Car died

[Asoka Mendis]

I have a 1993 e36 320i (2 litre M50). The other day, after ten minutes of driving, car just quit. Tried to restart and it wouldn't. A few minutes later it started but sounded like it was running on 2 cylinders. Revs wouldn't increase when throttle depressed but it would backfire through the intake. Then the car died again. Had it towed home where it started right up and ran perfectly, which is when I stuck it in the garage. Tried it again the next day and it started and ran fine. I let it idle for about 20 minutes but it refused to quit. I haven't had a chance to work on it since nor do I have a code reader.

My question is what would make it sound like it was running on 1 or 2 cylinders? Fuel pump, MAF, coils? I should mention that I have the dreaded bogging problem so most sensors have either been replaced, e.g. cps, cps, tps, vanos solenoid, or tested. Supposedly the fuel pump was replaced by the PO and I replaced the fuel pump and DME relays, fuel filter and pressure regulator.

I'm guessing fuel pump but am not sure because despite having owned around 30 cars I've never had a fuel pump fail. I have to fix this because I'm driving a Camry right now. Reliable but talk about your Japanese Buick. Ugh. Thanks in advance for any forthcoming help.

[Wayne 962]

A similar thing happened to my E36 - it turned out that it was the fuel pump, here's an article on replacement:

http://www.pelicanparts.com/bmw/techarticles/E36-Fuel-Pump/E36-Fuel-Pump.htm

-Wayne

[Asoka Mendis]

Thanks Wayne.