car revs itself to redline - United Bimmer Community

**Varia** · 12-12-2007, 11:36 AM

Hello!

I purchased a 1996 328ic the other day. 152k miles.

I like the car, however, within my first day of owning it, I had a big problem and I don't know where to start...

The first time I drove it was yesterday. Drove it home a few miles, then drove it to my friend's house a few miles away. When I was going home, the car just started revving itself until it hit the limiter and wouldn't stop.

I was in 1st gear driving down the street at probably 3 or 4k rpms when it happened. My first reaction was to take it out of gear, but it still kept revving. I could put in the clutch and put it into gear, but it would still rev itself. The car did move and speed up along with the revs.

It was probably hitting the limiter for about 5 seconds or so when I just turned the engine off. I tried turning it on again, but it still kept revving.

I'm hoping there was no damage to the internals of the engine...bent valves etc. Constant revving at 8k for most any engine spells death...

I'd like to think of myself as somewhat knowledgeable about cars, but this is a new one to me...

If anybody knows or can provide any information about what happened, I would appreciate it very much. I want to drive this car!

nick_318is · 12-12-2007, 12:21 PM

Stuck Gas Pedal, broken Throttle Cable?

**Varia** · 12-12-2007, 12:23 PM

Not the pedal.

I was in the dark and didn't have a lot of time to check it out, but I didn't notice a throttle cable anywhere. I thought it was electronically controlled on these?

nick_318is · 12-12-2007, 12:57 PM

A 96 i think that it's still a cable.

**xsperf** · 12-12-2007, 01:55 PM

it might have something to do w/your cruise control, is it automatic or stickshift?

**Varia** · 12-12-2007, 02:05 PM

It's stick. I have not touched cruise control as I do not know where it is yet! haha

But it still revs if you put in the clutch. When cruise control is on and you put in the clutch it disengages, correct? If there is something that could be wrong because of the cruise control, please let me know!

**xsperf** · 12-12-2007, 02:36 PM

well thats what i was thinking. you may have accidently activated the cruise control, and the kill switch, being the brake and the clutch pedal may not be working properly. the cruise control is the lever under the wiper lever by the way. to turn it on you push towards the front of the car

**gldfshkpr** · 12-12-2007, 08:19 PM

Make sure all your vacuum lines are connected.

**gldfshkpr** · 12-12-2007, 08:22 PM

From another post on the Web...

Re: Maybe stuck throtle cable?,,Right you are! (17 views)

Message: Thanks for all the helpful replys

I managed to fix the problem. I got home & went to where the car was, sure enough it was almost spitting fire when I cranked it.
The problem was that at the end of the throttle cable, there is a square nylon clip that goes thru a hole in a small bracket before reching the lever at the end of the cable.
The nylon bushing unseated itself, not allowing the throttle to return to it's closed state, so it stayed revved all the time.
Easy fix, but I will need to change the cable to fix it "right".

**Varia** · 12-13-2007, 10:51 PM

UPDATE

Took the car to a garage. The problem mysteriously disappeared. The mechanic started it up and nothing happened.

That is good, but he found other things that are bad. Quite bad.

The bearing and hub thing in the rear driver side wheel is messed up. The hub assembly has about a half inch of play. I'll need a new rotor as well because the top part got kind of eaten because of this.

There is also play on the front passenger side wheel, which is being caused by...I forgot what it's called. The part where the lower bushings are on the control arm. It's gonna cost less just to get a new control arm.

PS leak

AC and distributor belts are old and a little cracked. Should be replaced.

Tiny tiny oil leak

Ecu says there is a cat failure. May be the cat, may be the O2 sensors. I hope it's the sensors.

Muffler is broken. The pipes rusted and fell off inside.

Think that's it.

......

witeshark · 12-13-2007, 11:19 PM

Good luck!

**Dudesky** · 12-14-2007, 05:36 AM

gldfshkpr may be on to something. Back in the 90's, there was an E36 recall campaign to resolve a throttle cable issue. The cable would bind up just as he described, allowing the revs to remain high or climb. The solution was to install retaining clips to prevent the plastic bushings from dislodging. You should check to see if this was done, maybe your car fell through the cracks, or was never brought in for this retrofit. Here's what the clips look like:

denyo77 · 12-14-2007, 02:38 PM

btw, how about having the car checked out by a mechanic next time before you buy it? It's certainly worth a couple bucks...