royal
11-16-2006, 08:32 AM
Hi all,
I've been lurking here since buying the car but not posted much until now. What was a couple of fun days fixing the car during my holiday has become a nightmare as I need it for work next week. I'll try to be as detailed as possible, I've done a lot of research on here and also have the bentley manual but the car still wont start.
Quick history - Got the car 4 or 5mths back reasonably cheap due to 205k. I figured being a BMW and full service history it had another 100k lol. It overheated the next week, replaced the plastic waterpump with a metal one and its done 5k miles since without any problems.
The missus was driving the car returning a trailor we'd used to move house. As she was parking the trailor (lots of revving etc as the trailor was heavy, like when you start on a hill) the car cut out a few times. She then couldn't start it so left it while having a cuppa thinking maybe she'd flooded it or something. On return she managed to start it and drove home. On the way it cut out and chugged to a halt, and hasn't started since. The RAC guy had a look at it. He couldn't start it with 'easystart' spray and reckoned it was contaminated fuel. As it was late and he couldn't have checked much I thought this was unlikely. I'd filled up the day before at a busy shell garage and done about 40miles. The garage insisted there was no other reports of contaminated fuel (I guess they would say that though)
To start with I didn't have access to the internet or a Bentley manual so I replaced the DME (white) relay (BMW dealers thought this was the fuel pump one!), and also the light green one which the BMW dealers thought was the main one!, this didn't help.
I checked the spark plugs had spark by removing the coils and grounding them, spark was present.
I then got internet access (dial up :-( in the new house), and got the Bentley manual.
I checked the main relay as per the Bentley manual and had voltage and ground in the right places.
I checked the fuel pump relay and also had the correct readings (I also jumped the pins)
I then checked the voltage at the fuel pump and it was present. This seemed like the fuel pump was dead so I pulled the fuel lines and there was no fuel in the line so I thought that was the problem. It was a saturday and I missed the dealers so I tried fitting a pump from a scrap yard G reg 525 (M20 engine I think?) as I was desperate, which didn't work. On monday I ordered a new correct pump and fitted that. It still doesn't work.
I pulled off the inlet manifold and checked the resistance of the CPS. it was 600ohms which seemed ok (bentley says the m50 should be 1000 odd but on here someone said that this is incorrect and it should be roughly the same as the m20 540ohms?). I didn't think this was the problem as I had spark anyhow but didn't know what else to check.
I've also checked the signals at the ECU plug and they all seem fine. All the grounds are there, the main supply, fuel pump relay comes on at initial start up etc.
I tried jumping the fuel pump relay again and turned the car over but it still doesn't start.
Now and again it will fire on a couple of cylinders or more but wont actually start.
Battery has been charged several times!
Sorry its long but I wanted to get everything I've done in. I'll add to it if I remember anything else. I hope someone can shed some light as I'm desperate to get it running now.
Yours Hopefully!
I've been lurking here since buying the car but not posted much until now. What was a couple of fun days fixing the car during my holiday has become a nightmare as I need it for work next week. I'll try to be as detailed as possible, I've done a lot of research on here and also have the bentley manual but the car still wont start.
Quick history - Got the car 4 or 5mths back reasonably cheap due to 205k. I figured being a BMW and full service history it had another 100k lol. It overheated the next week, replaced the plastic waterpump with a metal one and its done 5k miles since without any problems.
The missus was driving the car returning a trailor we'd used to move house. As she was parking the trailor (lots of revving etc as the trailor was heavy, like when you start on a hill) the car cut out a few times. She then couldn't start it so left it while having a cuppa thinking maybe she'd flooded it or something. On return she managed to start it and drove home. On the way it cut out and chugged to a halt, and hasn't started since. The RAC guy had a look at it. He couldn't start it with 'easystart' spray and reckoned it was contaminated fuel. As it was late and he couldn't have checked much I thought this was unlikely. I'd filled up the day before at a busy shell garage and done about 40miles. The garage insisted there was no other reports of contaminated fuel (I guess they would say that though)
To start with I didn't have access to the internet or a Bentley manual so I replaced the DME (white) relay (BMW dealers thought this was the fuel pump one!), and also the light green one which the BMW dealers thought was the main one!, this didn't help.
I checked the spark plugs had spark by removing the coils and grounding them, spark was present.
I then got internet access (dial up :-( in the new house), and got the Bentley manual.
I checked the main relay as per the Bentley manual and had voltage and ground in the right places.
I checked the fuel pump relay and also had the correct readings (I also jumped the pins)
I then checked the voltage at the fuel pump and it was present. This seemed like the fuel pump was dead so I pulled the fuel lines and there was no fuel in the line so I thought that was the problem. It was a saturday and I missed the dealers so I tried fitting a pump from a scrap yard G reg 525 (M20 engine I think?) as I was desperate, which didn't work. On monday I ordered a new correct pump and fitted that. It still doesn't work.
I pulled off the inlet manifold and checked the resistance of the CPS. it was 600ohms which seemed ok (bentley says the m50 should be 1000 odd but on here someone said that this is incorrect and it should be roughly the same as the m20 540ohms?). I didn't think this was the problem as I had spark anyhow but didn't know what else to check.
I've also checked the signals at the ECU plug and they all seem fine. All the grounds are there, the main supply, fuel pump relay comes on at initial start up etc.
I tried jumping the fuel pump relay again and turned the car over but it still doesn't start.
Now and again it will fire on a couple of cylinders or more but wont actually start.
Battery has been charged several times!
Sorry its long but I wanted to get everything I've done in. I'll add to it if I remember anything else. I hope someone can shed some light as I'm desperate to get it running now.
Yours Hopefully!