Can't Find The Problem Here...

[lavalva]

Here's the problem... It's been to my mechanic a few times, and they cannot figure it out. Just thought I'd throw it up here to see if anyone has seen/dealt with this before.

This is a 318IS Automatic. When I start the car cold, it starts up fine. As soon as I accelerate to about 2500RPM, the car basically just jerks and jerks... It refuses to go past 2500RPM, no matter what gear I'm in. When I say cold, it has to be about 35 or below in order to cause this problem. After the car is fairly warmed up, the problem goes away and everything runs fine.

That's about all the info I know to give, please let mek now if you need any more. Thanks so much!

[97alpineM3]

You should check the level of your tranny fluid... that comes to my mind... besides that.. you might have a real tranny problem.. but since its jerking... it sounds like it might also be a computer problem...

Do you have a check engine light on?

Les

[bitcore]

Can you pull any codes from it?

[flying_junk]

i had the same problem. except that my engine did it no matter how warmed up the car was. i had to replace all the, uhm, what do u call those(its early, i cant think). they adapt onto ure spark plugs. its a black thing thats fairly long and it hooks up to ure spark plug. i had to replace all those. the stealer did some other things that i didnt approve of and i threatened to sue and they didnt charge me for them. anyway. thats what i had to do. i dont know if thats what ure problem is though.

[aquafied]

Hello everyone! Just did a google search for e36 forums to help me with my problem. But havent found anyone with my solution. So, I thought of signing up and help others!

Anyways, Ive read this problem before many times in honda forums. And being that I'm a diy'er ecu chipper for honda cars. It might be due to the fact that your ecu is stuck in limp home mode.

Think of it as like if you pressed f8 before your PC boots up and boot into safemode :lol: Its almost exactly the same thing for (as far as honda ecu's) a damaged ecu. the ecu will only have the basic perameters to have the car running, until you can diagnose the problem. In honda ecu's, sometimes just checking for the trouble codes can make the ecu get out of limp home mode.

For instance, I had a TPS (throttle position sensor) problem in which the car would suddenly hesitate or like if the fuel was just cut off in an instant then back on. Didn't know it was TPS at the time. So, I did the 'ol wire jumping (for those who have/had hondas, you know what im talkin about) and got the tps trouble code.

Thinking that i might need a new one, I started the car up to head to where I work at which is convieniantly also a aftermarket performance shop :nana And, coincedently, I get a call from there and start having a business discussion on the way there. As I arrived, I was so concerned about what was goin on at the shop at that time that I forgot about my car and that it didn't do that hesitation no more!

Then did reasearch about it, confirmed my findings and experiences, that led to diy ecu chipping, jump forward to now and here I am!

Whew, so sorry for this long post I'just hoped I made a good first impression to the uber members here and solve your problem,lol.

[Crispy222]

I had such problem in an older American car not to be named. It only limped when you press down the accelerator hard. Somehow I knew it had to be iginition. So I changed the rotor and cap and still had trouble. Then I changed the spark plug wires cuz they looked worn and nicked. I headed from my shop back home and the problem had disappeared until I got 2 blocks from my house. So I limped back to the drive way. It was about 10:00pm so it was dark out. Popped the hood and my father, brother and I saw what the problem was right when we pulled on the throtol cable. It looked like a huge electrical storm coming from the spark plugs. So we pulled the spark plugs and took them into the light. Three out of 4 had cracks running all over them. The high voltage jumped right across the surface of the porcelin insulator and grounded to the block. Eight bucks later and it ran like a champ.

I had a good trusted mechanic crew look at this problem too. None of them could figure it out or had seen such a thing. So check you spark plug wires and plugs themselve. Any little cut in your wires or crack in the plugs and you could be loosing your spark. It only happened at higher RPM cuz of the increase in voltage that lead to the shorting.

[llzoom_zoomll]

aquafied has a point about the computer. however, with bimmers, once the computer goes into limp mode, the driver must shut off and restart the car for it to return to normal procedures. i had a hesitation problem with my 325is and maybe its the same with you. there is a rubber boot that connects the MAF to the intake manifold. on the lower side of it, there are two sensor hoses of some sort which came out because of the hose being so worn out. a trip to BMW parts dept and 13 bucks later....it ran like a beauty.

[JAX]

Simple sollution, you can try it , it won't harm the car or engine.
I know we have here (in EU) some kind of aditive for the gas that will eliminate the problem you are talking about.
The aditive it is doing something with the gas when it is really cold outside.
Had same problem with a Honda , and went to 100 mechanics... nobody could find out why.
Added the damn aditive and voila .... everything was ok.
Don't know the name , but is something agains water in the injectors or so.

[Autotechnica]

I never rev the motor past 2500RPM until it's fully warmed up. It's bad for the internal components when everything hasn't fully expanded yet. At any rate, what do you mean fairly warmed up? Do you mean just past the blue zone on the engine temp or all the way to normal engine temperature? When it gets really cold around here, the engine will hesistate when it's still in the blue zone. It will feel really weak below 2000RPM. The thing is, when the motor is that cold, you shouldn't be revving past 2500RPM anyways. After you past the blue zone, I'd rev to 3000 max until the motor is fully warmed up.

Bry