1983 320i dies while driving - I'm scared!!

[repoman]

Hello E21 guru's!

For the past couple of months, my car will just die while driving. It has been happening almost every day, and sometimes multiple times a day. It happens in any gear and at any speed over 20mph. It seems to happen between 2500 to 3500 rpms and usually while maintaining speed or accelerating. It has happened driving between 20-80mph. Most times I am able to disengage and pop the clutch and give it some gas to get it going again, while other times, it completely shuts down and I have to turn on/off the ignition and crank it a couple times to get it to eventually start. This always happens when I am driving on the freeway and have been lucky to have heavy traffic as not to be driving at too high of speed.

Recent changes: I noticed a couple weeks ago that I am able to pull the key out of the ignition switch while the car is on/moving. Also, I have been adding a fuel additive to help with the pre-dentition (pinging). I run high 91 octane (for California), and I believe the additive (mostly lead), boosts it up to 93 octane. The car normally runs great (except for the pinging) and idles perfectly. The car has 234,000 miles on it.

My first thought is that it could be the ignition switch disconnecting somehow, as I can pull the key out. These are NLA, so I may have to see if this can be rebuilt or find a good used one. I am also thinking distributor or ECU, and maybe something with the clutch (although no slippage is detected).

Has anyone else experienced this? Or have any additional thoughts of what it could be or am I on the right track?

Thank you!!!

[Jeroen]

That sounds like a horrible puzzle indeed! I always try to approach things as basic as possible, to run, the engine needs fuel and ignition. If fuel delivery would be an issue, the car is likely to start stuttering and the car may have trouble accelerating. If the engine cuts out completely, I suspect an electronic problem.

Ignition lock is a possibility, but then you'd expect to be able to get things back to life when you fiddle with the key in the lock. Some other things that come to mind, items may be defective, have a bad or corroded connection, or a bad wire:
- ignition pulse sender, green cable on ignition dizzy (to ignition control module)
- ignition control module near the drivers' side firewall, intermittent connection, bad ground
- loose or corroded fuse (E21 ownership means you have to roll your fuses on a regular basis haha)

Hope this helps!

[repoman]

Thank you for your quick insight, I will definitely look at those as well....and let's not forget that it can also be a combination of issues!! Oh my!!

It does shut down, however, the radio will still be on and the warning lights (that come on when you first turn the key into accessory mode(?)). I don't think it would be a fuel issue, like you mentioned, it would most likely stutter or have a lack of acceleration, this just stops and starts to jerk until I disengage the clutch pedal.

Luckily, at the moment, my 1982 320iA is having the head rebuilt, so I might be able to swap some of the easier electrical items and test it.....

[Jeroen]

Fingers crossed! Keep us updated!

[Wilmo]

I would check the connections and the working of the coil first. Problems with the distributor often come with misfiring and bad running. The same with fuel related things. When the fuel pump cuts out, it will be stuttering and dying slowish. When the coil cuts out, the party ends directly.

[repoman]

Quick update, when I pulled off the distributor cap, the pin from the coil that sits on the rotor was pretty worn and the rotor itself looked suspect. The spring seemed a bit suspect also. I relaced the cap, rotor and spark wires. I test drove it for about 5 miles just to ensure everything was hooked up correctly. So far, so good, however, i will let you know in the next couple days if this solved the problem. I've put about 40k miles on this car and who knows when the cap and rotor where last replaced.

I seemed to recall I had a similar issue with my E28 back in the day. The rotor was broken, and it surprisingly still ran pretty good.

[Jeroen]

Would be great if that was the fix, fingers crossed!

[repoman]

not so fast.....car died as soon as I got onto the freeway. Car stalled at a stop in traffic. It took about 1.5 minutes of cranking to get it started again....

I don't think it is the ignition switch, although I will eventually swap that out, as I was able to crank the engine.

Back to the usual suspects....the saga continues

[Jeroen]