E30 Zone

on thursday of last week i drove up to silverstone and then back again in the evening. the car drove fine both ways (about 120 miles each way), then friday morning i went to go out and she wouldnt start.
she's an '88 320i auto touring. ive had start problems since i got it about a month ago, nothing serious it just wouldnt fire straight up, used to crank for a while and then turn over and fire up.
now when i try and turn it over it just cranks and cranks with no fire up. ive got a spark to each cylinder on old plugs and leads (ive now changed the plugs and gapped them just for peace of mind) theres fuel all the way up to the rail (ive changed the fuel filter again for peace of mind and removed the return fuel line fom the pressure regulator and cranked it over and theres fuel out of the return). i noticed that the fuel rail was leaking so i changed the rail, injectors and pressure regulator today and still the same problem.
ive now got it to fire up twice but it only runs for seconds before dying, and it ticks over on what sounds like 300-400rpm idle and thats with my foot right down on the accelerator.

im getting tired of it now so if anyones got any ideas i would be most grateful to hear them. ..... any ideas at all.

ta. pauly

I had what sounds similar, it was my fuel pump. I had pressure in the fuel lines but it would just not start. Occasionally it would sputter but never fire up. It was intermittent too in that it could be driving fine and then just cut out and not start, then all of a sudden it would work. One time there was no pressure at all in the fuel but most of the other times there seemed to be quite a bit. I changed the fuel pump and it's been fine ever since. I think the old one just wasn't pumping strong enough to get the pressure required for enough petrol to be injected to start the car.

You should be able to hear the pump whirring quite clearly without removing it if you remove all the trim required to get to it. If you can't hear it, get a new one from ECP of GSF.

As another thought, have you made sure there are no vacuum leaks? IF it's none of these then I would get the faults read just incase any of the essential engine sensors have completely died - crank sensor I believe will stop it from firing up.

ta for those ideas buddy, i will get a fuel pump and give it a go, failing that crank sensor is next.
ta. for the info.
pauly

mine was ecu prob broken track found it fixed it runs like new now

Fuel pump is a definite possibility. It might run OK when you test it, but, with the engine cranking, it's only getting about 9 volts, so mightn't be quite so happy then.
I came across this one a couple of years ago, and it had me fooled (and testing/changing perfectly good parts) for several hours before the penny dropped!