E30 Zone

my e30 325 isn't starting, fuel pump not kicking in and no spark. car turns over but wont fire. lived the pump up and the pump kick is fine. checked the power to the relays and there's no power going to them.
had similar hassle with the car just over a year ago and I think it turned out to be the fuse coming from the battery in the boot, last time the fuse wasn't replaced it was just bridged over and I never got round to fixing it, it just got forgotten about. just if anyone had any ideas that could help, last time the forum definitely helped me out, thanks

Not actually checked the coil yet just been going to it in between stuff when I've had a chance. No power supply to the pins the relays plug into. How do I check the battery supply to the relays? I followed the wire from the boot to the bulk head, goes to the live point under the bonnet then it goes into the loom from that

Hello Bob,
The problem that you described happened to three of my e30's.
I believe that this is a common problem with the six pots and going by your symptoms I believe there is a problem with your front crank sensor, usually the plastic retainer that holds the wires that come from the sensor pass across the front pulleys and they rub on the pulley and "short out" messing with the signal to power the fuel pump. These wires can be repaired, insulated & cable tied away from the pulley.
If the wires are fine, then it would just be a faulty crank sensor.


I hope this helps

Bry

^^fuel pump on e30s only run when they detect a signal from the crank sensor.

i found it out a while ago as these days cars prime on ignition e30s dont and only run when cranking over unless thats bull**** what i found out lol

How can I trace the wire to the relays? Is there a clear live coming up to the 3 realys, I've tried starting it with a booster pack under the bonnet with that small wire connection lived up so I'd have completely bypassed the fuse in the boot. Il try get a look at it today and check the crank sensor wiring. If the wires are fine is there anything in particular I should be looking for with a multimeter over it or would any signal mean it's fine? Thanks guys

do you have an alarm in there? where you located could lend a hand of your not a mission away mate

willnz wrote:With ignition on, is there 12v at the coil?

When you say there is no power to the relays, is this at pin 86 of both the main relay and the fuel pump relay? If this is the case, you need to check the supply from the battery as both these relays have pin 86 connected directly to the battery.

THIS! Approach the problem logically and methodically, and don't start randomly testing various items. That approach often results in you ending up with additional faults on top of the original one, or an accidental temporary cure of the problem, which will return at some inconvenient time.

Not had a chance to get another look at the car yet. I'm down in North berwick out past Edinburgh. I've yet to check the coil but all this has happened before like I said and it turned out to be the fuse in the boot. The fuse was bridged over and I don't know what would blow next in the circuit or what would cause it to blow. Put the car on the road last February and it's not missed a beat since

The fusible link in the boot was fitted solely to protect the smaller of the two cables running from the boot to the engine bulkhead, although it can be blown by faults on the engine loom as well.
These faults are likely to be of the chaffing wire/shorting to body variety, so bypassing the link is risking a fire, which your insurance wouldn't be interested in paying out for.
A blown fuse is NOT a fault - it's an indication of a fault.

What faults can blow that fuse or what wires do I need to check. From what I can see the looms all insulated so I wouldn't want to start opening up random bits haha.
The last time this happened the car had been in bits getting work done and the fuse blowing was put down to that. The car has ran spot on for a year since

If work was being done at the time, then the fuse blowing could well be down to someone's carelessness, so I'd just get the fusible link replaced, just in case there was another reason.
The most likely cause of this fuse blowing in cars of this age, would probably be halfwit welders, who don't think about what might be on the other side of the metal they're about to get red hot.

There was care taken when the work was previously done but the fuse was bridged over to eliminate that from the equation and just never got replaced properly. Is there not a wire that breaks that typical to the problems I'm having? I know what you mean with 'halfwit welders' you wouldn't believe some of the things I've seen but luckily the work on mine was done by myself and I'm a time served panel beater and work as a classic car restorer so there was care and thought put into what was being done. Was hoping there would be a common fault and it would be an easy fix haha