Hi,

This is regarding a non-mercedes, but I always frequent mercedesshop.com, and have not found a good BMW board. I have a 91 318i (M42 engine, E30 series) with just under 78k on it. The car occasionally has an odd idle speed. Today I was out running errands after taking a 15 minute interstate trip. I also got gas (It has a chip, but tried to put 89 in it to see if it would run at all). It ran fine with the new gas while doing the errands, but then I went home for about 15 minutes, and when I was ready to go out again, The car wouldnt start. The car will crank, and it seems like most times it will even catch, but immediately thereafter it dies. There is also a strong smell of gasoline outside.

I have noticed this before, where if I have driven the car and it was up to temperature, then try to drive it a little while later, it will start and catch, but then the idle will be really erratic, dropping below 500, above 1000 and then very slowly coming into a constant speed.

Any ideas/suggestions what this might be? It is very annoying, and I hope to get to the bottom of this without much expense.

Thanks

JMH


P.S. Now as an update, about three hours later, the car still wont start, despite being relatively cool, and when it cranks, it doesnt even start to catch anymore, it just cranks until I stop it, then nothing. No smell of gasoline either.

__________________
Current Diesels:
1981 240D (73K)
1982 300CD (169k)
1985 190D (169k)
1991 350SD (116k)
1991 350SD (206k)
1991 300D (228k)
2008 ML320 CDI (199k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (442k)
1996 Dodge Ram CTD (267k)

Past Diesels:
1983 300D (228K), 1985 300D (233K), 1993 300D 2.5T (338k), 1993 300SD (291k)