E28 535i starting issues after not driving for awhile
Posted: Jan 31, 2025 3:20 PM
So my E28 (87 535i) hasn’t been my daily driver for a while, and I don’t drive it every day—especially now with it being winter in Utah. I have it parked with a battery tender to keep everything healthy, and it always starts. It’s a little rough at first but cleans up after a minute or so.The weird part is that while driving around town, it started idling rough again, then died and would just crank with no start. Luckily, I was able to coast into a gas station and put some fuel in (I was hoping to get ethanol-free gas since I think it stores better and doesn’t break down as fast). A buddy came to help, and it started again, but it was backfiring and eventually died again. We left it parked, grabbed lunch, and when we came back about an hour later, it fired up instantly and ran great.This also happened last winter after I was out of state for a few months. I got fresh gas, took it on the freeway, and it ran great.
So my question is—has anyone had issues like this with storage? I think my mistake might have been leaving it parked low on fuel, leading to condensation mixing with the gas and making it run like crap.I replaced the fuel pump and filter about three years ago, and the plugs, cap, and rotor maybe two or three years ago. Just wondering if there’s something I should check or if bad fuel could really make it run this bad, die, and then not start for like 30 minutes?
So my question is—has anyone had issues like this with storage? I think my mistake might have been leaving it parked low on fuel, leading to condensation mixing with the gas and making it run like crap.I replaced the fuel pump and filter about three years ago, and the plugs, cap, and rotor maybe two or three years ago. Just wondering if there’s something I should check or if bad fuel could really make it run this bad, die, and then not start for like 30 minutes?