Messages - Diabhalta
I am new here on this forum, bought my E30 318is about 3 months ago and trying to solve a major problem I have with the engine. Can't really work on the car that much because the car is outside and it's raining a lot over winter here in Ireland.
Great car that E30, looks very good and a very nice car to drive! Powerfull too.
Now about the problem. First I thought it's an electrical problem but I somehow knew problem is somewhere else.
I will get to the symptoms later. The fuel filler neck is rusty and there is a hole in it. Which means that there is dirt in the fuel tank. And this gets to the filter and eventually to the injectors. I removed the main fuel filter but there seemed to be a good flow out of it. I also used some Fuel Injector cleaner (that stuff you pour into the petrol tank and fill it with fresh petrol) and it got tiny bit better.
The symptoms: the engine starts without problems when cold and also is running without problems when cold. When it gets warm it's struggling. Like if I'm in 1st gear and accelerate it just stops accelerating around 4000rpm and won't go any further so I have to change the gear. It seems to me that there is not enough petrol going into the engine. Few times I had to stop and pull over to the side of the road because the car just wouldn't go into high revs. It makes strange sound when struggling, sometimes it "gets over the struggle" and then goes into high revs no problem smoothly (all the way to the redline). When reving it a bit in N it's ok but in gears it won't pull. I think the filters in the injectors are clogged. The ECU says nothing and I just fitted brand new set of ignition leads. Any ideas? Is that really the injectors clogged or could it be something else? I don't want to do some major work without being 100% sure what it is. Maybe the injectors are ok but there isn't enough pressure to push enough petrol into the engine? So pressure regulator? But that would show up in the ECU reading right?
This is how the spark plugs look like (they are all same):
I found a new petrol tank in Germany on ebay for 200 euro. Reconditioned injectors in Portugal for 100 euro. Petrol tank in the car doesn't look good so I think there is no point in flushing that tank becuase it's just old and rusty.
Cheers, Aaron.