1990 318i not getting fuel

[BenA]

I've just bought a 1990 318i as a runaround, and I've become quite hooked on it. So much so that I'm considering getting rid of my 'proper' car to get a nicer one.
But anyway, I've hit a problem with my car - it's stopped running!

Basically I drove it from my University in Southampton back home yesterday morning. It did the 100 or so miles without missing a beat, made a quick stop on the way etc.

I got it back to my mates house. Parked outside, then went to start the car up to move it about 30 seconds later. It spluttered and wouldn't fire up properly. It did this a few more times, and since then it's not ran at all

Now it doesn't even try and start, it just turns.

Me and my mate narrowed the problem down to it not getting fuel to the engine. It sparks fine etc, but having taken the fuel pipes off where they go into the engine they are now bone dry when you turn the car over. I've replaced the fuel pump and the fuel pump relay and there's still nothing. You can hear the fuel pump working away when turning the car over but no fuel is getting through. It has plenty of petrol left in it. The pipes don't appear to be blocked (mates dad blew through them and we could hear the air in the tank from the filler cap), and I took the fuel pipe off the bottom of the fuel filter, incase it was the filter that was blocked.

However it doesn't appear to be any of these options so I'm now completely stumped. I've gotta get back to uni tomorrow ideally and I'm now stuck at home!

The car has an immobiliser which hasn't caused any problems before. I also unplugged the battery for about 15 minutes incase it needed to be reset or anything but that didn't help

Any ideas?

Cheers

P.S. I'll post some pics of the car sometime when I'm cleaned it all up

[Brianmoooore]

If the fuel pump is running, and there's fuel in the tank, then fuel should come out of the supply pipe!
Pull off the fuel pipe at the engine end, (the one that DOESN'T go to the pressure regulator, but does come from the fuel filter), pull out the fuel pump relay, and short pins 30 and 87 of its socket together. This should make fuel pump continuously out of the pipe.
If it doesn't, either the fuel pump isn't running, the fuel filter is completely blocked, or there will be a large puddle of petrol under the car.
I was fooled by a duff petrol pump for a while once. It would work when tested as above, but wouldn't start on the reduced voltage available while cranking.