E30 Zone

my car was running fine and i pulled up at the petrol station, got some beer come back out and it wouldnt start!!!

the dash lights come but no fuel pump or power to the starter!!

it had a sigma alarm on it (s**t) i thought this may be the problem so i have tried to cut the alarm out and fear i may have caused more problems, there is a few wires i dont know where they go!!!

could any one help possibly with pictures of the wiring in the passanger footwel or maybe a solution that is not to do with the alarm??

i will get some pictures of the whires with no home and hopefully some one could shed some light on my situation!!!!

chers.

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... Plug_Start

This page is great for diagnosing where problems begin and end. Get your multimeter and test lamp out, and start chasing wires!!

"It wouldn't start!" really is the least amount of information you could give us

Does it crank? Does it splutter? Do you have dash lights? Were you running on vapours before you pulled to the forecourt?

If you think it's an immobiliser then try bridging the coil:

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... re_To_Coil

You do not expect the fuel pump to run until the engine turns over.

Probably the immobilisor....what they normally do is break some wires ie. the Black/Yellow wire to the starter solenoid, the wire to the Main relay etc. Inside the immobilisor they connect these wires together again via relays if the box is happy that you have disarmed the system properly.

So to overide the immobilisor you need to look for all the original BMW wires that go into this box, such as the Black/Yellow wires, cut them from the box and join them back together so that the wires now go straight to their original positions.

Other non-BMW wires going to the box are for power and to activate the relays inside...you should be able to disconnect those wires so the box can now be removed.

Grrrmachine wrote:"It wouldn't start!" really is the least amount of information you could give us

Does it crank? Does it splutter? Do you have dash lights? Were you running on vapours before you pulled to the forecourt?

If you think it's an immobiliser then try bridging the coil:

http://www.e30zone.net/e30zonewiki/inde ... re_To_Coil

i did have dash lights, quater of a tank of fuel, it didnt crank and the fuel pump wouldnt kick in. it was exactly like it would be before pressing the key fob on the alarm which is why i thought it was instantly that.

its an is so there is 4 individual coils on c.o.p conversion.

Fuel pump should only kick in when the engine cranks, so that's normal. This means something is interrupting the starter signal.

Do the Diagnostic Start that andrew_baran links to. If it cranks from there then you have some sort of immobiliser on the starter signal wire which is, I think, black/yellow. If it doesn't crank then there's a problem between the starter and the battery.

Grrrmachine wrote:Fuel pump should only kick in when the engine cranks, so that's normal. This means something is interrupting the starter signal.

Do the Diagnostic Start that andrew_baran links to. If it cranks from there then you have some sort of immobiliser on the starter signal wire which is, I think, black/yellow. If it doesn't crank then there's a problem between the starter and the battery.

when you first turn your car on the fuel pump usually primes up but it doesnt even do this

So does it crank from the diagnostic plug or not?

could some one take a few pictures of the loom in the passenger foot well and post them please, there is a 2 pin plug with 2 green wires i dont know where goes and two wires behind the speaker that go nowhere.

i think my problem may be more servere than than imobiliser as the fuse box smells a little like burnt electrics!!!

what you need to do is logically go through the possibilities to find out, what is causing the problem. Grrrrmachine above is suggesting this, randomly cutting wires and sniffing fuseboxes will not locate the problem.

the first thing to do is see if the engine will crank using the diagnostic plug, if so, this points towards a problem with the starter signal, gradually narrowing the problem down is the best way to solve it.

i will try the disgnostic checks tonight and post the results tomorrow!!!!

Check the fuses - it may just be a simple blown one...

Speedtouch wrote:Check the fuses - it may just be a simple blown one...

all the fuses are good!! first thing i did.

if it is your fuel pump try lifting up your back seat and hitting the fuel pump cover while starting your engine i got by like this for a few weeks

tried the start from the diagnostic plug and all that happens is a relay clicks in the fuse box, bridged the fuel pump relay and nothing!! put power directly to the pump and the pump works?? any ideas?

