1988 535i Engine Stalls, Stutters, Lulls and Surges

Hi there,

I have an old 1988 535i with about 230k on her. I have a strange problem no mechanic seems to be able to fix.

When I started driving this particular 535 1.5 years ago, it had a infrequent problem of having a slight engine stutter and the occasional surge. It slowly got worse until it happened all the time. With the addition of lulls and stalls (with idle and driving). I asked my mechanic (who,because of this car, knows my first name) to check it out a couple times. They never found much of anything. Then about 2 months ago, I got him to really dig deep and see if they could fix it.

The replace the distributor cap, rotor and spark plugs. This fixed the problem completely until a week or two ago. It slowly came back. It's now back in full swing. I took her in again and my mechanic cleaned the throttle body and claimed it was fixed. It stalled and surged before leaving his parking lot.

I have the E28 service manual, it doesn't seem to shed much light on this. it seems to be totally random. Sometimes it doesn't happen. Warm engine cold. Driving slow, driving fast.

Any ideas?

PS
Here is my definition of engine adjectives used here:

Stall: Car stops and needs to be turned back on.
Lull: Power seems to drop out (tachometer dips) and gas petal seem to not function. Frequently ends in a stall.
Surge: Car will loose power for a second or less, then come back very strong. (like it used up the gas it missed)
Stutter: I guess would be a combination of the above but usually is like the gas and break going alternating on and off repeatedly for a second or so.

[Mike 91 318ic]

I would replace the fuel filters, air filter, service the afm, make sure you have NO vacuum leaks, replace the coil, leads, and check the plugs to see if it's running too rich or lean and get a NEW mechanic. Try CG or Nixon or maybe the dealer. The BMW store, Brian Jessel, and Autowest are good/fair dealers.

M
Other parts I'd look into is the fuel pump relay, and pumps and hook it up to a diagnostic machine to see if the ecu is sending back any fault codes.

Originally Posted by Mike 91 318ic I would replace the fuel filters, air filter, service the afm, make sure you have NO vacuum leaks, replace the coil, leads, and check the plugs to see if it's running too rich or lean and get a NEW mechanic. Try CG or Nixon or maybe the dealer. The BMW store, Brian Jessel, and Autowest are good/fair dealers. M Other parts I'd look into is the fuel pump relay, and pumps and hook it up to a diagnostic machine to see if the ecu is sending back any fault codes.

I should tell you a quick history about the car.
It was originally a well known Dentists car, he had suspension, chip and 16' BMW (metric) wheels off of an 8.50CI put on it at Nixons as well as a bunch of other upgrades. He obviously wasn't concerned about the cost, the service log shows it was more than well maintained.
The car is lowered and five speed.local, no icbc claims except one glass claim.

My Dad bought the car about seven years ago and maintained it at Vancouver Auto (for the most part). The BMW major services have all been done as well as exhaust, clutch, ECU etc.
I think the headgasket had been done right before he got it too, the compression is still acceptable.

I've had it since February of 2004 and have only driven it a few thousand kilometers. The mechanic who's working on it now, Blenheim Imports, came highly recommended by members of the BMW car club.

The car was surging sporadically when it was still my Dads, he got sick of the maintenace and bought a new Audi, and it's working out to be cheaper than the BMW on a monthly basis.

I suspect the ECU, crank shaft sensors etc. or oneof the electrical components is at the root of the problem.
The electrical system burned out in December 2001 and had to be replaced.
It might be a throttle sensor, the weird thing is the car still runs well most of the time with the exception of this problem and no one can fix it, although the dealership and the new mechanic were confident that they could.
So far lots of money has been spent but the problem ahsn't been corrected.

By the way, CG motorsports has a clone of my car, but it's a 1986 model, otherwise it's almost identical (check their for sale section) the only difference is it has a different interior colour, the wheels are the same too (BBS style off an 8.50).

There are two sensors that monitor the flywheel position and rotational speed. I have had several 533i and 535i engines display similar symptoms that were eliminated completely by cleaning or replacing these sensors. These are rather unique to a short span of time in the BMW production, and not well known to mechanics, however, I consider it a matter of time before this behaviour manifests itself. Regards, Paul E. Laverty

[kowalski]

also check your airflow meter see if you can get them to swap one out to see if it fixes the problem, and other then that everything else on here is a good place to start as well. but the afm is cheap and easy.

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll try and follow up on them soon.

Wait one sec.

When I got the distributor etc, replaced -- this problem went away completely for 2 months are so. I guess it wasn't the distributor, but something they would of had to move or tighten while doing that. Whats closest to there?

[Chris]

Did they replace ignition wires? A faulty one would definitely exhibit those symptoms. Even clean the contacts for them might help.

[kowalski]

Originally Posted by falkaholic Wait one sec. When I got the distributor etc, replaced -- this problem went away completely for 2 months are so. I guess it wasn't the distributor, but something they would of had to move or tighten while doing that. Whats closest to there?

pull it off and look at the wear on the inside. see if its wearing evenly all the way arround.

This car is just impractical for me to be driving, while I'm a full time student, if anyone you know is looking for a really nice E28 that's in great shape, with the exception of the stuttering. Please let me know.
I check out every E28 that I see, and have for six years, this one looks better than all of them, other than the mint M5's with collector plates (I think there's two in my neighbourhood).
I'll post it for sale on here.
I'd like it to go to a good home.

'88 5.35, sport suspension, 16" BMW BBS wheels (either off an 8.50CI or an M5), 5 spd, cirraus blue. Service records.No ICBC claims. blue cloth interior.

If I don't find someone quick, I'll just go down to a place like Bimmerhaus and sell it for cash.

[Chris]

That shows a lot of maturity. I couldn't imagine trying to service my M3 when I was a student. It's hard enough now!

Best of luck.

Ya. I'll be sad to see her go, but my wallet (in particular my credit cards) won't.

Originally Posted by Chris That shows a lot of maturity. I couldn't imagine trying to service my M3 when I was a student. It's hard enough now! Best of luck.

I posted several pictures of it, in another thread, I'm going to see what I can get for it.
I asked my insurance agent (brother) and he said the retail value is $5,000 according to his book, I know if I do a "quick sale" I won't be getting that much even though this one is much nicer than any others that I've seen in Vancouver over the last five years. There is a clone of my one at CG Motorsports that's two years older with 296,000kms that they're asking $8000+ for.

http://www.cgmotorsports.com/forsale/535i/

I can always take it off the road and store it at a relatives house.

Thanks for your support.

Please make an offer, I want to get rid of it before summer's over.

Originally Posted by Chris That shows a lot of maturity. I couldn't imagine trying to service my M3 when I was a student. It's hard enough now! Best of luck.

I sold the Car August 6th, thanks guys, it went to a good home.
A Mechanic who has a performance shop on Vancouver Island bought it.

[richard6600]

nice tip