1992 535i automatic

[Michel]

Hi, i am new here and i dont know much about cars so here it is.
There is an 535i me and my father i trying to get up and running once again after it wasnt
used for several years.

Due to very bad fuel quality in Croatia, and the fact that tank was left almost empty it
pulled a very bad totaly weird colored fuel and pump went dead.
Now there is new :
Tires, fluids, filters, last exhaust pipe, sparkles, some air intake hoses and such.
And ofcourse new fuel pump.
Car can be turned on, but it idles very strange, at about only 500 rpm, and its obviuos that it has
cycles skipped its sort of like one cylinder isnt working correctly. When the throtle is given it settles completly and flawlesly at 4500 rpm and doesnt seem to skip cycles.

We bought STP for fuel injectors cleaning liquid and put about 60 liters of new fuel in it.
Now seems to be working a bit better, there is white smoke coming out of exhaust, but
when throtle was aplied up to 5000 rpm then lag totaly removed from pedal it shut down
and very black smoke came out.....
It can be started again but every time its the same if gas is removed instantly it shuts down.
If it is let alone in idle what it does is adding gas a bit by itself and when heated a bit up
it is then idleing at about 700 rpm and a bit smoother. We are not driving it its unregistered until repaired so i dont know how would it behave on road.

What do we need to check, lamba or something else and how :)
Also how can we acces error codes on this car.

We got some interface for bmw and two programs bmw scanner 1.36 and carsoft 6.5 do the
work with e34 ? We were not able to make two units communicate with each other.
Thank you in advance for any kind of answer.

[Mordan]

I don't trust carsoft.

might be lambda if it is not able to hold idle and you have checked that there is no major vacuum leaks.

try disconnect the idle control valve.

on my M50, idle stalling was because of a bad lamda at 90 000 kilometers.

don't rev the engine to 5000rpm without any load, especially if you don't know the condition

[Michel]

Ok, thank you. What kind of software would you recommend.
And i tried two ways to make car give me the error codes. Holding that button on dashboard for
5 sec as i saw on youtube but nothing happened. Also another one with puting car on contact only and floor the gas pedal 5 times in 5 seconds still no effect.

What is the easy way to see error codes on this car ? :D

[whiskychaser]

Have you got a com port (RS232) on your laptop? If not that could be the problem. I havent used it but understand PA Soft works with that hardware. Have a quick search round - you used to be able to download a basic version free before committing to buy. Pressing the pedal to get codes doesnt work on Euro cars.

White smoke is probably steam. Black smoke is overfuelling badly. Have you checked for vacuum leaks?

[Tiger]

White smoke is a very common BMW problem... the coil pack spark plug boot need to be changed to new type.

Make sure your coil packs are working too by checking the spark plug for any fouling.

[Rus]

White smoke is a very common BMW problem... the coil pack spark plug boot need to be changed to new type.

Make sure your coil packs are working too by checking the spark plug for any fouling.

He has a 535i with a single coil and a distributor. No coil packs there. White smoke could be either water vapor if the ambient temperature is 15C or below or coolant burning which would make the exhaust smell sweet. Coolant level would also decrease in the expansion tank.

Black smoke probably means running rich. If it smells like gasoline (yes, smell the smoke), then its definitely running rich. There are several things that should be checked here.

1) The AFM (air flow meter) which is a vane-type on the M30 engine. It is basically a rheostat and may be fouled up both mechanically and electronically. The AFM is the metal box that is connected to the throttle body by a ~20 cm piece of rubber pipe. You can clean it pretty easily as well as open the electric section and inspect/clean in there. If the AFM is malfunctioning, the ECM will not know how much air is actually entering the engine and thus it will misadjust the fuel metering.

2) Leaking fuel injectors. If an injector isn't closing off fuel flow, you may be flooding a cylinder or two with fuel and the engine will run rich as well as fail to fire on the flooded cylinders. To check for a leaking fuel injector, you may need to remove the fuel rail w/ injectors and pressurize the fuel system. Alternatively, remove the spark plugs after running the engine and inspect each one. Use this CHART (http://www.v6z24.com/mods/howto/images/plugs/plugs19.jpg) to identify issues.

Bad idle/need to be on the throttle to idle could be the idle air control valve. This valve is plugged into the rubber pipe coming off of the throttle body. Looks like THIS (http://bimmerstack.com/PartsShop/img/p/11-50-thickbox.jpg) You can remove it, hook it up to its plug and turn the ignition to the ON position. The little motor inside the valve should start spinning. If it fails to spin, the valve is probably faulty. If there is a lot of soot in the valve, it can be cleaned out with some carburetor cleaner or denatured alcohol. Try not to get the cleaner into the electrical part of the valve.

The automatic transmission that is paired to the M30 engine does not like being revved without being in gear, so don't rev the engine up in neutral.

Hope this helps.

[Rustam]

When the throtle is given it settles completly and flawlesly at 4500 rpm and doesnt seem to skip cycles.


please do not do this for too long - the transmission can get broken at first gear due to throttling. there were service bulletins issued by bmw telling about this (long time ago). (Assuming throttling is done in "park" gear, "P")

[shogun]

just changing the fuel pump is not the final solution. You have to get the rust out of the tank. I had the same problem on a long time stored 750 E32 last year. Completely corroded.
See here
YouTube - (http://www.youtube.com/profile?gl=JP&user=takeE32#p/u/6/gw7tCiw6B_s)
and then I did this
YouTube - (http://www.youtube.com/profile?gl=JP&user=takeE32#p/u/4/rz5C3KRmwHg)
electrolytic tank cleaning. almost free of charge of you have a battery charger, and baking soda

other articles how it works
VWVortex.com - Electrolysis Cleaning Tank (http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4816475-Electrolysis-Cleaning-Tank)
Getting Rid of Rust (http://p38arover.com/rover/rust.html)
before http://p38arover.com/misc_files/batt_tray1.jpg after http://p38arover.com/misc_files/batt_tray2.jpg
Welcome!! (http://www.fboerger.com/restorationtips.html#fuel)
YouTube - Exhaust Manifold in Electrolysis Tank (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJQ3cCPtax0)

how to YouTube - Electrolytic Cleaning 101 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhp8zg8r0dg)