Kelvinators BMW 318ti

[geeks]

TonyRPH said:

The issue sounds like a crank sensor to me, and I think the water stains in the DME are a red herring (but still worth sorting out of course).

I agree about the ECU its not unusual to see that corrosion on that board. Though the water ingress should be sorted and is fairly rare. Missing is either the cam or the crank sensor, cam sensor is an easy swap, crank sensor not so much but still pretty trivial.

[KelvinatorNZ]

Nothing wrong with the sensors, and its throwing no codes. The waterlogged DME has nothing to do with the idle, but was certainly the issue for the non-starting.

The M44B19 has a known issue with lumpy idle, and the fix is to alter the intake cam timing slightly. Apparently there was a BMW TSB about it back in the day, http://www.318ti.org/forum/showthread.php?t=21403

[DaveyBoyWonder]

Love threads like this.

Threads about "just bought the latest 911/aston/merc/bmw" etc I don't even bother opening. Slightly oddball old cars with loads of pictures of damp ecus and problem solving I'll happily sit and read!

[shalmaneser]

DaveyBoyWonder said:

Love threads like this.

Threads about "just bought the latest 911/aston/merc/bmw" etc I don't even bother opening. Slightly oddball old cars with loads of pictures of damp ecus and problem solving I'll happily sit and read!

Absolutely this. Would rather see someone swapping a cam cover gasket all day long.

[pidsy]

I think the ti’s that BMW released have aged really well although poorly received at the time (especially the e46).

I had a blue e36 318ti msport then moved on to a red e46 325ti msport.

The 325 was a cracking car!

[macp]

DaveyBoyWonder said:

Love threads like this.

Threads about "just bought the latest 911/aston/merc/bmw" etc I don't even bother opening. Slightly oddball old cars with loads of pictures of damp ecus and problem solving I'll happily sit and read!

This. Absolutely this.

Thanks OP your thread had me hooked from the start. Im a bit of an E36 fan myself having owned a manual 318Ti and a manual 325iSE. The compact was a hoot to drive and had the sports interior with those lovely M sport seats and steering wheel.

[mwstewart]

Great write up.

[KelvinatorNZ]

macp said:

This. Absolutely this.

Thanks OP your thread had me hooked from the start. Im a bit of an E36 fan myself having owned a manual 318Ti and a manual 325iSE. The compact was a hoot to drive and had the sports interior with those lovely M sport seats and steering wheel.

I do wish mine was manual, it would've been a keeper if it were, but its not worth the cost/effort to convert it. The Compacts are really underrated and underappreciated cars that are slowly starting to be recognised for how good they are, but the prices are so low compared to other E36s that you can get into a decent one for little money.

[KelvinatorNZ]

This was moved off onto a new owner a couple of weeks ago. Young kid with a learners license as his first car. Good choice i'd say.