Maybe good for a laugh.

[Frajo]

My friend calls me at 6am to tell me his 89 325i broke down on the way to work. chk engine lamp and dead... car runs REALLY rough and then stops. I go to help him out, bring extra ignition parts w/ me, checked the plugs. Replaced coil, dist cap rotor etc... nothing... I could floor it and it would barely push 2000 rpm's. I'm looking for vacuum leaks. can't figure it out. Checked the oil and there was barely anything in there. Over 2 quarts low! After I busted his balls for a bit and put some more oil in, it starts up and runs quite a bit better. I look for vacuum leaks again, then it totally dies. I'm thinking he killed it. To try and make a long story shorter. This was over a week ago my buddy is depressed. Tried replacing the flywheel position sensor, nope. went over today with an ignition control unit...nothing. Then we wonder about GASOLINE...??? Turns out almost simultaneously, The fuel gauge is not reading properly. Read 1/4 tank when there was actually nothing, and this little makeshift plug the previous owner installed in the air boot some how fell out. so by the time I started checking for vacuum leaks on the road side, the damn thing ran out of gas! where the brake booster usually hooks in, Mickey Mouse bypassed the hose and plugged the air boot. Didn't even really notice it until we put gas in and replaced the idle control valve. HAA Haa... Really getting to know these great little e30's well and thanks to Pelican Parts and everyone here for providing this invaluable source of info through this forum and web site. Hope somebody got a laugh out of this...

[Klugemeister]

This story reminds me of a very similar scenario I put myself through about twenty years ago. I had to borrow a car from my brother because mine was "broke Down". When i finally got around to looking at the car three months later, he wasn't very happy. This is the perfect example of why instrumentation is so important.