Help me breathe life back into my car?

Question

Okay so I have a 1986 BMW 325i. And lately It has been acting like it is on it last legs, but I don't want to sell it. (for one I've gotten attached to it --its my first car, and two I think that it would be more fun for me to work on it)So the most I have done is change the oil on a car, that is the extent of my automotive matenince abilities, I just need to be told what to do to my car.
So here are the symptoms:
when I shift it into gear (reverse or drive) it will like bounce,
then when I'm driving just altogether it's just loud (or at least louder than a car that size should be) and I don't think it is the exaust because i just had that repaired a couple months ago. And when I floor it when I am on the freeway, or getting on the freeway, it has a bit of a delay(like a second or two).
And the air conditioning doesn't work(but the vent works and the heater works).
So what Do I need to do?

Answer 1

SINCE YOU HAVE STATED THAT YOU HAVE NO AUTOMOTIVE EXPERIENCE, THEN DON'T MESS WITH IT.


FOR QUESTION 1.

YOU SHOULD GET THE VEHICLES COMPUTER SCANNED AND CHECK FOR ANY PROBLEMS AS WELL AS CODES AND THEN YOU WILL HAVE A GOOD IDEA ON WHAT THE PROBLEM TRULY IS.

TRY FINDING AN INDEPENDENT SHOP INSTEAD OF THE DEALER OR A CHAIN STORE BECAUSE YOU WILL BE OVERALL MORE PLEASED WITH THE FINDINGS AND THE SERVICE.

LEAVE IT THERE WITH THEM SO THAT THEY CAN FIND THE PROBLEM FOR YOU, IT WILL BE A LOT BETTER THAN JUST REPLACING PART AFTER PART AND NOT DOING ANY GOOD.


FOR QUESTION 2.

HAVE A TRUSTED INDEPENDENT A/C REPAIR SHOP FIRST CHECK IF YOU EVEN HAVE FREON IN THE SYSTEM AND ONCE THAT IS DETERMINED THEY CAN PERFORM A COMPLETE A/C SYSTEM LEAK CHECK.

Answer 2

Gentlemen, start cleaning your throttle bodies.

This is a cheap project. Just buy a can of throttle body cleaner and use a clean rag like an old t-shirt.

Remove the air intake on top of the throttle body and set it aside.

Then, spray some cleaner down the throat of the throttle body. Spray the rag and then hold the throttle plate open with one hand while you push the rag in there and wipe away and repaet the proceedure until the inside of the throttle body looks like new above and below the throttle plate.

You can use a small wooden stick (like the handle of a wooden spoon or a piece of dowel rod) to push the rag into the throttle body to swab it out if your fingers don't reach too far inside. I don't recommend an old toothbrush or other brush since the bristles can fall off and get into the depths of the intake manifold.

You'll probably use less than half the can of cleaner unless it has some serious tar build up in there.

I don't spend money on A/C since one piece after the other will need replaced and it eats up a lot of money. You could replace the whole A/C system if you want to spend the money which might be $2,000-3,000 when you piece it all together.

There must be a leak in the exhaust allowing the noise to escape and become obvious. Take it back to the one armed mechanic that recently did the work on it and have them look it over. I'm sure they'll find something. They may have disturbed the piep to exhaust manifold connection and it needs a new ring gasket or a broken bolt replaced.

An exhaust leak is only dangerous if the gasses enter the passenger compartment or they hit the floor pan and heat up the carpeting and start a fire or they blow on an engine component and melt it or cause a fire.

You can service the transmission, rear end gear oil change, lube the u-joints, and flush your cooling system/radiator, switch to a higher mileage oil formula, and do a complete inspection of the wheels, brakes, bearings, linkage, and under body.

Good Luck!

Answer 3

Hi there Buddy!
Boy why coud you not fall in love with an old chevy, they are way easyer to work on. Those BMW's are some of the most complex pieces of machinery around but anyhow and first of all:
Please disrgard the rather long note about the throttle body, you don't have one. Your beemer is multiport fuelinjected. meaning you got a seperat injector for every zylinder. some gooqualety injectorcleaner helps some butdon't expect wounders. more then likely they need to be replaced togeter with the airfilter, fuelfilter plugs and several sensors, timing cover and rotor too. If it is an automatic you will need the tranny serviced, (filter and ALL the fluid, manual you probably loosing your clutch, go to autozone or advanced or some simlar store and get a chilton manual for your car first! about 20 bucks at the most. then start reading and make the decicion if you wanna undertake the project. tools and parts, especially bmw cost money, and do not count on getting a job done on time.
here is a tip if you really want to keep the car: Buy a cheap driver as a back up and then get started on the project. unless you want to ride your bycicle to the store to buy parts or supplis you find you need after tearig half the car apart
Start simple and work your way up, it ain't hard but can be dangerous, you can get hurt in the process of the work as well as doing a sloppy job and wreck, again buy a good repair manual and heed ALL warnigs, you will discovertricks and shortcuts later youself but know and adhere to the right way first and almost. remeber, auto mechanics ( as least the real ones) go to school for a long time... and for a reason

Answer 4

Find a transmission box and a air con. compressor from the scrap yard and replace your old ones.