NON STARTER

[jacko]

Good morning everyone, happy easter. My friends 325i 1990 decided it was going to be a right pain and not start a few weeks ago, yesterday we decided to find out why. After swapping bits over (ECU, relays etc. also have good spark), we figured out that there was no fuel getting through, is it down to the pump itself or is there something else we should be checking? Any advice gratefully recieved, cheers.

[sibzilla]

check fuse #11 first - sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs, but it might save you some hassle if you overlooked it

[jacko]

cheers sibzilla, when it comes to e30's i do need teaching, but in this case the fuses were one of the first things we checked.

[sibzilla]

lol I knew it as soon as I hit the submit button! I'm new to all this myself, but can you hear the pump prime when you turn the ignition on (but don't crank the starter)? Could be indicative..?

Hopefully you're next reply will be from someone who's not me and knows what they are talking about

[jacko]

to be honest no i cant hear the pump prime but nor can i on mine, which is running!

[Globulator]

Assuming there is petrol in the tank, pipes take the fuel to the pump, the pump via pipes goes to the big filter, more pipes (usually perished ones) take that to the fuel rail, through that to the regulator, and more pipes from there back to the tank.

Any one of those could be blocked, failed although that is less likely to prevent starting on the return side.

So the main suspects are tank, piping, pump and filter. If it ran fine up to switching it off and now it won't start I'd suspect the pump, but I'd make sure first (maybe you can try feeding it 12v directly?) as it doesn't look like the nicest job in the world.