BMW E36 auto running problems - any ideas?

[retrogeezer]

A mate of mine has an E36 320i Auto coupe and sent me this:

A couple of times the BM has flat spotted, but as quick as it happened, it went. However tonight it just died on me, cut out going up a hill! It restarted straight away but as soon as I pulled away again it cut out again..I sat there for 5+ minutes with it just ticking over, seemed to be running smoothly enough on tick over and even holding revs at 2.5/3K it was smooth.I set off again and it was fine for a mile or so, it then went to die on me again, I floored the gas pedal and it started to drive again, 10 seconds later it did it again, I did the same thing but it almost felt like it wasn't firing on all pots this time..Drove another mile in it to my hotel and it didn't miss a beat again!!

I know a few folk here have beemers so wondered if anyone might know what to look at.Cheers

[Pete-M]

Sounds like Lambda sensor / dead cat to me.

[shite_meister]

What year?To any E36 owners here they have the worlds wankiest scuttle drain, its a rubber elbow that narrows, I think its purpose is to direct water over the brake pipes without actually getting them wet but because the tube gets narrower it gets blocked with detitus and general shit then the scuttle can't drain water and if you're unlucky the ECU gets damp. Make sure the Mass Air Flow sensor connections are clean.If it were me and I was sure the ECU hadn't got wet and I'd checked the MAF connection I'd stump up for a fault code diagnosis and see what that throws up otherwise you're mate is potentially looking at spunking money on DME Relay/Coil Packs/MAF Sensor trying to chase a problem.

[retrogeezer]

I think it's about a 95ish one?

[j-j]

A friend of mine had the successor to this type3 series with a similar symptom that turned out to be the manifold air flow sensor. Just in case there is a similarity.

[warren t claim]

My E30 used to do a similar thing due to an erratic fuel pump.

[ChinaTom]

You've just described in micro-detail what happened to me and my Jag. Fuel pump gone - overheats and stops. Cools and goes, overheats and stops etc etc.(PS. will post cal tomorrow morning first thing - sorry for the delay, it's been a silly week.)

[the02shed]

Camshaft sensor.

[Betaphile]

Yup, fuel pump or crank sensor would be the places I'd look first.

[greengartside]

My E36 318i is giving me grief now.It's using a LOT of fuel...can do about 120 miles on £20 which is hideous methinks. I'm driving it as smoothly as possible (even within speed limits!) yet it's still drinking fuel. Last service was in 2008 but it's done less that 10k since then. Have heard that the o2 sensor can fail on these, leading to the ECU being fooled into richening the mixture and using more fuel? BMW say that they should be replaced every 100k, mine is now on 185k - so maybe that's long overdue if it's the problem. I checked the air filter briefly last night and it doesn't seem that dirty....any ideas on what it could be?

[pogweasel]

£20 doesn't go very far these days!What is it, £6 a gallon now? Certainly more than a fiver, so you're still getting 30mpg+Try doing an accurate analysis over a measured amount, and see what it comes out as.

[greengartside]

Well it's £1.20 a litre where I am. I worked it out on an online MPG converter site and it's saying I'm getting about 23 to the gallon

[Cavcraft]

£5.56 per gallon here, chucked a gallon in this afternoon.

[Owain-328i]

If its ticking over fine, but dying like that with poor throttle response etc, id be looking at the air intake hose (goes from back of airbox to the throttle body) for splits in the rubber. Very common on these. Tick over fine, and rev ok at a standstill, but as soon as you move and theres load on the engine it moves and opens the splits in the pip giving running problems.

[Pillock]

Turn the engine on and let it run. pop the bonnet.As it's idling, wiggle every wire and hose and listen for a change in running. This has two effects:1) It'll identify loose electrical connections, or splits in vacuum hoses2) It really does make it look like you know what you're doing.I always do that when my car's not running right. At least then it can go to a garage, and I'll tell them I wiggled everything myself, saving an hours labour.