Engine Sputter

[Johnny Utah]

Now that it's officially time for spring cleaning and maintenance on my baby I have a question that I hope someone can help me with. My car tends to bog down and "sputter" some when I first start it. It doesn't do it when the engine is cold, like when I first start it in the morning or it's been sitting for almost the whole day at work. Once the engine is warmed up though when I first start it it will idle okay until I put it in gear and start to drive. When she hits about 3k RPM's she'll start to bog out really bad. The engine doesn't stall but it will idle rough, falling down until it almost stalls and then back up to slightly over regular idling RPM's. If I wait for about 1 minute it will finally stop and then she's fine. A buddy of mine said it sounded like maybe one of the sensors was sticking because he had a similar problem with an e30.
Has anyone else had this happen and/or have any ideas that might help? Thank you!

[SDKmann]

Yeah Ive had the exact same thing happen and ironically it started happening again a little today. Last time it was the crankcase intake valve, swap that out and you should be good to go.

[Johnny Utah]

Mine's been doing it since I got it and it doesn't seem like it's ever gotten better or worse. It's mostly just annoying and it really sucks when I'm in a hurry.
Pardon my ignorance but I haven't played with this car much yet. Where is that, how difficult is it to replace and how much was replacement crankcase intake valve? Thank you for the help.

[SDKmann]

Lol, well dont worry, Im not too knowledgeable either. I have a friend who is a BMW mechanic so I didnt actually do anything involving the repair. I dont think its hard to replace at all, if I remember correctly he just ran out and did it in the parking lot of the dealership. I dont think it cost very much either, I cant give you an exact number, but it was surprisingly painless.

[dave45056]

It could also be the intake boot. It is almost impossible to see a vacuum leak in that thing without taking it off. It's cheap, too, ($22.50).
Also, you may want to try cleaning your ICV (if it's a '95) or the other valves in the vacuum system if it's a 96+.
By the way, is it throwing any codes? or getting bad gas milage?

[gr8knurlin]

Mine is sputtering but a little different....

It's a 1995 318ti 5 speed 1.8L

1st 2nd 3rd & 4th cant rev over 5000rpm.... it will sputter and bounce in between 4500 & 5200.....

5 th gear on highway there is a "dead spot" right at 4000 rpm, if I get it up to 4100 or drop it to 3900 it's fine but right in that 4000 range it sputters which sucks because that is my normal highway cruising speed.

I changed out the plugs today, diconnected the battery incase it was a computer thing but neither worked...... If it's an easy fix great if not she's off to my mechanic for service.

I'm mechanically retarded so unless it's simple and explained well I'm probably hooped....

Ian

[aziankingz]

it could be your coils or distributor