Can Someone please help !!!!

I have a 1987 BMW325i cabrio, it only has 70k on it & one lady owner from new ,the car sat for five years until i purchased it the car will only run with the mass air sensor connecter pulled out , i have replaced the TPS,the idle control valve , the rubber boot but i got another mass air sensor from the junk yard so i have two used ones as soon as i plug it in the car dies .if i start the car with it plugged in it will start immediatly but then die .Any ideas???i have the car for sale and need it running

13 Answers

I don't know if this helps, but I had a Toyota with the same problem,
found out that there wasn't enough air flow through the MAF to move
the vane at idle so it just shut down, checked the engine vacuum and it
only had 15 inches at idle, it shouldn't have even ran but it did, wound up
replacing the engine, it only had 85 K but like yours it sat a lot, we
thought that the rings might have collapsed due to lack of use, after
engine replacement it worked just fine, weird.

The engine runs with the mass air
flow sensor unplugged so it cannot
be rings .
The car was sat because the ladies
husband had a stroke she has been
a client of mine for years and I've
asked to buy it from her year after
year .
It's something simple that I'm
missing !

PCV would be my first suspect, then the vacuum hoses, I am not too
familiar with BMW computer systems but there should be a diagnostic
flash out code system, that might help if you could acces that system.
There weren't too many Beamers in my area as the closest dealer was
over 100 miles away.

Remove the ground strap between the oil pan and the frame and clean all the oil and corrosion from the ends. Re-installed it and see if it fires up. It could also be a fuel pump relay, fuel pump (there are two), the main engine relay, the Engine Control Module, the water temp sensor, cold start valve, blown fuse, distributor cap and rotor, plug wires, timing belt damaged. Here are just a few things that can be causing the no run issue.

sounds like a fuel pump relay, the engine goes into default mode when maf is unplugged, bypassing the relay and keeping the pump pumping constant (and your gas mileage is probably horrible and it probably runs rough at certain speeds). It has an erratic signal when maf is plugged in, thus no or very little fuel pressure.

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