Dies While Going Down The Road.

[Conradssel]

Hi, I'm new to all of this so I guess I'll just start off with my more resent problem. I drive a manual 1984 318i and three times earlier today, while I was driving it simply turned off. The first time, I was at a dead stop waiting for the light to change, and the engine just dropped to 0 rpm. There wasn't any sputtering or awful noise. I tried restarting it about 3 times and each time it had this noise that sounded like scratching under the hood (not too clear on the description) until I had to push it into an empty lot. After a few minutes, the car started up like nothing happened at all. I tried driving it home and it died again but this time I was in 3rd gear and it immediately lost all power. There wasn't any sound that I could hear of sputtering. After sitting there for 15 minutes, it started up again without problem and I drove it another 6 blocks until it died a third time. I had to wait something like 20 minutes just to get it to start up. Everytime when it died, it made that horrible noise when I tried to start it up again. I put some gas into it earlier tonight to see if that would fix the problem, but that didn't work too well either. Can anyone give some expert advise on this problem? I think it could be something electrical, the timing belt (didn't hear too well what it was called over the phone), the starter (even though it was turning over when it was making that noise), the oil pressure, or the fuel pump. Thank you in advance.

[jze325i]

Sounds like a combination of things! As far as when you are trying to get the car started and you get the "scratching" noise, that'll be your starter, being an intermittent problem and all, it is a "dead spot" You want to get that rebuilt or find a replacement..

The OTHER problem, where do we start? Is an 84 so that must have the CIS-E injection or L-Jetronic right? Could be fuel pump, faulty cold start valve, shit, you may just need a complete tune up!! When it is running does it run well and have all of it's power? ( well, as much as you get from 318) On the other hand it could be a faulty ignition component, givfef us more on how it is when running..

I believe that car has a timing chain as well, FYI

[SynSyx]

similar thing happened to me yesterday, i was in the city trying to pull a u-y (sp?)(u-turn) and 3/4 of the way through it the engine randomly died, and as it was still coasting in drive i tried to turn it on but the engine didnt even turn over, so i (very embarassingly) had to push it half a block to a parking lot, where i stopped it, put it in park, then tried it again and it worked fine. hasnt acted up since, just looking maybe to find out what mightve caused the engine to die in the first place