Intermittent E36 Fault Help Please

Hi, i am new to these boards please be gentle.

I am having a problem with my 1997 318i, could anyone give me some help?

I will try to explain this as best i can.

This is an intermittent fault although the engine does sound slightly rough, when i accelarate it feels as if the brakes are on, it seems fine upto 2500rpm then it feels like the engine hesitates, the car feels like it wants to accelarate but cannot. It does go but revs up very slowly upto 4000 4500rpm then it seems as if thats it, but in the next turn of breath the car seems fine. Yesturday it struggled to start engine spun fine but did not fire up, it took 3 attempts ( i may of flooded it aswell as there was a large plume of black smoke), this is the only time it has done it started fine today also i have noticed a tinny rattle underneath the car but i cannot see anything obvious.The car has not long had an inspection 2 service, although it had the fault at the time the garage didnt pick it up.
The car has always been reliable and has covered 154000 miles.
Please could someone shed some light on this problem.

Thanks
Simon

was the shop you took it to a bmw shop ie dealership? If they did inspection 2 of all things they should have at least hooked it up to the computer and check for any fault codes or if you have any friends that have a scan tool for bmw let them hook up and see if any fault codes come up or take it to a autozone its free to see if any fault codes are stored in its memory. its really hard telling what it could be at this point what did they do at inspection change anything? parts?

No it was not a Bmw Dealership ( first time i have not taken it to )
I took it to a German Specialist independent, to be honest they specialise in Audi's. They did not inform me of any fault codes, i guess that is my next port of call to get them read. I would take it they did everything needed on an inspection2 service ( maybe apart from reading these codes)

simon