Stayed out of town last night. Got back to my car this evening and checked the oil, shut the hood and tried to start it. It acted like it wanted to catch but didn't, popped the hood and tried a little starter fliud. It caught and stumbled, I fed it a little gas and it backfired then smoothed out. I let off the gas and it died but cranked right back up. I pulled around to lock the gate and it died again. I thought it was just cold and started it up and pulled out on the road. The car ran great. I didn't hit a red light for about 25 miles but when I did it died again. By this time the reserve gas light had started to come on occasionaly. So I'm thinking maybe it pulled some more rust up from the bottom of the tank and gunked up the fuel filter or warm up regulater or the backfire had knocked the air meter plate off a little. I'm thinking great I get to tear all that crap off again tonight to get it ready for work tomorrow. I didn't have any cash on me so I had to run home to get some gas money and go back to the gas station. As I pulled on my street ther was a sherriff blocking the road. Apparently four horses broke out of their fence and were running loose up and down my street. I was trying to keep the engine running and as the sherriff started walking towards me my coordination left and I slipped my foot off the clutch and the car lurched foward and died. He REALLY didn't like that. With his hand firmly on his gun he slowly approached my car. After explaining that I was running out of gas and needed to get home to get gas money he let me by. I waved when I went back by but he just shot me one of those evil looks I'm sure only criminals get to see. Anyway got gas in it hoping that would solve it but it still wouldn't idle. Got it back home and opened the hood and there it was, plain as day.
I didn't push the piece of E36 M3 mother berkeleying cock sucking dip stick all the way back down in the tube. AARRRGGHHHHHHH!
God I love Bosch CIS injection
For those that haven't had the pleasure of working with this wonderful system it is EXTREMELY sensitive to vacuum leaks. Even having the dip stick partially out of its tube is enough to give it fits. It won't run at all if the oil cap is not tight. Should hve been the first thing I thought of but I had completely forgotten about checking the oil.
