Hello,
I recently picked up a '98 318ti. The car has 99,000 miles on it. We bought it even though it was an auto, because it was in great shape and had relatively low miles.
The car has a few issues, most of which I have an idea about. One that I need some help with is a long crank issue. First off, priming the fuel rail via turning the key to ON (activating the fuel pump) does NOT help this problem. Even with multiple primes the car will have this issue. Secondly opening the throttle somewhat during startup does NOT help. It always starts on the second try immediately. My dad's '99 328i actually has the exact same problem.
The car has stored a pending fault for the camshaft position sensor, but has not actually thrown the fault as current (meaning it hasn't happened often enough yet). It has a current fault for fuel trims, P1174.
The exact issue is that the car will crank over just fine, but will not "catch" immediately. Sometimes it will catch after 5-6 seconds of cranking and stumble into a weak idle and finally recover to a smooth idle. Other times I have to turn the key to "OFF" and then try to start again, in which case it always catches immediately and smoothly. Very rarely it starts the first time, usually if the car has recently been shut down but sometimes when it has been sitting for a while, too.
My questions: Could cleaning the ICV help? Could the P1174 (possibly a vacuum leak) have to do with this issue? How could I check to be sure this isn't an EWS issue?
I have a new fuel filter at home waiting to go in, and will be refreshing the cooling system soon which will give me access to the camshaft position sensor plug for replacement. I am hoping that while the intake manifold is off I will be able to fix the P1174. The long-term fuel trim is usually around -6, but the short-term changes wildly at times and can reach -12 or lower.
Thanks for any help!
