Just bought an 89 260e and I'm so excited. She runs smooth and the interior is immaculate however i have a couple of questions
1. The timing cover is leaking how serious is that?
2. how much power does a catless 260e make? The sites i have visited range from 158 to 170 bhp
3. The idling is above 1400 when started from cold but drops to 1000 when warm, is this normal?
4. There is a a noticable thunk when shifting from park to drive how serious is this?
Looking foward to your replies thanks.
1) i think the gasket for the timing cover leaks on every single one of these motors. mine does. it's an easy fix, so if it's a lot of oil just do it. i've been putting it off until i get around to changing my timing chain.
2) no idea. someone else will know this
3) this is not normal. i would look for vacuum leaks first
4) when was the last time the trans fluid and filter were changed? again, it's an easy job, but this one is messy when you drop off the cover to drain the old fluid. also check the flex discs on the drive shaft.
Hi, welcome to the board. Go ahead and fill out your profile so we can know where you are from.
Regarding you Idle question, if you are in the US and the CATS are removed it is possible that they also removed the air pump. This will cause the computer to idle very high and rich at the start of a run cycle. If that is the case you most likely are not getting great gas mileage also.
If you are not US, I agree that vacuum is a likely culprit and is faking the computer out. Also check your O2 sensor that is sending information to the computer.
I am having a full service done tomorrow including the gearbox so i will have them check the flex discs. I'm in Kenya so i guess its probably a vacuum leak thats responsible for the high idling. Thanks for all the advice i will update you after the service is done. Cheers
Did the service and discovered the gearbox fluid was down to less than a litre! i changed the fluid, gasket and filter. Shifting is much better now except for reverse which has a slight(3 sec) delay before engaging with a jerk. i suspect the clutch was damaged when the atf fluid was low.
The uneven idle however got worse after the service and morphed into a hard start problem. Now when I crank it I have to give it some gas before she fires. A vacuum leak check (pouring a little petol around the suspect areas) revealed a vacuum leak under the fuel distributer. How to fix this? Also the entire exhaust system is shot. would this contribute to the uneven idle?
exhaust shot - how?
I suppose if you lost some baffles in one or both mufflers it could cause problems with back pressure (either too much or too little), but I don't really know.
Shot as in full of holes and leaky as a sieve. Am replacing the whole system from manifold to the end over the weekend, will see it makes a difference. Not sure what to do about the vacuum leak though.