Bumping an old thread to follow up in case other people come across the same issues. I picked up a 95 ti a couple weeks ago, it's my first 4 cyl e36. I've had 5 of the 325/M3 variety over the past decade. So I had similar symptoms to others in the thread. The ti would intermittently die, sometimes driving fine for miles and miles - sometimes days, other times it died right after start up. The previous owner put in a new battery in the last couple months, I tested the alternator and it was barely within acceptable voltage range.
I bought a refurbished bosch alternator, dropped it in and all seemed to be fine. After putting about 100 miles on the car, it died again, just like before. I was stumped. I checked the grounds and connections that I could see, some were corroded but nothing horrible. I cleaned and reconnected and none seemed to cure the problem, the ground near the drivers headlight was especially gunky but cleaning that connection up didn't help. Finally I pulled the alternator to check my new connections and try to see the wiring behind it. I traced back the connection from the alternator to the starter (? hard to see underneath the intake manifold.) and from under the car I was able to reach up and feel the nuts, the positive one was about a full 2 threads loose. FOUND IT! I cleaned up the junction as best I could and tightened it down. I recharged the battery then started the car, it now holds a steady 14.3-14.4 volts. |