Air leak maybe?

Sat Dec 02, 2017 6:02 pm

I've come to start my car after a good few months. Battery has been charged.

When I turn the key fully the engine turns but doesn't want to start.
I turn the key fully with accelerator fully pressed and it doesn't start until I've let go of the accelerator but it just barely starts.
Sounds like its coughing and has a wine coming from engine bay and after a few minutes the car dies again. Both coughing and wine are constant until car dies.

What could be causing this would it be an air leak in the engine bay? I've tried spraying carb cleaner around manifolds and air intake tube but no difference in behaviour from the car.

Sun Dec 03, 2017 4:19 pm

Also to add, with it started at idle in neutral if I give it has it acts like it's going to die instead of revving up. Would that indicate fuel pump? What things do I need to do in order to troubleshoot what's actually at fault or do I have several issues here?

Sun Dec 03, 2017 7:37 pm

Can't really associate what you describe with an air leak, but then, I can't really picture what you're describing - the only coughing and whining in my cars generally comes from the passenger or rear seats.
Is this an engine temp. related thing? Once it has started, and eventually died, will it start again?
You shouldn't need to touch the accelerator to start a modern car - there's no accelerator pump, like on some carbs., and opening the throttle should confuse the ECU, if anything, by feeding it a WOT signal from the TPS at zero RPM.
A dying fuel pump can sometimes give symptoms something like this - it fails to run when the battery voltage is reduced by cranking, but then bursts into life just after the key is released, giving a little cough of life, but by this time, the engine isn't rotating fast enough to actually start.
A fuel pressure gauge, teed into the supply hose to the fuel rail, with identify this.

Sun Dec 03, 2017 7:45 pm

Love the passenger and rear seats comment Brian !

Hopefully, some more information will be forthcoming from the OP and help may be on hand.

Cheers,

Iain

Sun Dec 03, 2017 7:59 pm

Yh I don't get any whines coming from in the car. I have no seats and only I go into the car at the moment.

It sounds like a pinging I think.

Yh I've turned it off and back on 4 times having to use the same method each time.

I'll be back home on a few hours so will try and will try make a decent enough video in the dark to show as I'm not too good at describing.

Sun Dec 03, 2017 8:05 pm

Ok Brian, over to you !

Sun Dec 03, 2017 10:16 pm

nevermind, came home tried to start it but battery was dying so I've put it back on charge and will try again tomorrow and upload a video once it has successfully started.

Mon Dec 04, 2017 10:52 am

after charging the battery car still doesn't want to start.

You can hear the difference of with accelerator and without accelerator. With it, the car makes more of a rumble.

Mon Dec 04, 2017 5:37 pm

There's no sound on that for me, but I notice the rev gauge is reading 0. Doesn't that point to the CPS? I thought it should read something while cranking?

Mon Dec 04, 2017 7:29 pm

No sound for me either.
Fuel gauge is giving a 'not possible' indication. Needle goes far too high for the low fuel light to be on.
Is it possible that you have the wrong gauge for your fuel tank, and you are actually out of fuel?

Mon Dec 04, 2017 11:33 pm

yes i understood that the crank position sensor should make the rev counter needle move up and down,when cranking the engine.
Have to tried removing the rubber boot to throttle body and spraying carb cleaner in , if engine starts runs a short while then dies means fuel starvation issue.
Have you got a spark ?
for any engine to run you need 3 things money , money and more money, lol ( air, fuel, spark )
would help with sound

Tue Dec 05, 2017 8:51 am

I'll try that tonight. I just spray carb cleaner into throttle body then go in and try starting the car?

For spark I just take the #1 spark plug out of the head and put it on rocker cover still connected to the lead and try starting it and check for spark?

Lol yh I've heard stories of throwing money at them and they transform, I've been throwing money at it but the car seems to be getting worse.

The video had sound when uploaded. Is there another site I can use? I've tried photobucket it showed as uploaded, waited more than a day and it's still not shown up on it.

Tue Dec 05, 2017 11:24 am

yes spray in then replace the rubber boot, car will struggle with out boot fitted too much air. when i did that my car fired immediately and run fine a short while. made me realize i had a fuel delivery issue.

yes thats right i usually duck tape it on something metal, (metal out side of plug needs to touch earth on car body) easier if you got someone to crank engine and you watch for a nice healthy blue spark. ( do not touch it ) . probably better if you can do it in the shade or darker place, so you,ll be able to see the spark easier.

someone else on here is more knowledgeable then me about uploading.
let us know how you get on. test first dont just throw parts at it.

Tue Dec 05, 2017 12:38 pm

Brianmoooore wrote: Fuel gauge is giving a 'not possible' indication. Needle goes far too high for the low fuel light to be on.
Is it possible that you have the wrong gauge for your fuel tank, and you are actually out of fuel?

Tue Dec 05, 2017 3:43 pm

Fuel gauge was working fine (or so i think) when I had the car. The light for it flickers on and off every now and again. I had £15 worth of fuel in it before I parked it up so don't think that would be the issue?

