RE: engine cuts out at idle - e36

[alex.fadeev@xxxxxxxxxxx]

"Greg Steinke" <GSTEINKE@domain.elided> wrote:
> Igshaan,
> I had a problem on my 92 e36 (with m50 engine) that may be related. 
> My problem was that one (or more, don't recall) of the coils was flaky.
> In my case it was particularly bad when cold - when accelerating it 
> would kind of hiccup around 2000 rpm, pause, then kick in. Once warm it
> was all good.

Greg,
Interesting lead. 
I also had a case of bad coil(-s?) on my 65K mile (at the time) '95 M3. 
They manifested themselves in the exactly opposite manner: the car would 
start, run smoothly but than go berserk once it was warmed up to operating 
temps. All six Beru coils passed primary resistance checks and did no show 
any obvious signs of wear. One or more of them was bad. 

> The early e36s had some issues with the coils on the spark plugs, so they
> would sometimes go bad and cause such a problem. Fixing this is 
important
> on a car with a catalytic converter since the unburned mixture can foul 
> the converter. I don't know if you would have a catcon in ZA.

Early coils that everyone knows about are Zendspule (sp?). 
However, coil should be above suspicion after 50K miles. With possible 
exception of Bosch ones that seam to last forever.
If yours are at fault, replace with Bosch (yes, they are a bit more 
expensive).

> The other possibility that comes to mind is the idle control valve. This
> could potentially be cleaned or replaced. My understanding is that it is
> somewhat expensive to replace, so cleaning might be a good thing to try. 

> I don't know exactly how to do this however.

ICVs were a common problem on E30s. 
Blowby's and dirt would work themselves into the cylinder and cause it to 
stick. You can flush those out with mineral spirits, but the only 
semi-permanent solution was a new valve.

HTH,
alex f

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