Weird problem 318is 93'

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ADX36

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Weird problem 318is 93'
« on: December 09, 2017, 03:37:19 PM »
First i'd like to say greetings to all the people on this forum, i've just made the account here and im totaly new, so i hope i post in the corect section, also first time i'm posting anything related to my car, a E36 318is from 1993, i've bought the car in february, i've changed all the oils and filters from the car when i've bought it. The car was handling amazing and was really fast for a 93 and 4 cylinder car, it never burned oil or anything to show any signs of high wear..I even had a road trip with 42MPG(6.8L/100km) on the summer vacation All cool and great, until 2 weeks ago when I think, i might have money shifted it. Instead of going from 3rd to 4th gear, i've went from 3rd to 2nd (i was in 3rd - 5.5~ish RPM), so god knows how much rpms the engine had when i shifted into second accidentaly, i've instantly pressed the clutch and shifted into 4th after i've felt the engine rev like crazy, immediatly i've felt a loss of power.. and i thought that i should pull over.. so I did, the car instantly died, it couldn't stay idle, i've swapped the spark plugs cuz the car didn't even want to start after i've pulled over, and besides that whenever i try to start it (even after those 2 weeks since the tragedy) it cranks slow, it feels like it's not "spinning" as fast as it should.. dunno if i explained this correctly. Anyways, after changing spark plugs it started up, but it still spinned the engine slow, but at least it started.. it felt like the car had 2 pistons working or 3.. really weak and slow, got it back to the garage hardly.. with like 40 km/h, i thought the fuel injector on some cylinder was bad, so i took out the fuel ramp and switched with a different fuel ramp and injectors but no difference, engine ran the same, so i checked the coils, all of the coils work, afterwards I checked fuel pump, which had a imperfect contact and I wonder to this day how the heck the car even got gas into the system because the pump barely made contact with the wires.. anyways, i've made new contacts and now it works as it should.. then I went out and did a compression check on the engine, 3 cylinders gave me 125 psi and 1 cylinder gave me 175 psi, that might be worn piston rings, anyways, it has enough compression to run fine.. so it's not the compression.. ok compression = ok valves, so i haven't bent anything inside the engine.. although i've measured with a multimeter the spark wires from the coils, and spark wire on cyl no. 3 was bad, replaced it hoping that the nightmare is over, and the car now runs, pulls hard like it should but the engine is still extremely loud and idles rough... ( i have to add that i have a sport exhaust but the car never sounded so loud, it was a pleasant sound at idle and abit louder on revs )
PS: the car never idled perfectly, but the needle never jumped like that, perhaps only on very cold mornings, but not even then as hard as now.. I hope i've explained this issue good enough cuz I kinda wrote the last 3 weeks in a few minutes.. Thanks alot peeps, looking forward for your ideas of what this problem might be. I also attached a video with the car's current state.
Also i forgot to add that i've cleaned up the ICV valve when i took off the throttle body. I've added a youtube link with the car so ya'll can hear how it sounds.

Here's the link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJec8e-iodA&feature=youtu.be


ADX36

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Re: Weird problem 318is 93'
« Reply #1 on: December 12, 2017, 01:23:06 AM »
Nobody has any idea what the cause of this could be ? :C

Warsteiner

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Re: Weird problem 318is 93'
« Reply #2 on: December 12, 2017, 09:27:17 AM »
Hey ADX36,

I would do a leak down test. You may not want to see the results of that test but it's probably going to tell you the story :( Money shift usually always leads to bent valves. Ok compression does not = Ok valves.

Here's an excerpt from a website I found to help explain it for you.

Hope this helps and you get to the cause. Good Luck.

Cheers,
~Ralph

"A compression test measures how much pressure the piston creates in the cylinder when traveling from bottom dead center (BDC) to top dead center (TDC) with the valves closed. The reading is taken at the spark plug fitting in the cylinder head.

Lets say for instance that we have the following compression readings:
1-150, 2-180, 3-140, 4-145

1,3 & 4 are all within the 10% specification but 2 is 20% higher than the average of the other cylinders. Does this mean number three is high or the others are low?

To get to the bottom of this question we need to start by examining the spark plugs. Do they all look the same? Is #2 badly carbon fouled? If you have one or more cylinders with high compression and oil burning, the high compression can be caused by the build-up of carbon on top of the piston.

In our test case, the high compression of #2 cylinder can be caused by excessive carbon build-up on the piston. Now to prove it!

Cylinder leakdown test-

While a compression test is a dynamic test (engine moving), a cylinder leakdown test (C.L.T.) is a static test (engine at rest). The compression test measures how much pressure the engine can produce while cranking; in contrast to the C.L.T., which measures how much pressure is lost in the engine. In a C.L.T. the engine is placed on TDC of the cylinder in question and using a similar type of connector as the compression test, we fill the cylinder with pressure. The tester then measures the volume of air needed to maintain a predetermined pressure in the cylinder. This reading is expressed in a percentage. Good cylinder leakdown readings should be below 5-8%.

The great thing about C.L.T. is that it deals with how well the cylinder is sealing and nothing else. The readings are not affected by carbon deposits, cam timing, or even engine cranking speed.

Another great feature of the C.L.T. is the fact that you can hear where the air is leaking out of the cylinder. When a cylinder has high percentage of leakage, first check the oil filler cap. Do you hear a hissing sound? If so, you may have pressure leaking by the rings. Is there air escaping out the exhaust? Is it escaping out the intake system? Then a burned valve may be the problem. If two adjoining cylinders have similar low readings and you hear leakage out the other cylinder, then a failed head gasket may be the problem.

Being able to pinpoint the exact source of the compression loss will tell you where the problem is; and not just that you have one. This knowledge will greatly assist you in the next step… the repair."




ADX36

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Re: Weird problem 318is 93'
« Reply #3 on: December 16, 2017, 11:40:45 AM »
Thanks for the info bud, my dad helped me out 2 days ago and he checked out the timing, it skipped 2 teeths... perhaps due to the "RPM shock" so afterwards we've timed the engine back as it should, bolted everything back, started the car and it ran exactly like before and it sounded as it should. After 15 km of test driving the engine started to shake and now it definetly is working on 3 cylinders only cuz cyl 4 has 0 compression reading now... re-opening the engine and taking off the head on monday :(

Warsteiner

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Re: Weird problem 318is 93'
« Reply #4 on: December 16, 2017, 02:21:16 PM »
Sorry to hear that brother.

Hoping for the best for you!!

Cheers,
~Ralph