ok you guyz are my last hope before satan!

[fear_itself]

hi guyz

first of all I am aware that this question gets asked about 10 times a day and let me assure you I did do search and came up with a ton of threads dealing with basically the same problem but the cars it happened were turboed and usuall respons was " do a boost leak". well my car is non turbo.

my car has just reached 80K miles and before around 78k miles my car stared acting weird. I ususally did the oil change every 3k miles and I babied the car. so around 78k my car starts sputtering ( its a non turbo automatic with a cold air intake and a ractive exhaust) so it starts from sputtering then going up to the point where everytime I was at a stop light and I push gas it made a LOUD noise in the engine ( back fire/mis fire) so then I pushed gas and the car would just sputter and wont move at all. I put a lot of injector cleaner and hi octane booster and that helped a little. but then I had my friend replace fuel filter ( which was brown) and spark plugs ( which were brown in the middle part where they are suppose to be white) and then replace wires and pcv valve. all this was done in one day and the car was running brand spankin new. now 2 months later the problem is starting to come back. it started as when i am steady at 40mph or so the car just jerks back and forth untill I accelerate. and today it started backfiring so I am having the same problem over again. my friend says it could be because I have a lot of dirt etc in my fuel tank and we will have to take it out and clean it. but I was just wanted to know what you guyz think I should do? i have had this car for 2 years and it only started doing this and It is getting me worried as I drive every day atleast 60miles to school. I have no idea what to do here so you guys can help me out I would really appreciate it otherwise I would have to take it to a dealer to get it fixed and they are gonna charge me an arm and a leg to do it. Poor college student .

so please I would really appreciate if you guyz help me out here as I know many of you have experienced same problems and have found a soultion to it.

 

[oldman]

Could be coils. When my girlfriend's 325i had bad coils it was doing the same thing. If you want to be pro-active, do a compression test as well. Good luck.

Oh, perform a boost leak test.

 

[fear_itself]

hiya

sorry to be naive but how can I do a compression check? and is there any way to check if the coils are bad? I mean if they cost not an arm and a leg I can go ahead and replace them first thing tommrow because it would be a less of a hassle then taking off the fuel tank and cleaning it manually because thats what my friend is advising on.

thanks for the response I hope to get this fixed.

jesse

 

[oldman]

Compression test: http://www.dsmgrrrl.com/FAQs/compression.htm
I don't know much about 420a but with 1g, you check them by measuring resistance. I suggest getting yourself a service manual. You should check the fuel filter again before you pull the tank, this should tell you whether you need to pull the tank at all. Make sure you change the copper crush washers if you pull the filter.

 

[fear_itself]

I have no idea whats going on here because I cant figure out whats wrong! please help me.

 

[oldman]

I have no idea whats going on here because I cant figure out whats wrong! please help me.

Have you done what I suggested? What were the results? I have a feeling you didn't do them. No one is going to be able to just tell you what's wrong, we can only give you suggestions and it's up to yourself to follow up. If you don't feel comfortable performing these tests, take it to a professional. Good luck.