Tue Dec 05, 2017 8:40 pm

Not convinced until you take the supply hose off of the fuel rail, and crank the engine. Hold the end of the hose into a container - if all is well, petrol should flow out at a considerable rate.

Wed Dec 06, 2017 8:54 pm

I cranked the car for a good few seconds and this is what came out: when you said considerable you meant considerably more than this?

http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx29 ... 87inj6.png

Wed Dec 06, 2017 9:16 pm

"A good few seconds" should have half filled that container.
Either that is the wrong hose (should be the one that goes direct to the fuel rail NOT the one that goes to the pressure regulator), the fuel pump isn't working OR "Is it possible that you have the wrong gauge for your fuel tank, and you are actually out of fuel?"
Before you investigate much further, stick a few litres of fresh petrol into the tank. I promise not to laugh if that turns out to be the problem - I was caught out about four years ago, when one of the two level senders in my car got caught around something and stayed at "full". Unfortunately, it was the one that controls the low fuel light, so I has a gauge that said half full, no warning light, but an empty tank (and an engine that stuttered and coughed into life when you tried to start it, before dying.

Wed Dec 06, 2017 9:31 pm

Its definitely the correct hose that goes into the fuel rail from the bulkhead side. What could be causing my gauge to show what it shows if it's empty? New level sender needed?

I will hopefully get fuel into it tomorrow and report back. Although the coughing I described would still happen before after having to set the timing up on it. I suppose we can get into that once I get the car running again at least

Wed Dec 06, 2017 10:08 pm

How did you set the timing up. ? or did you change the timing belt.
ignition timing is controlled by the ecu. via various sensor on the car.

Wed Dec 06, 2017 10:49 pm

I had taken the distributor out of the engine when it wasn't at top dead centre. So I took the rocker cover off, lined up the marks from crankshaft pulley and the ones on rocker cover and then put the distributor back in with the circular thing facing the fuse box.

Wed Dec 06, 2017 10:59 pm

Just looked back over the thread, and I see we hven't been told what E30 model and age it is (or even if it has a BMW engine, for that matter!)

Thu Dec 07, 2017 8:12 am

It's a prefacelift 318i with m10 engine 1987.

Thu Dec 07, 2017 8:36 am

sadham wrote:I had taken the distributor out of the engine when it wasn't at top dead centre. So I took the rocker cover off, lined up the marks from crankshaft pulley and the ones on rocker cover and then put the distributor back in with the circular thing facing the fuse box.

and have you had the engine running since then ?
iirc its possible to get it 180 degrees out.

when you done that was the rotor arm metal tip, pointing to
Number 1 spark plug lead in the distributor Cap. ?
the valves for Number1 cylinder must both be closed and the cam lobes pointing upwards. ( its hard to explain it in words)

the engine rotates twice to the rotor arm,s single rotation. thats why its possible to get the timing out by 180 o

Thu Dec 07, 2017 8:46 am

I did get the engine running although not too great.
I have a video but again struggling to get it uploaded

http://s738.photobucket.com/user/sadham ... h.mp4.html

Fri Dec 08, 2017 8:51 pm

Okay so got it started today after filling up with more fuel. Took a few tries here's a video of the whining sound and the coughing sound I am talking about:

Sat Dec 09, 2017 1:29 pm

Does this now start and run properly, or are there still issues?

Sat Dec 09, 2017 2:43 pm

dies when you let go of accelerator and the whine and cough that the car does while its running.

Tue Dec 12, 2017 5:00 pm

i,m still thinking timing out because you removed the dizzy . did it run o,k before you removed that.

Wed Dec 13, 2017 4:19 pm

Yes it worked fine before removing it. Although when I removed the dizzy I also removed the inlet manifold.

If I get one of those timing lights, do I just rev the car to 2200RPM and adjust the dizzy until the mark shows through the bell housing hole?

Thu Jan 11, 2018 9:09 pm

Update:
I have noticed the injector closest to the firewall wasn't fully seated into the inlet (I've seated it back in). Could that potentially be the cause of the coughing and whining sound?

The wire going from the back of the distributor to the rocker cover was literally hanging from a thread which also separated just from touching it.

I shall update again once I have crimped the wire and put it back on. Hopefully next update will be of the car running perfectly... One can dream.

Mon Feb 05, 2018 8:42 pm

small update:
I have changed the exhaust manifold gasket (previous one was ripped to shreds).

I have also changed the 0-ring seals for injectors.

See video of trying to start it after this:

The car pops and smokes from the air intake tube and there's a small pool of fuel sitting inside the tube.
What could be wrong with this? I'm hoping it's something very simple to sort out but deep down feel like it comes be major.

Tue Feb 06, 2018 10:43 pm

At the start of this thread most of us assumed that the ignition timing in this car, as in most E30s, was controlled by the engine ECU, and not adjustable without altering software.
We now know that this is an early engine, where the ignition timing is controlled by an old style distributor, and is fully adjustable. We also know that the ignition timing has been 'lost', when the distributor was removed.
Are you certain that the timing has been adjusted correctly?