Hello from Southern PA, USA
 

Hello all,

I purchased my 95 318Ti back in May this year. I come from playing with mazda’s (2011 Mazdaspeed3) and subaru’s (2015 WRX). This is my first BMW and first true project (not daily driven).

I made a lot of newb mistakes with purchasing this car (to eager to find PC and failed to ask some important questions). The long and short, the car is a basket case, but fun (correction) was fun to drive around town.

Currently, I’m dealing with it failing to turn over (you know lights come on starter just doesn’t do anything). Yes, I have searched around and see it could be the key, the security system, the crash relay, starter, etc. So, while starting to to trouble shoot I found the starter to be hanging part way out of the flywheel housing and decided the best way for me to get to it was remove the intake (I wanted to do this anyway to replace some hoses). Now for the real puzzling find. The injectors are the vacuum style from the M44 which most likely means the engine is an M44, but the car is def. OBD1 with that ugly-ass AFM housing off the air box.... not sure if someone just swapped in an M44, but it also has the metal housing for the thermostat and the metal housing for the oil filter. Anything I can look for to fully determine the engine?

Other things done to the car before I got it:
H&R springs, Neuology Spark Plug Wires (the ones with the individual grounds), I believe different chip (it has no rev limit...), honestly who knows....

Things I’ve done:
Replaced rear shock upper mounts (one was blown out), spark plugs, the oil housing gasket and o-ring, front struts, full tie rod assemblies (both sides), sway bar links front and rear, clutch master and slave cylinders (reverse bleeding is awesome), just did the battery while trying to figure out why it wouldn’t start and a hand full of other things I can’t think of right now.

Thanks for listening.
-Brian

My guess is that you have a 95 which was made late in the model year with a M42 engine. That's the situation with my car. Mine is an m42 and has vacuum shrouded injectors and the later oil filter housing. This means when I buy an oil filter I have to tell the parts guy the car is a 96.

There are 2 easy to spot differences between the M42 and M44. The M42 has the cam position sensor on the exhaust cam... The M44 has the same sensor on the intake cam. And if you look at the back of the head at the firewall, the M44 engine will have a black plastic y connector with 2 lines connected to it. On the M42 there is a metal connector there with only one hose.

As far as not starting, I one time had a no start situation at a gas station... it turned out to be a blown fuse. Check them before throwing parts at it. Also, I was surprised on another occasion when my batter seemed ok (headlights turned on and were bright) but it actually didn't have enough power to even make the starter click. But a jump start worked.

Lastly, if you do need to change the starter, I did this once and it was a PITA. But I think the best way was from under the car using 3-4 long extensions which would sag in the perfect arch to get around the transmission hump and to the bolts. I think there is a diy on this site for that.

Good luck

Thanks Dave,

Looks like it’s definitely a M42, woot!

I went through the fuse box with my meter before messing with the starter. Most of them are orginal but all checked out. I haven’t had a chance to really do anymore trouble shooting this week, but hopefully tonight. I plan to get the starter out and see if the local AZ can test it. Probably check continuity of the power wires and ground wire to the starter and battery as well. If everything checks out, I’ll order some parts (molded hoses/vacuum lines/intake gaskets) and put it back together and continuing trouble shooting.