318is cranking but not firing.

[jaistanley]

Bloody car just left me stranded at home and my boss on the phone giving me loads of sh!t... I HATE MY CAR.

Anyway: Does anyone have an idea what the following problem is?

The car normally starts on the button.
This morning it turns over but doesn't even try to spark at all.
Battery dies in fairly short time.
Jump'ed it till battery was OK again, tried to fire once, maybe twice then backfired and went back to not even trying to spark.
Occasionally tries to fire once every now and again but otherwise no firing, just turns over.

My guess is the crank position sensor has failed. Is this a safe assumption or are there many other things it could be? It definately sounds like spark as it doesn't want to try to fire. The fuel pump was swapped with one a while ago that was know to be good and I'm pretty happy it's not that, you can hear it prime and after cranking it smells a little like fuel so I assume its getting to the engine.

I dont have any breakdown cover so any help is appreciated.

Many thanks in advance guys!

Jai

[Brianmoooore]

Sounds like fuel pump problems.
Link together 30 and 87 of the pump relay and check it pumps fuel out of the hose from the fuel filter.

[stuartgallafant]

i had this one morning. car wouldnt start and it wasnt the fuel pump. i assumed it was the crank pos sensor, however, when i went to remove the plugs to see if they were actually getting a spark, i found that the sprak plug tubes were filled with oil, due to the rocker cover gaskets being fubared!!

basically, the oil was seeping into the head, and drowning the spark. so check this. it will only take 5 mins to check.

if its not that, then remove all the spark plugs, as they're probably saturated in fuel by now. let them dry, it wont take long, and while they're drying, check for your spark. put it all together and then give it another go

hth

[jaistanley]

Brian:

Well, I'll take your word and give the fuel system the once over tonight.. Best leave nothing to chance. I'm now car-less. Between myself and the chap I go to work with we have 4 cars, An E36 325i, an E36 M3 GT, an E30 318is and an E30 325i. Neither of has a single useable car at the moment!! LAME.

What makes me doubt its the fuel is the complete lack of firing for the most part. My fuel pump recently died and the symptoms were different, the fuel in the line burnt off for a few strokes/seconds rather than just getting nothing...The fuel pump I replaced it with was second hand but out of the 325i and judging by the condition of the rest of the car, had a very easy life.

Stuart:

I popped the HT plugs off and three of them were absolutely sodden with oil (as you suggest) so I cleaned them out.. Thought it might have been that but after I cleaned them, nothing (possibly cos of wet plugs, I left it a while but was in a hurry). Also it was running fine for the early part of this week.. I shall definately take the plugs out and give them a roasting in the oven for a short time too, as well as clean the HT's again. I have a new set of plugs at my mums in essex, if it runs I'll swap them this weekend.

Many thanks for any replies guys..

Jai

[stuartgallafant]

let us know how you get on fella

[jaistanley]

Will do hombré...

Annoying thing is that last week I was trying to swap the 325i into the 318is with a manual gearbox I bought (plus flywheel etc) but the exhaust fell off the iS as well as other irritations so I didn;t have the chance. It's a mint 65K M20 engine and I doubt it'd have broken down! Lame.

Jai

[stuartgallafant]

shit happens, doesnt it!!

[schuey]

Had similar sh1t with mine for ages turned out to be the DME relay.

Take off the plastic cover that runs along the bulkhead between the battery and diagnostic plug,and its the white relay in there. I replaced everything but that was the problem.
I found some in a scrappy,but bought a new one from the main stealers for about Ԛ£9