<all> Sure signs of a dying air flow meter

[Jake Abramson <BMW@xxxxxxxx>]

This is on my '84 318i
I first leared exactly what the air flow meter did, about 2 months after i
got the car.  I had driven the car earlier that day, and noticed some
seriously delays when hitting the gas.  I did as i always do, will look at
it a bit later, and ignore some of it since the car is 14 years old, and
has a few quirks.  Well later that evening, i went out to start it, and it
wouldn't start.  Engine was turning over, and it'd start to catch, but it'd
never full do it.  I tried playing with the throttle mixture, no go, and i
was bletching black smoke like crazy.  had it towed to the mechanic.
Turned out the door jammed, or stuck, or didn't feel like moving, which
ever you want to call it.  My mechanic cleaned the whole thing out, and got
it working, but he told me that it could go.  So that lasted abotu 2 months
before it really started acting up.  At first it was just some slight
hesitiations when hitting the gas, nothing major, but noticable.  This is a
performace car, and well, delays get to ya.  I was like, alright, time to
save the $$.  Over the next few weeks, it started to take longer to start.
Then one day i drove the car about 60 miles or so, and the next morning, is
when i knew it was time.  First thing i noticed is that it was idling very
roughly.  Would be sitting at a light, just bouncing.  Often put it in
neutral to keep it alive.  and then, i started to loose acceleration.  I
mean LOTS.  0-60 used to be abotu 11-12 ish, not it was like 30-45 ish!  I
hated the freeways at that point.  Eventually it died again.  My mechanic
told me 400-500 for the part, directly from botsch, and 100 for
installation.  I was like WTF, pulled out the trusty bavarian auto catalog
(www.bavauto.com) and found it, new, bostch, for $259.  i put in for the
next day shipping so it came out to $295, but well worth it.  Showed my
mechic the catalog, he was surprised.  He even showed me the bostch parts
catalog, and the parts were much more.  So as soon as it was instlled, and
set up, it ran like a dream again.  now if i could only figure out how
water is getting into my trunk.

- -Jake
'84 318i 166k and running strong.

------------------------------