my old e30....looks like I'm gonna have to fnd a new project




Good luck with solving the Problems on yours Stuka.

 

I'm thinking about picking one up. Something fun to drive that people won't look twice at in the 'hood. We're currently searching for a motor for our IS that we blew up.

 

Apparently the car runs really lean, which could explain why the O2 sensor was melted off a while back.

This happened back when I had stock AFM and everything else, so it might be the ECU...

 

Stucka, I can't wait for the end results. I was stopped filling up the e39 the other day and a guy with a sweet looking/sounding 325iS swooped in. Turns out her has a supercharged 3.2L in it, amung other goodies.

On a small side note, my brother has been on a search for a 740i/L to ferry clients between the airport and the company retreat. We just found a midnight blue one with ~45 000km. God what a gorgeous car. Alpina 18's would be first for it.

 

Well, apparently the previous owner had swapped out the ECU for what I don't know.

But the ECU is 153 and is for cars that are pre 9/87 production.

I just bought a used one for cheap to see if this addresses the running lean problem.

Now that the main relay has been replaced (which was the cause of intermittent stalling), I want to fix the running lean and bucking under AC issue.

After the ECU, I'll check the throttle switch.

 

Any news?