well, so it seems that my 3rd gen has recently started giving me problems. just about 2 weeks ago on Tues. morning i decided to take the max to work and leave the 335i at home to keep the miles low on it and use the max for a bit. apparently it seems that the max got woken up from hibernation and might have gotten upset either by waking it up after 3 weeks of rest from me using the 335i or it just got jealous? well, i drive it down 2 blocks from my house and it just died. i figured it might been the fuel pump since thats practically the only other major part i haven't replaced since i got the car aside from engine and tranny and suspension parts. well, i didn't have time to diagnose so i just pushed back home and hopped into the bimmer. a week later i decide to start working on it and so i went with the easy stuff; fuel and spark. well, i had fuel but guess what; no spark at all. so i start checking and it ends up being the damn 8mm screw that secures the rotor to the distributor shaft. so i bolted it down again and the car started. i went ahead and replaced the cap and rotor since the cap was already cracked and so was the rotor. has anyone ever seen or heard a problem like this before??? it was a surprise to me cuz it was the first time for me to see something like this happen.

so, i let the max rest for another couple of days and just last weekend on friday the car doesn't start. this time the starter took a crap. so i went to my dad's friend to get it rebuilt. he charged me $20 for a new solenoid and the car started fine after that. so then i drive it over the weekend with no problems up until today in the morning. the car drove fine when i went to school but as soon as i got out of school it started misfiring? hasn't done this since i installed the motor back in '05. so i drive to work and its like the misfire would disappear and come back. so after work the car still misfired. i checked to see if all wires would send spark to the plugs and they did and i checked from distributor to wires and they all sparked? so i shut off my car and then started it again and the misfire was gone for 10 seconds and then came back. so i got fed up and left it alone and started driving home. half way home the damn misfire goes away and never came back after that. what do you guys think it might be? time for new plugs and wires i would say since i haven't touched those since like 2 years ago.

 

Are the injector wires touching the ignition wires?
How are the injector connections.

The last time i have a major miss fire deal thats what i ran into.

Sounds like you need to just let the maxima rest in my driveway

 

well, i haven't really checked the injector wires yet. though i did clean the connectors since they had the dreadful green corrosion like 3 years ago and that went away which i can't remember why i cleaned it but i did anyway. the last serious misfire i had was with its old motor but that engine got swapped into my old 89 SE which i don't know whatever happened to my old SE after i sold it with that motor. now once i swapped my new motor into my 93 i didn't have a misfire problem until today.

i think my max will keep resting in my driveway instead being used for spare parts goon but good try though.

 

Cars get jealous, I've seen it happen before.

 

seafoam it? my father keeps 93 in the tank when he's gonna let the car sit for a few weeks but i'm not sure if that helps. when mine misfired like that it was telling me to check the connectors on the injectors cause they were corroded (green stuff), they eventually died though due to my neglect.

 

335i?? very nice, i kind of love those cars and if i have money deff buy one of them than a max or a g35 but anyway cars do get jealous but sometimes when you bring home a new one the old one stop giving you problams so you wont sell it. thats what my 97 taurus with 166k miles and slipping tranny did when i got the i30.

 

VE1 did the random misfire to me for a while. then I lent it to a friend for a week, and the car stopped doing it. No clue what really happened but as near as we could tell it was an injector failing.
at least I think it was VE1, maybe it was VE4

 

your taurus made it to 10yrs old????
dam you were lucky...

 

 

it had 93 until monday morning when i filled her up back with 89 cuz thats what it usually runs on. it had 93 cuz i forgot i wasn't in the 335i when i went to the gas station and filled her up with 93 instead of 89. the green stuff on the injector plugs was taken care of awhile back. but i will check for that again and see if maybe it came back.

 

If the miss is perfectly spaced over time (I.E. you could set a metronome to it) then it is an injector going bad.

 

oh great, thats just what i need now. i hope not anytime soon.

 

I'd check the positive battery cable for corrosion. I had a similar problem on the 92 I just bought. There are three separate wires coming off the battery connection, look under the red plastic thing. All else worked fine, no blown fuses, just no fuel pressure. Trailered the car home and almost bought a $380 fuel pump before I figured it out. Good luck.

 

Was it
1. Too tight
2. Not there
3. Loose
4. Moose

What did u do? The distr issue stinks; try gettin wires -and- forget the german oilburners http://www.cardomain.com/ride/748507/12

 

1. Not sure
2. It was there, just not screwed in
3. Yes
4.

I just screwed it back in the hole to screw the rotor and the car started fine.

 

<---ya deff, my friend with a 3G started having problems after he bought a jeep recently. After a few night drives in the jeep the 3G started acting up. I think its safe to say that the third gen is VERY jealous.

 

Looks like the same thing that happened with my new Max. I decided to take my TSX to work since it gets better MPG on the freeway and when I decided to drive the Max on the weekend, it wouldn't start. It turns out the injector that was replaced a few weeks ago, we didn't put in a new set of O-rings...so its flooding the cylinder and causing problems when starting. Also getting a few jerky accelerations in 1st and 2nd. It seems that old cars need to be driven more and not just sitting around. Before I got it, it sat in my friend's driveway for almost 2 years. That's how old the registration and inspection stickers were... When we started it up afterwards...all these problems came up. I'm still dealing with them now...hehe