BMW 318Ti MAJOR COLD START PROBLEM... HELP!!!

[arkangel643005]

Hi All... I was wondering if anyone has come across the same highly annoying problem as I have with my 318Ti lately... basically, there's ALWAYS a severe problem starting my car from cold, tends to be on colder days but when attempting to start the car, it seems not to want to turn over at first and then starts with a VERY rough idle - OK this clears after 30 seconds, but I don't want my car not to start in the middle of winter!!

Taken the car to a BMW dealer to have it checked out and they reported there was a misfire on cylinders 1 and 3 - thanks very much, I could have told them there was a misfire already!! Their expert solution was to change the sprak plugs / spark plug cables - did this with absolutely no effect... does anyone know of ANY solution to this?? I love this car so much, it's really great to drive and don't want to have to get rid of it because the damn thing doesn't start! Any ideas greatly appreciated!

[graymarki]

If you tell me what year it is, I may be able to help you.

graymarki

[arkangel643005]

Originally Posted by graymarki

If you tell me what year it is, I may be able to help you.

graymarki

Oops - sorry, it would have helped if I had mentioned it! It's a 1999 V-reg 318Ti Sport Compact - has the 1.9L M44 engine.

[arkangel643005]

Originally Posted by arkangel643005

Oops - sorry, it would have helped if I had mentioned it! It's a 1999 V-reg 318Ti Sport Compact - has the 1.9L M44 engine.

Hi again! Ok, the story so far!... had my dad take a look at the engine this weekend, he checked for coolant in the cylinders and there was no trace (thankfull!) - however he performed a compression test on each cylinder - each one showed around 150psi which is correct... apart from cylinder 3 - this showed only 50psi!! The problem we have now is diagnosing what can cause this to happen - we don't know if thinner viscosty oil would be a solution - at present the engine is using 10/40... or maybe there is a sticking valve?... but certainly looks to be something hydraulic. Again, once the engine was warmed-up, w eperformed the compression test once more and all cylinders were showing around 150psi! If anyone has come across a similar problem, I'd be very grateful if anyone can shed any light on what they did to resolve it... cheers!

[e30m3]

G'day. What I have to say may or may not be helpful to you. Here I go anyway. I used to have a 97 2.8l Z3. Fantastic CAR ! but every now and then it would behave just as you describe. Turn over, not spark then finally it would catch, blow lots of smoke and run REALLY rough.

My garage is on the top of a inclined drive way. I discovered that if I gave the car a bit too much juice on the hill start (ie. the car is standing still and engine cold) to drive it in the garage and didn't let the car idle for a little while once in the garage then I could reproduce the problem. I had a theory that there was some unburned fuel left in the system that may have played havok with the computer when I started up again. And yes, it did happen more in the cold, I presume that the extra fuel was slower at evaporating.

I don't know what the 'characteristics' of your drive way, garage are, but this may be something worth looking at. Does it do it all the time for example ?

I hope this helps,

[clarkyboy]

Was wondering if you got any further with your investigation ? We have a 99 318ti and it has always carried on in the same way. I understand it is a known issue of this vehicle but would love to know if there is a fix of some sort.

[arkangel643005]

Hi... sorry, forgot to post my findings on here! Basically the problem has become better lately but still not got to the bottom of it; essentially we checked the pressure of each cylinder on the car and all bar one of the cylinders were fine, but the pressure in cylinder 3 was very low (about 1/3 normal pressure), although we confirmed that there wasn't any coolant in the cylinders when we tested them so luckily this proved there isn't a problem with the cylinder head gasket - this is the cause of the misfire, once we warmed the engine and tested the pressures again, all cylinders were fine - this hasn't really been a problem for me since I know the misfire clears after about 20 seconds from cold start so I can live with that.

The problem with the engine turning over very rough appears to have been oil-related! We did have standard 10W/40 viscosity oil in it before but we did an oil / filter change and now use 5W/30 viscosity (actually this is Castrol's recommended oil type) and now the engine does turn over ok at cold start.

Basically BMW told us that there could be a number of solutions to the misfire problem but that because they would have to try so many different fixes for the problem, the labour rates would be astronomical so they advised me not to bother really! Could be anything in the cylinder head causing the pressure drop, maybe a sticking valve although I'd tried all kinds of oil and fuel additives to clear this.

So although the car does kinda run ok now, I think I could be severely tempted into trading it in at a dealership come warmer weather (when the engine seems to start with less of a misfire than in colder climates!) just in case the misfire were to become more of an issue later on. It's a shame really because the car drives great, I just don't know if I'd be prepared to continue the risk of keeping it for the long-term.

[91HO305TPI]

i would checkd for fuel pressur leak down when car has sat over night it may be due to a lekaing injector on cly 3 and washing the cyl down thus low compression and once warm that oil would come back up nad creat the seal and give you your compression back.

[boxbrownie]

I have exactly the same problem on my '98 ti.(85,000miles)....and have been told there is a common problem of no4 cylinder leaking from head gasket failure and causing the rough idle on start up until the cylinder dries out the coolant that has accumulated overnight....not sure I agree with this theory though!

This weekend I am going to clean out the ICV just to make sure thats working as it should, and then go from there.

best regards David

[teller62]

Hi, also have a 1999 M44. major starting problem in winter, no dramas in summer. changed oil to a 5W 30 nulon fully synthetic engine oil and the problem was fixed . the valves would stay opened on two cylinders untill freed up from constantly cranking the engine,run rough as guts till warm. hope this helps

[tsunamy2012]

what i like in this cars , is there engine ,

[faith28]

It is a good Question about BMW 318Ti. I suggest you to contact
someone else for your query.