Sputtering BMW after 1500 rpm

[Bmw1990]

Hi guys, haven't been to the forum since college started and just the other day I was looking around..not much has changed except my parents bought a 330ci with SSR wheels and a praxis air suspension set-up. But anyways my real problem is this..as of late my E30 has been running amazing, not a problem in site. The other day I washed out my engine bay and detailed it etc... Afterwards I drove it all around town, no problem. After pulling into the gorcery store, it just started to sputter out of nowhere after 1500 rpm..this happened the whole way home. So I let it sit over night and air out with the hood open in my garage. This morning on the way to work it ran great til about halfway to work and then after 1500 rpm, the same problem started to happen. Is there condensation somewhere, and if so where should i check first...I took off the distributor cap last night and that was water free...thanks guys..

[Starmavin]

Did you spray "ghetto shine" on the wires?

[yammahamma]

^^^ do you mean armorall?? (spell check) or black magic?

[Starmavin]

Yeah, or simply green. Armor all contains dimethyl silicone oils and other chemicals that can conduct spark. Also, if the plug wires are old and the spark plug housing (the plastic thing that holds the spark plugs and bolts to the valve cover) gets water in it will also cause this problem. And another thing is water can sit in the plug wells and cause problems too.

[gotKRAUT]

pull off the dist cap and make sure its all dry make sure the plugs are dry etc...

then...just wait it out...give it 24 hours then try again, still having trouble then worry

water gets into places and things act up...and im with starmavin on this one, dont put that crap on your wires

[Bmw1990]

Thanks guys...I took off the distributor cap and checked that as well as all of the spark plug wells..everything looked dry..the wires are about a year old and same with the plugs, so that isn't the problem. The car runs fine until it warms up, then it starts sputtering again...I did spray degreaser on the engine and surrounding areas, but not on the spark plug wires, so it is at my mechanic right now...i will let you guys know what happens..thanks for the help

[Bmw1990]

Well it turns out that the problem was a bad throttle position sensor. An easy and moderately inexpensive repair. Thanks for the help guys

[jimmythepie]

is that the fat porker ronaldo i see in your pic?

[Bmw1990]

Yea that is an old pic...i should update that...he probably weighs 50 more pounds now

[BMWJNKY]

FYI, its an idle switch. All it does is let the DME know when the throttle is either at idle or open. The BMW 6cy engines didn't get a true TPS sensor untill the M50.

[Bmw1990]

I see, thanks

[Starmavin]

Switch, sensor, big woop. Call it what you like, for the most part it still tells the computer where the throttle is. Bmw1990, you are forgiven.

FYI, it also tells the computer if it's at full throttle or not, not just idle.....