car stalling out

[omahastylee]

I have a 92 325i and it is automatic. For the past few months or so, I have been having the problem where i would randomly hit the gas and the car would start to bog out and almost stall. This only happened once in a while though. But yesterday, i hit the gas from a stop and the car just shut off. I turned the car back on and it proceeded to do it again about 5 more times. As far as a check engine light goes, it only went on during the second the car was stalling out and then it would go off again. A friend of mine is guessing and saying it migtht be a clogged fuel filter, but he doesnt know. Does anybody have any idea what the problem could be? or has anybody had any similar problems?

[cbjwthwm]

I bought a used 93 325is from a buddy who never really serviced it properly, and it had all kinds of misfiring and hesitation problems (although not to the point of stalling) and bouncing idle issues. The bulk of my problems were fixed by cleaning the mass air flow sensor (drive with it disconnected for a bit, see if it runs better) and the final piece of the puzzle was replacing the intake air temperature sensor inside the airbox. In intake air sensor mostly improved the smoothness and low rpm performance, the really nasty stuff was resolved with the mass air sensor cleaning. You can clean the mass air sensor element with a residue free electronics cleaner (what I used the first few times) or else real stuff designed for the task. In my case that product was called "Sensorclean" or something similar. These were issues I fixed up after I already had the Inspection II done though...

[cbjwthwm]

My worst symptoms were below 3000 rpm and when the car was given quick throttle inputs. What you're describing also does sound like fuel pump problems I have had in the past on other BMW's as well, but they were OBD II and popped all kinds of other codes pointing to the problem. In the fuel pump scenario I also noticed all kinds of gurgling sounds coming from the back of the car during initial pressuration of the fuel system at cold start prior to getting the driveability symptoms.

[BombSquad91]

Fuel injector cleaner, and check ur fuel filter.

[omahastylee]

I cleaned the MAF sensor with CRC MAF sensor cleaner and it didn't help at all. So i picked up a bottle of fuel injector cleaner and I'm gonna run it through before i fill up next.

[BombSquad91]

Just put the whole bottle of fuel injector cleaner in now.

[omahastylee]

So i ran the fuel injector cleaner through and it didn't make any difference......but I noticed that if i ease the throttle it wont stall, but if i hit the gas hard at all the car either just shuts off, or bogs out and almost stalls. Also, it only happens from a stop, once i get going it is fine for the most part, it sometimes starts to bog out though. I tried the pedal trick to see if i could get any codes, but the check engine light blinked out the code 1444 which means no fault codes. What else could be the problem?

[BombSquad91]

Fuel filter bro. It's clogged. When you feather the gas it only needs a little bit of fuel and there's only a little bit of fuel getting through the filter, so it's ok. When you hit the gas hard the engine isn't getting the fuel it needs and chokes.

[Quixspede]

Air Mass sensor is a common fault causing syptpms you have descirbed above, clogged fuel filter will give you hestiation under load, going uphill etc and high revs.
I also once found water in the ECU which sits on the Left hand of the firewall behind the engine,
good luck.

[328ioc]

Im having a problem like this too, but lately its just trying to stall at lights but it has never acctually stalled, I already plan on chaging the fuel filter next week and i put fuel injector cleaner through every about other oil change or soo. any one have any other ideas?

[omahastylee]

I changed the fuel filter today, and it didn't help the problem at all. Iv also had several different people try to scan the car but nobody can get communication. I'm stumped.

[E36 Phantom]

Is the fuel pump performing like it should? I don't know spec, but you could try to find the liters per hour it should flow and run a hose into a graduated cylinder to see if the right amount is going through....

[328ioc]

Is the fuel pump performing like it should? I don't know spec, but you could try to find the liters per hour it should flow and run a hose into a graduated cylinder to see if the right amount is going through....

Crap, sounds like a PITA but ok lol.

Thanks Phantom

[native medic]

try checking the fuel pressure if thats good should be at or aruond 30 to 40 psi then the pump is ok the only other thing i can think it is is the fuel filter is clogged i had the same problem and after going through the whole car trying and changing almost every thing i fuond out the filter was clogged i went as far as dead heading the fuel pump and that was good at 80 psi

[CameronSF]

I'm having the same issue. This is not fuel filter related...I've never seen a filter clogged enough that it causes this big of driveability issues. I'm guessing it is throttle position sensor or crank sensor related. I've seen similar issues when a distributor was failing on an older car. I'll update when I figure it out.