E36 95 325is hesitation/panel lights problems

["Melanie & Chris Alberts" <legato@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I am the new owner of a 95 325is with which I am delighted except for one or
two problems.  The car is under warranty for a few 000 more miles, but I
would like to be able to point the dealer (John Roberts, Austin TX) in the
right direction as they appear to have tried and failed to solve the problem
before.

The main problem is that the car does not rev cleanly, and rarely feels like
it's pulling at full power - it feels as if there is something (brake,
parachute?) holding the car back -there isn't - I've checked ;).
Occasionally it will run "cleanly" and I get a great blast of power all
through the rev range, which gives me a taste of what the car can really do.
I want it this way all the time.  I'd appreciate the sage advice of the list
on this one: a few salient facts that may or may not help:

- -    Techron fuel additive appears to help - car certainly runs better with
it;
- -    car had 42xxx miles on when I got it, had 46xxx now and is completely
stock;
- -    I only use premium gas 91-93, usually Chevron supreme;
- -    I've had the car 9 weeks and it has been doing this consistently since
I got it;
- -    I've seen the service history of the car and it was diligently worked
on by the main dealer, just had inspection 2 (can anyone explain this
system) a few thousand miles ago (assume fuel filter is good);
- -    one suggestion was that the VANOS unit might be screwy;

Second problem is pretty minor, but irritating - the panel lights behind the
temp/airflow/fan controls works very rarely - but definitely work sometimes.
Someone posted to the list recently about this happening with another car
but there were no responses.

Any ideas....

TIA

Chris Alberts
Austin, TX
95 325is

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