WEEMANDANBRITTON wrote:tried the start from the diagnostic plug and all that happens is a relay clicks in the fuse box, bridged the fuel pump relay and nothing!! put power directly to the pump and the pump works?? any ideas?

Sounds like you have no power on the red wire to the engine loom.
Check where it connects to the battery + terminal.

As above, check for a broken fusible link in the main power feed from the battery to the ECU.

It is a little flat section within the cable sheath, and they often snap.

I had an E34 535iSE with this fault, which stumped me for a while; I had to run another cable to the ECU to get it to run.

Speedtouch wrote:As above, check for a broken fusible link in the main power feed from the battery to the ECU.

It is a little flat section within the cable sheath, and they often snap.

Not on an E30 iS, there isn't!

Is the car an Automatic? Is it in Park?

An automatic car should start when it is in Park.

Manual!!!

If the thing was an automatic in it's past,then the 'auto inhibit' circuit may still be in place,with a now failed bodge at the gear selector plug...

as far as i know the thng has been a manual all its life, dont think they make the is with an auto box??

That's two separate replies to this thread now, where implausible suggestions have been made as a result of the poster not realising what model this is.
The fact that it's an iS is tucked away in the middle of the thread, but please, when you post a 'tech. query', make it clear in the title of the thread AND the OP exactly what model and age the car is. It makes things much easier.

Sorry it's the first tech I have posted.

The car is a 318is 1990 model face lift

The problem is that when I tried to start the car after pulling up in a petrol station forecourt nothing happened. The dash lights illuminated as they should, I pushed the button on the sigma alarm fob and the pump primed, I went to turn the key and then nothing happens. Turned the ignition off tried again and the pump did not prime and the starter did not engage or turn. Checked all the fuses and relays and they are all good.

Got the car home did the diagnostic checks that were suggested on the thread, bridged fuel pump relay..... Nothing. Bridged the diagnostic plug to try the starter and a relay just clicks in the fuse box and the starter does nothing.

Got an electrician friend coming out this week to remove the alarm properly as I had a go and ain't got a clue where any of the wires are supposed to go so hopefully I will get somewhere after this is done!!!

There's nothing in the passenger compartment that can stop the engine turning over via the diagnostic plug. IF you tried the diagnostic plug start, and heard a click, then that's the starter solenoid trying to engage. The fact that the starter won't spin makes this problem sound simple: you've either got a flat battery, or a loose battery wire.

Have you tried charging the battery?

Grrrmachine wrote:There's nothing in the passenger compartment that can stop the engine turning over via the diagnostic plug.

Unless an over enthusiastic alarm fitter has cut the wire to the diagnostic socket.

IF you tried the diagnostic plug start, and heard a click, then that's the starter solenoid trying to engage. The fact that the starter won't spin makes this problem sound simple: you've either got a flat battery, or a loose battery wire.

Have you tried charging the battery?

This is all true, but if bridging the pump relay produces nothing also, it suggests that the 'loose' wire is the main feed to the engine loom, where it connects to the battery + terminal.

Did you get your car fixed?

right, i have got the car turning over on the key now..... starter motor died!!!
i now have the poblem of no fuel pump and no spark!! i connected the fuel pump straight to a battery which works and tried to start the car but it wouldnt start, pulled a plug off and there is no spark, i did the "bridge coil test" and no lights came on on the dash and it says on there it would be the green wire. when i removed the alarm there was a plug with two green wires on the main loom inside the car that went to the alarm unit that i do not know where they go, could this be my problem as they are not connected to anything at the moment? does anyone know where the wires need to go if anywhere??

cheers.

Yes, it sounds as though the infamous green wire disconnected may well be the problem - a cause of many a non-starting E30.

Do a search on here for green wire, as it's been discussed many times before.

I suspect that the two green wires should be joined together.

the is is alive again, it was a case of just connecting the two green wires!! im happy again now, the wife can have her 206 cc back and i can carry on sideways!!!

thanks for everyones help