Damn thing wont idle... - BMW Forum

Whitie · 01-22-2009, 10:45 AM

Well, after finding a spark plug where the electrode fell out into my cylinder.... The car will not idle worth a crap. I removed the piece of electrode as carefully as possible and put new plugs in it.

If you give it a little gas it will stay running but once you let off it drops back to a really low idle and dies... Any suggestions?

elsabor67 · 01-22-2009, 12:47 PM

HAve you checked your wires, vaccum lines, and AFM? Also make sure that your distributor is sending spark to all the cylinders.

silversled · 01-22-2009, 06:55 PM

my guess is that whatever caused the electrode to come off is causing this. How did you get the electrode tip out of the cylinder? That's unusual....

silversled · 01-22-2009, 06:56 PM

my guess is that you are going have to pull the head and go from there...

Whitie · 01-22-2009, 08:35 PM

I used a fiber-optic camera and a flex grab tool... I got all of it to come out.

My idle issue was caused by the previous owner advancing the timing when the car was only running on 5 cylinders... My car is back at my house and it will be taken care of tomorrow.

witeshark · 01-22-2009, 08:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whitie

I used a fiber-optic camera and a flex grab tool... I got all of it to come out.

My idle issue was caused by the previous owner advancing the timing when the car was only running on 5 cylinders... My car is back at my house and it will be taken care of tomorrow.

Wow, that's a new one on me! Glad you're sorting it out though.

silversled · 01-22-2009, 10:14 PM

how can you advance the ignition on a Motronic engine? that's a new one on me.....