About Josh Fields Expertise I can answer questions related to the BMW e30. These are the cars produced from 1984-1991 (1992 for convertable) in the United states. I am more fluent with the six cylinder models, although few things changed for the 4 cylinder cars. I know most of the problematic areas of these cars, and have found ways to fix them.
Experience I have owned six different E30's over the last 10 years. I do all my own work, and know about ever nut and bolt on these cars.
Question PLEASE help me. i recently got an 84' 325e. when i was driving it home,i found out the gas guage doesnt work, and i ran it out of gas. i put gas in it and it ran fine on the way home. i went for a short drive, less than 1 mile, and really gave it hell, spinning the tires etc., came home,and it died in my driveway. it will start up, but doesnt want to idle,it will just idle erratically for a few seconds and it will die. when i hit the gas it dies out right away. but when i start it and rev it up immediatly i can keep it running fine at about 3000 rpm, but as soon as i let it drop to below 2000rpms it idles for a few seconds and dies. if i put it in gear and try to move, it dies. i changed the fuel filter, but it does the same thing. when the filter was off, i turned on the key for a few seconds but no gas came out of the line, i only had the key on for a few seconds, so i dont know if that would matter or not. i dont know what to do, any advice will help. please help.
Answer Nathan,
First off, you need to perform a tune-up on the car. Its an '84 so if it hasn't been done recently it probably needs it. A tune-up is spark plugs, plug wires, distributor cap & rotor, and possibly a new coil. These parts all wear out, and need to be replaced on these cars every so often (4-5 years).
It seems that you are worried about fuel since you mentioned that you got none from the line when turning the key. I'll garauntee you have fuel, or the car wouldn't run at 3k RPM. If you want to check, you can remove the fuel line at the engine, and put it into a bottle (coke bottle works fine). Have someone turn the key to the "START" position and you should see fuel squirt into to the bottle.
The gas guage is something that happens on alot of these cars. I have owned several of them, and every one has had a problem with one of its gauges at some point. If you are confident with your abilites you can remove the cluster and re-solder the joints where the gas gauge connects to the circuit board. Its really pretty simple. Your other option is to purchase another whole cluster from Ebay. This will probably give you another cluster that has a bad gauge in it as well. Also note that you cannot use a 325i cluster in your 325e. Most of the clusters on Ebay I have seen are for 325i's. The cluster does not have to match your year, but it does have to be from a 325e with a 2.7L engine. The 325i's 2.5L engine revs much higher than your engine and the tachometers are different.
