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Recently my 87 535i has been acting up a little. I will try to give as much history as possible.

About 2 weeks ago, my idle starting getting rough. Enough to make the car die at a stop light a couple times. Last Thurs I drove to Chicago from Milwaukee and back with no issues. When I got back into town, I had stopped at a stop light and the idle started "chugging" and the car died at the stop light. I had to crank it for a significant amout of time before it started. After it started, it idled rough for a couple blocks, then was fine.

Yesterday, after work, it turned over for a significant amout of time with a couple sputters before starting and this morning it did not start or sputter. It just turned over and over.

A month or so ago I had another issue with not starting but the symptoms were different and I found it to be an ECU issue.

I am thinking .. ICV, AFM, Fuel Filter or Pump, Distributor ... not sure what else. I am going to go through the car tonite so I though I would gather ammunition to fight this battle from the experts.

TIA for help and suggestions.

Josh

main relay and fuel pump relay are good ... sorry, forgot that

In addition to the items you listed, you might check for vacuum leaks on any of the hoses and fuel leaks from the injectors -- although this might not cause your no start, it would cause rough, low RPM running.

Also, I would make sure the connector for the ignition coil is secured well, and the same goes for all of the spark plug wires on the plugs and on the distributor cap.

A few of those items you listed are easy: Replace the fuel filter once a year, and remove the ICV to clean it with some O2-sensor-safe carb cleaner and try again.

HTH,

Shifty, That does help. I didn't realize I could clean the ICV ... I just went through checking for vacuum leaks so that doesn't appear to be a problem. I will check you r other suggestions as well. Thanks for the reply.

PULL THE DISTRIBUTOR CAP AND CHECK INSIDE....you may just find the rotor has melted to a goo. Mine and many others have done this and displayed the same symptoms your does...

Kyle in NO

[QUOTE="Josh in BrewCity"]Shifty, That does help. I didn't realize I could clean the ICV ... I just went through checking for vacuum leaks so that doesn't appear to be a problem. I will check you r other suggestions as well. Thanks for the reply.[/QUOTE]

Kyle has a good idea, too. But, to clean the ICV, it's easy. Go to Autozone or the like and get some carb cleaner. Make sure it says it's safe for O2 sensors, but I'm pretty sure most of the stuff they sell there is safe anyway.

Remove the ICV (a connector and a few hose clamps; easy stuff), spray some of the cleaner in there, and shake it around. Then, pour it out and repeat the process until the carb cleaner that comes out is clean. Replace the ICV and see if that helps!

Having a 535i, your ICV is controlled by the ECU, so you don't have a seperate Idle Control Module like the 533i and pre-88 528e owners. So, that's one less thing to check.

HTH,

Thanks for the replys ... The cap and rotor look fine. I believe that the issue is the ECU ... I should have a replacement by Friday. Thanks again for the help.

I just now had a problem starting the car. Last night had some killer freezing weather and this morning the car started very poorly then shut down -- had gas smelling from the engine compartment, turned out the hose to the cold start injector was loose, and the clamp refused to tighten, I had to replace that ... then it took about 20 minutes of cranking over to get it started up enough to idle --- maybe I flooded the engine trying to start it before? Who knows? I've never had problems starting before.

WAG, speed and reference sensor connections.

Speed and Reference sensors are within limits. Thanks.

My speed and ref sensors where within spec when I hadn't driven for about 2 hours. However, if I had just shut the car off, both sensors where way out of spec. It was not heat related either.

This doesn't sound like your problem. I just wanted to chime in on the sensors. They can appear fine when they are not.

[Edit by Seymour in C'ville on [TIME]1109803053[/TIME]]

I have heard of that happening as well. And did have a similar problem at one time. I have had a couple of issues with this ECU so before I start letting my brain start telling me it is a million other things, I want to replace that. Should be Friday. I will let you know and I appreciate all the help.