Engine "cutting out" under "medium load"

[jasonkirk]

Ok so here goes; Last week I took my car to a do it yourself car wash. (1994 325is CAI, Turner performance chip.) Nothing spectacular just a simple wash. After doing so I was driving down the road and the car was cutting out under a light load. When I backed out of it it idled fine. When I slowly pressed the accelorator it revved fine. When I stabbed the throttle it revved fine. Only have the issues under load.
After returning home I popped the hood to look for water. NONE Then I noticed water inside the driver compartment on the floor. It seems my drain tube in the hood cowl became plugged. OK no problem let it all dry out and unplug the tube. I drove it very little all weekend, with the hopes that the summer heat would "dry it out". Today I checked the plug/coil connections as well as any other connections under hood. I looked for vacuum leaks. The computer isn't throwing codes. (at least none that trigger the check engine light) At this time I decided to throw in the gaultlet and tackle another issue I had. Removing the old aftermarket alarm system that was cobbled in to the harness.
With the hopes that after exposing all the wiring behind the glove box the problem would magically expose itself. LOL no such luck. It sure looks cleaner behind there now!!

Please before you abuse me for not reading this thread or that thread, know that I searched for a while using multiple keywords to locate a possible common problem. Some came close but not close enough.
I really am at a loss here. And you guys seem to have all the problems in the world with these cars and figure out your own stuff. Pics to come soon just need to be a bit of a post whore first.

[randomy]

I have perhaps one idea: look under the car for the post cat 02 sensor, make certain the wires are not exposed and not able to get wet. I had an issue when driving in the rain where the wires would get wet, and my car would bog down.

[jijacob]

I have a similar issue. Check your spark plugs (one of mine looked like the below pic). Also, you might have an issue with your coil packs or boots. I need to get around to replacing mine.

[jasonkirk]

checked the connects under car and all is well. could be the coil packs i guess Ill check that next after a plug change. (might as well since im under there.)
Keep em coming with the suggestions guys ill try it all,

[fun2drive]

I think your DME got soaked and that is causing your issue. Since you put the chip in you could pull the DME and check to be sure it is totally dry. You car up to some early 95 model still lacked the improved drains.
Hard to believe that it would be a coil as the coil will typically show up under load at all rpms except at idle.

Lets hope it has not fried some area of the DME but your post is pretty common of what has happened to a lot of people some time ago. You car seems to be doing better than most but if nothing else you need to do the drain mod which I think is nothing more then enlarging the holes. You might want to be sure that there is nothing below the cowling mesh too that is plugging them up...

[jasonkirk]

So I pulled the DME and found no evidence of moisture. I pulled my Turner chip and replaced it with the stock chip. (good thing I pack rat that stuff) When I start the car it idles fine at first. Then after I drive a couple blocks it doesn't like to idle anymore. Other than that the car runs fine at all RPMs (except idle oviously) now. Considerably slower though! LOL :P
At first when I put the chip in I was new to the feel of the E36 so the whole car always felt fast. But without the chip I'm not impressed anymore.
I find it hard to believe that the aftermarket chip has gone bad. The car still has problems, just different ones. Is the device on the side of the throttle body a "throttle position sensor"? If so I may think of checking it next.

[bimmerfeel]

Changing coil packs on my 92 cured all kinds of problems including "wet weather crazies".. never knew what the poor thing was gonna do next when it rained. I'm going to do the DME drain upgrade asap; I'd forgotten about that. Thanks for reminding me!

[flyfishvt]

This is a text book case of DME getting flooded. This is exactly why they redesigned the drain holes in the cowl. Because they used to get plugged with leaves, needles and stuff. Even without getting plugged the drain holes were big enough to handle most rain storms but couldn't handle a car wash.

I know you said the DME was dry but maybe some of the connections got wet. Since this is such a text book case I would go back to the DME and your aftermarket chip. Its too big of a coincedence to be something else.

[jasonkirk]

Originally Posted by flyfishvt

This is a text book case of DME getting flooded. This is exactly why they redesigned the drain holes in the cowl. Because they used to get plugged with leaves, needles and stuff. Even without getting plugged the drain holes were big enough to handle most rain storms but couldn't handle a car wash.

I know you said the DME was dry but maybe some of the connections got wet. Since this is such a text book case I would go back to the DME and your aftermarket chip. Its too big of a coincedence to be something else.

I'll definitely look into doing that mod. If I can locate the DIY.