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Thread: 328i not starting

  1. #26
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    UK
    Posts
    1,303
    My Cars
    1995 BMW 328
    Well think about it dude, does the relay not put +12 to the DMW because...……..
    The relay isn't working?

    Or

    There isn't power to the coil in the relay to make the relay click?

    OR

    There isn't a +12 on the side of the relay it switches

    This is basic "how a relay works" stuff
    No warranty of any kind implied or given and no liability for any loss, damage or injury, no matter how incurred accepted.

  2. #27
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Location
    Belgium
    Posts
    18
    My Cars
    1993 BMW E36 328i Coupe
    Problem solved, one of the 2 red/white wires going to the 87 pins on the main relay was cut, soldered and taped up. But that wire broke right next to the solder, ffs..
    And after all that, the car still has backfires so the wireharness transplant has been for naught.

  3. #28
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Location
    Tenerife, Spain
    Posts
    628
    My Cars
    1997 BMW E36 323i
    Congrats! That's a major step ahead.. I hope you manage to fix the dead solder joint in a way that it's gonna be stable for the next years.. It's a really important 12V wire in the DME relay.

    One problem solved.. Now the next one.
    Easiest would be to get a Windows laptop, USB-OBD (VW) adapter cable (FTDI232 chipset) and 20 pin-to-OBD connector, and then run INPA on the laptop.. Then you should be able to see quite quickly what's going wrong.

    Did you try running the engine with the MAF connector disconnected? If it improves a lot, then it probably is the MAF. Easy, simple, quick test.

    Big backfiring could also be caused by a really big vacuum leak, like in the rubber tube to the ICV being loose (I once had that and the engine wouldn't even start anymore and had really loud backfires in my ex 525i M50 E34).


    1997 E36 BMW 323i
    (European) 275k km (171k miles), with following small mods:

  4. #29
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Location
    Belgium
    Posts
    18
    My Cars
    1993 BMW E36 328i Coupe
    Quote Originally Posted by ed323i View Post
    Congrats! That's a major step ahead.. I hope you manage to fix the dead solder joint in a way that it's gonna be stable for the next years.. It's a really important 12V wire in the DME relay.

    One problem solved.. Now the next one.
    Easiest would be to get a Windows laptop, USB-OBD (VW) adapter cable (FTDI232 chipset) and 20 pin-to-OBD connector, and then run INPA on the laptop.. Then you should be able to see quite quickly what's going wrong.

    Did you try running the engine with the MAF connector disconnected? If it improves a lot, then it probably is the MAF. Easy, simple, quick test.

    Big backfiring could also be caused by a really big vacuum leak, like in the rubber tube to the ICV being loose (I once had that and the engine wouldn't even start anymore and had really loud backfires in my ex 525i M50 E34).
    I wanna thank you for your help man, might have been a really stupid thing that went wrong but I did learn quite alot along the way.
    Ihave a Delphi program on my pc to diagnose a car but it couldn't read into my car, I'll look into INPA.
    I don't think it's a vacuum leak, because I couldn't immediately find one at first, which was the sole reason I swapped the wiring harness in the first place, but could a small leak cause backfires as well? Perhaps it's the ICV itself, I did clean it but I have no idea on how to check if it's still okay..

  5. #30
    Join Date
    Oct 2016
    Location
    Tenerife, Spain
    Posts
    628
    My Cars
    1997 BMW E36 323i
    A bad ICV would cause a low, high, or unstable idle, but not backfires. I just thought of something: I think you need to check the fuel pressure in the injector rail. In my case the backfires happened due to a very lean mixture (unmetered air entering through a big vacuum leak, DME thinking a lot less air enters based on what the MAF says, and orders the injectors to spray too small amounts of fuel, causing backfires).. So, if your fuel pump, fuel filter or fuel pressure regulator are bad, then it can also cause lean conditions, and backfires. In European M52's the fuel pressure regulator is on the injector rail near the firewall (in US M52 cars it's below the floor of the car I think).. With the right fuel pressure tester you can easily connect the tester to the fuel rail (there is a little screw on the front of the rail). See if you get 2.8 bar at idle, and 3.5 bar at load. If so, then the fuel pressure is fine.

    Update: It looks like you might have the M50 fuel rail. Then there is no screw on it, and you need to use a T-piece to connect the fuel pressure meter in between the fuel rail and the fuel hose coming from the fuel filter.
    Also, with the MS40 DME (M50tu) I'm not sure if the cheap OBD-USB cable works, or if you need the more expensive ADS cable and an old laptop with real serial ports.
    Last edited by ed323i; 08-16-2018 at 07:41 PM.


    1997 E36 BMW 323i
    (European) 275k km (171k miles), with following small mods:

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