316i stalls after cleaning the ICV

Hey

Really hope somebody can give me a hint. The (long) story (there's
always a story before the problems starts J)

I have a 316i Compact from 1998 (the M43, 1.6 liter 4 cylinder engine)
that's done around 200.000km. Just bought the car, and the car had a
rough idle especially when warm. Not very rough but a little like the
revs were a little too low. (Engine oil, sparkplugs and so on are
fine).

Read here about cleaning the ICV and thought that might do the trick.
The ICV is really easy to get on the M43 engine, so took it off and
cleaned it with some "electronics cleaner" (I think it's basically
alcohol of some sort). While I was at it I also removed what I think
is the "throttle positions sensor", but nothing to clean here so put
it back on. Next I cleaned the part of the MAF that is visible from
inside the air-intake, by spaying it with a little "electronics
cleaner".

I let it all dry and then tried to start the engine. Now the car won't
idle at all. If I turn the key without pressing the gas pedal it
starts, goes to around 1500 revs for half and second and then it just
dies. If I press the pedal and make it stay above 1700-2000 revs, the
engine keeps running, but the second I let go off the pedal the revs
drops and it dies. If I push it above 3000 revs it doesn't sound
great. Maybe like it misfiring and not burning all the fuel, but
haven't experimented much with this.

I have of course tried to take the ICV of again, checked that it moves
ok. Also checked all the connections and so on - everything looks
fine.
I sounds like something has been broken while cleaning it. But which
part? (of course really stupid to take three parts of at once - but
hey thought I could save some time) Can I be relatively sure it's the
ICV acting up with problems like this or does it sound like the MAF?
Any hints/ideas before I just start from one end switching parts.

Oh maybe this means nothing, but the gasket that was between the
engine and the ICV was old and cracked when I removed the ICV. So it
might be getting a little false air here, but can that make the car
not want to idle at all? It's not like the car is stalling "slowly",
the revs just drops. There's no warning-lights in the dashboard
indicating any faults with the engine.

Hope my description made sense - a bit hard to explain technical stuff
in a different language.

Anyway thanks for the time to read it - really hope for a hint or an
idea
Thanks in advance

Lauge

AMM?

<start_her DeleteThis @live.dk> wrote in message
news:8c9bf2ef-c307-4751-a808-982fb92165ba@q78g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
> Hey
>
> Really hope somebody can give me a hint. The (long) story (there's
> always a story before the problems starts J)
>
> I have a 316i Compact from 1998 (the M43, 1.6 liter 4 cylinder engine)
> that's done around 200.000km. Just bought the car, and the car had a
> rough idle especially when warm. Not very rough but a little like the
> revs were a little too low. (Engine oil, sparkplugs and so on are
> fine).
>
> Read here about cleaning the ICV and thought that might do the trick.
> The ICV is really easy to get on the M43 engine, so took it off and
> cleaned it with some "electronics cleaner" (I think it's basically
> alcohol of some sort). While I was at it I also removed what I think
> is the "throttle positions sensor", but nothing to clean here so put
> it back on. Next I cleaned the part of the MAF that is visible from
> inside the air-intake, by spaying it with a little "electronics
> cleaner".
>
> I let it all dry and then tried to start the engine. Now the car won't
> idle at all. If I turn the key without pressing the gas pedal it
> starts, goes to around 1500 revs for half and second and then it just
> dies. If I press the pedal and make it stay above 1700-2000 revs, the
> engine keeps running, but the second I let go off the pedal the revs
> drops and it dies. If I push it above 3000 revs it doesn't sound
> great. Maybe like it misfiring and not burning all the fuel, but
> haven't experimented much with this.
>
> I have of course tried to take the ICV of again, checked that it moves
> ok. Also checked all the connections and so on - everything looks
> fine.
> I sounds like something has been broken while cleaning it. But which
> part? (of course really stupid to take three parts of at once - but
> hey thought I could save some time) Can I be relatively sure it's the
> ICV acting up with problems like this or does it sound like the MAF?
> Any hints/ideas before I just start from one end switching parts.
>
> Oh maybe this means nothing, but the gasket that was between the
> engine and the ICV was old and cracked when I removed the ICV. So it
> might be getting a little false air here, but can that make the car
> not want to idle at all? It's not like the car is stalling "slowly",
> the revs just drops. There's no warning-lights in the dashboard
> indicating any faults with the engine.
>
> Hope my description made sense - a bit hard to explain technical stuff
> in a different language.
>
> Anyway thanks for the time to read it - really hope for a hint or an
> idea
> Thanks in advance
>
> Lauge

Air Mass Meter


Take it all off again. Clean it again and use one of these compressed air
thingy's to blow any debris out - pay particular attention to any contacts.

If you dismantled with the battery connected or weren't grounded yourself
when handling the electronics you may have done it in (although unlikely).