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1997 E36 328i Intermittent Stalling with Clutch Disengaged

4K views 4 replies 4 participants last post by  PortlandMotorsports 
#1 ·
Hi,

I have an irritating problem. If I press the clutch pedal when in gear, often the revs will plummet past the idle point and cut out the engine. Now this does seem intermittent to me as there are times when the revs slow to the idle point and stick there perfectly; sometimes I can't reproduce the problem when I want as it just works. However, I can almost guarantee it will do this from cold. For example, I park outside my house facing down a hill. In the morning I get in and can coast half way to my destination, such is my route. I'm usually in fourth or fifth and find that if I dip the clutch to provoke it, the engine cuts out. Sometimes the revs drop so dramatically that it happens whilst changing gear, but obviously the act of engaging the next gear downhill simply bumps it gently back in to life. Not so hassle free at junctions however, particularly if at full lock when more power is required.

Like I say though, it will often clear up and I find it difficult to reproduce the problem. If I start giving it some beans around country lanes though - taking the revs nice and high and getting the engine toasty - I find that it can bring the problem back to the point where stalling is pretty much on command with a simple press of that clutch pedal.

I'll give you a little background on the car. I've had it four months and didn't notice the problem at first. The thermostat needed changing though, and once that was changed I found the issue more pronounced. I don't know if that is coincidence or not. It still wasn't as bad as it is now though, I would find very occasionally that it would cut out when approaching roundabouts, and it would sometimes happen when pulling into car parking spots at full lock. In hindsight I would imagine that the roundabout scenarios where at or close to full lock too.

I bought an M50 kit that came with CCV, ICV and fuel rail, and thinking my ICV was the cause of the problem I decided to use the one provided to see if this fixed the issue. This was obviously second hand though and I don't know the history of it so I guess I can't rule it out. For what it's worth I should also mention that the car uses/loses oil; I've put in 5L of fully synthetic in the four months I've had the car, and I don't do a lot of miles.

Input as always much appreciated, cheers.
 
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#2 ·
Cool! Auto oil services, at the rate yours uses oil you're going to change all the oil every 6 months. Sorry to be flippant can't help you on your problem, only to say something is seriously wrong, that is a lot of oil to use. If there is no leaks and it's burning it off, it would suggest valves or piston wear, how many miles has it done?
 
#3 ·
Hehe, yeah I definitely don't need to change the oil come service time. It's done 132k, has full service history and generally drives very well aside from this stalling issue. I haven't noticed that it's particularly smoky, but neither have I ever seen oil puddles.

To add to my previous post, I took the car out today for a 40 minute round trip. Predictably whilst cold the revs plummeted with every press of the clutch pedal. What I discovered on my way back however was that it wasn't stalling but keeping the idle higher than normal; whilst approaching junctions I noticed the needle would stay around the 800 RPM mark. Could it be a vacuum issue of some sort?
 
#4 ·
Yeah that much oil is a hell of alot!!

This sounds familiar to my 318is tho.. intermittently, when the clutch is pushed down the revs will plummet under 1000 and bounce between 700-1000 struggling to keep the engine running (doesn't stall).. however if I then come to a complete stop, the revs will level out at about normal 1000.

Ive a hunch that this is the HT leads on mine.. atleast, I hope it is.

But it is very annoying, especially when you've got someone else in the car and it constantly sounds like you cant drive and struggling not to stall it!
 
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