E30 problems -- different than current "starting" thread

["David Bobanick" <bobanick@xxxxxxxxx>]

I've been away from the digest for the past several months, so please
forgive me if this was covered last week or something:

My 325e is no longer running.  At all.  It was getting poor mileage (21 mpg)
and the performance had been degrading for several weeks before it finally
refused to start one rainy morning.

A few weeks before the thing quit starting, I replaced the cap and rotor in
hopes of improving the mileage and performance problems (hesitation at low
rpm's, low power througout the entire range).  No discernable improvement.

When the car wouldn't start, I replaced the main relay.  This got the car
started, but did not improve performance.  Coincidentally, when I changed
the relay, the weather here in Seattle changed from very wet and rainy to
colder (20 degrees) and dry.  The car ran properly again for about a week.
Performance and mileage were still quite poor, though.

Now, two weeks later and a return to wet weather, the car won't start again.
Cranks just fine, but will not turn over.  (Actually, it did finally turn
over - once - and there was an odd whistling sound from the front of the
engine compartment.)

My hunch is that this is a fuel delivery problem.  I tried listening while
my wife attempted to start the car and I think I heard the fuel pump faintly
buzzing.

Sorry about the length of this post everyone.  Any suggestions on what to do
next would be greatly appreciated.  Of course, all of this happened just as
I put a nice new set of Dunlops all around.  TIA.

David Bobanick

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