E36 no spark issue

[Samiam89]

Hello all. New to bmws but this is my first post. Ive read alot of posts on this form and cannot find anything similar to my issue. I bought a 1995 BMW 318i. I test drove it before i bought it. Its a Manual. So when i drove it i let off the clutch too fast and stalled the car. Now it wont start. When i turn the key the check engine lights flickers some times. I cant get the car to check for codes because the intermittent engine light. If i dhake the fuse box sometimes it will stay on. Anyways the engine will crank but wont start. I started with the fuel pump, removed it from the back seat hooked it up to a battey and its fine. I checked for spark by removing sparkplugs and testing them. No spark. I tested the coil pack. Got no juice from it. I figured ok, went and got new spark plugs, wires, and a coil pack. Still no spark. I tested the all the fuses and no problem. I looked at relays and hot wired the main one to see if it was bad. No change. Im up for any suggestions at this point. I also checked the crank position sensor it was reading between 400-500 ohms.

[Eric93se]

Just so you know that's not how you test a fuel pump. Just because it runs doesn't mean that is develops proper pressure.

No spark can be bad crank sensor.

[ed323i]

One important test is to see if the coils, injectors, idle control valve and all other electronics under the hood get proper +12V with the ignition on.
So, get a multimeter, disconnect the coil pack connector and test if you can find +12V on one of the pins of the coil pack connector (wiring harness side), with ignition on.
Test by connecting one lead of the multimeter to a pin of the coil pack connector (wiring harness side) and the other lead of the multimeter to a good ground point, like one of the three bolts on the strut/shock tower.

If you do get +12V, then the most probable cause is a bad crank position sensor.

If you don't get +12V, then the most probable cause is a bad DME, bad DME relay, bad DME ground wire, or any wiring gone bad w.r.t. the DME. Also check the fusible link in the trunk (or perhaps it's in the engine bay with the 4 cylinder models; search for it on google images: e36 318i fusible link)

If you don't have a multimeter, go buy one ($15 should get you a basic one, that's good enough). If you don't know how to use it, watch some tutorials on Youtube.

This should get you started. Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

[Stephen Max]

I had a no spark issue with my M3. Eventually turned out to be a bad DME relay in the compartment where the DME lives.