New Member Needs Help

[jmbowman1]

Hello everyone,

I hate to start out my first posting with a problem, but I need some advice.

I recently purchased a 1995 318ti with 83k miles. I have only had it a few days. I test drove it for over an hour in all kinds of conditions. It had no problems at all. Today, it started lurching in first gear when taking out at low rpm. If I was a little aggresive with the gas pedal, it was as smooth as silk. I had no problems in any other forward gears. It would do it slightly in reverse. It only does it when I try to baby it. There are no warning lights on. The engine starts, idles, and runs great. It felt like the whole drive train was lurching and shuddering. Does anyone have any ideas?

By the way, I am almost forty and have driven sticks since learning to drive at 14.

Thanks. Hope to hear from you long-time owners soon.

[1996 328ti]

Off hand it sounds like a vacuum leak somewhere.
I had a similar problem with my Mazda MX6. There was a hole in the air intake around the throttle body.

[Sergey]

Clutch shudder?

Regards,
Sergey.

[weezer]

Or make sure all the clamps around the intake plenum are tight. I had the same problem after installing the CAI. Also Check the rubber flex hose on the upper part of the intake just after the AMF, there could be a hole slightly larger than a pin-hole that could be thr problem. These rubber flex hoses are notorious for dry rotting and start breaking/separating.
Good luck!

[jmbowman1]

Thanks for the advice. I will follow up on the vacuum hoses. Does anyone know a good place to get replacement hose?

[dave45056]

Also, you might just be hitting a bad rpm for your speed. M42 engines love to rev. Even with everything perfect there are some rpm's (1000 or so) where the car doesn't like to hang in. Check for leaks, but if you are new to bmw's, you may find you get out of this problem by changing your driving style a little.

[jmbowman1]

Thanks for all of the advice. I have read some postings on clutch shudder. It seems that my problem is the opposite. The car only does it when it is hot, but lowering the rpms exagerates the problem. If I raise the rpms to around 2,000, the problem immediately goes away. The car drives perfectly through all the other gears, at idle, and cruising. This is just when taking out around 1,000 rpms. I will give it a once over on the vacuum lines this weekend. If I don't see anything, I will just run it a little higher when taking out.