Re: should I buy the ECM? help...... (archive)

I try to start it and it sounds to dry. There is a whistle sometimes when rev'd a little high. I bought a fuel pump, accumulator, fuel pipe and fuel filter this summer and put it on. It ran the best it ever has since I owned the car up until the point of death on I70 in PA. I finally could get my car running after an hour and then it would die after about five minutes.

I found your August 24 post in which you mentioned it is a 1982 320i.
ECM is almost never the problem, especially on a 1980-83 320i. These cars will run without the ECM, if you mean the electronic box above the glove compartment. If you mean the little ignition control module above the left wheel, yes, it could be that, but I would try a fuel pump relay first, since the ignition module is 3x as expensive and less likely to go bad, I think.
Ignition module part number has a 123 007 in it, I think. I don't remember the fuel pump relay part number.

You can check the fuel pump relay by listening for the fuel pump to come on. The fuel pump inside the gas tank is audible from inside the car; the one outside is audible underneath. In my experience, the fuel pump inside the tank is more likely to cause a problem than the external one, so if the one you replaced was the external one, and you don't hear the internal one operating, you may want to replace it.

Regardless of all these helpful tips, you still probably can't fix it in one weekend if you don't know exactly what the problem is to start with (but you're welcome to try to prove me wrong).

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