05 525i E60 cranks over, but will not start - New CPS and checked many other things

[Sbanker123]

My E60 525i that I recently purchased will not start but cranks over. I will be very detailed so people can understand as much about this topic as possible. Sorry for the lengthy post.

Things I have done to it or checked so far:

• New head gasket - Machine shop checked head and resurfaced it. Timeserts in all holes after finding a couple that were stripped out. It did run rough and smoked like crazy when I first finished it but assumed it was bad fuel as it was about two years old and that the white smoke was due to the leftover coolant in the exhaust, cats, etc. It only ran for a few minutes before I decided to replace the fuel as it was not running well at all.
• Drained fuel tank and replaced fuel by pulling fuel pump. It seems to me that once I pulled the fuel pump and filter, drained tank, and refilled and replaced the pump and filter, it never started or fired again.
• Checked fuel rail for fuel and it has plenty. Also pulled fuel line in engine bay, turned on key and fuel pumped into container nicely.
• Pulled all injectors and ran some injector cleaner through them while actuating them using an injector firing tool.
• Charged battery - The battery is not new and was not for this car and does have a lower CCA than specified. How important is this to make it run? Car turns over fine.
• New Crank position sensor - I checked the old one and it seemed somewhat intermittent so I got a new one which acted much like the old one and didn't start or create spark at a grounded plug.
• Compression check - 180 psi in all six cylinders.
• Checked ground for engine and ran another one using battery jumper cable just to be sure.
• I have a basic OBDII code reader and no codes are showing up at the moment. There have been codes since the head gasket including the following but all have been reset and not coming back yet. (P1511 - No DTC definition found, P1453 - No DTC definition found). These may have been from me having something unplugged when I was trying to diagnose the no spark issue.
• Checked for spark by pulling plug and grounding while using coil pack but no spark present. It is not firing and I don't believe the injectors are because it is not flooding fuel into cylinders.
• I checked fuses in the trunk, glove box and small black box under the hood with four 30 amp and one 20 amp fuses. Fuses under the hood were very corroded so I pulled, cleaned and checked both sides for power after reinstalling. All were fine.
• I have not checked any relays yet and would like some input on which ones to check.
• There is a connector to the AC compressor that is not installed as the connector is broken but it was not connected when it first started after the head gasket.

Ideas and suggestions are very much appreciated. What can I check next?

[bmwdirtracer]

This is what you are chasing, forget everything else:

New Crank position sensor - I checked the old one and it seemed somewhat intermittent so I got a new one which acted much like the old one and didn't start or create spark at a grounded plug

I'm not saying that the sensor is bad; I'm saying that you need to chase spark - not fuel, not compression, not the battery.

Did you buy an OEM crank sensor by VDO/Siemens or in a BMW box? Or did you buy a cheap one from the local auto parts store?

[Sbanker123]

I didn’t buy an OEM sensor. I’ve never had an issue with aftermarket. Probably a mistake. How can I check it to be sure it’s this? It starts at 5 volts when not engaged with metal and drops to .22 volts with metal in front of it. New one does this more consistently but does not drop to 0 volts.

[Sbanker123]

I think sensor is fine. Registers the RPM on my code reader fine.

[bmwdirtracer]

Do you have spark?

[Sbanker123]

No spark at plug removed from head, held in coil and grounded. I tried several coils and coil positions. No spark.

[Breeze1]

• Drained fuel tank and replaced fuel by pulling fuel pump. It seems to me that once I pulled the fuel pump and filter, drained tank, and refilled and replaced the pump and filter, it never started or fired again.

Are you sure you actually tried starting it between the replacement of the fuel pump and the CPS? If you did and it didn't start, something might have gone wrong when replacing the FP

• Checked fuel rail for fuel and it has plenty. Also pulled fuel line in engine bay, turned on key and fuel pumped into container nicely

It could have been residual fuel that was in the line? I don't know if in the E60's case, the FPR or a secondary FP could have pumped the remainer of the fuel while the primary pump was not functioning

• Checked for spark by pulling plug and grounding while using coil pack but no spark present. It is not firing and I don't believe the injectors are because it is not flooding fuel into cylinders.

I'm tempted to link that to the no spark issue. Spark occurs after cylinder filling, to ignite the mixture. If the DME has a function to prevent spark in the absence of mixture in the combustion chamber, replacing the FP could have triggered a "no fuel / no spark" issue.

• I checked fuses in the trunk, glove box and small black box under the hood with four 30 amp and one 20 amp fuses. Fuses under the hood were very corroded so I pulled, cleaned and checked both sides for power after reinstalling. All were fine.

Corrosion could be the cause as well. Have you checked your DME, its connectors, the engine harness?

[bmwdirtracer]

No spark at plug removed from head, held in coil and grounded. I tried several coils and coil positions. No spark.

The very next step has to be connecting the car to a good BMW specific scan tool / diagnostic computer. This may be an issue with the CAS. (Car Access System.)

[Sbanker123]

I was not able to get spark after the fuel pump which did involve disconnecting the battery, charging it, etc. It seems to me to be due to something I did during this work like maybe sending a surge when I reconnected the battery that affected the DME. These past few days while I was away, I let it sit and the battery was dead when I returned. When I put a charger on it, the idle control valve stayed humming which I believe was the cause of the drain. I guess the next step as BMWDIRTRACER suggests below is to get someone with a BMW diagnostic device to hook up to it and see what is going on. If anyone knows of an inexpensive one, please share a link for me and I may buy it.

I have checked to some extent the harness and really don't see any sign of more corrosion but I could be more thorough. Last night I pulled all relays and verified they were functioning properly just to have that done with.

I was told by someone off forum to disconnect the battery, connect the cables for an hour or so to reset everything. Does this actually work?

Thanks for the comments everyone. Keep them coming please.

[Breeze1]

I was not able to get spark after the fuel pump which did involve disconnecting the battery, charging it, etc. It seems to me to be due to something I did during this work like maybe sending a surge when I reconnected the battery that affected the DME. These past few days while I was away, I let it sit and the battery was dead when I returned. When I put a charger on it, the idle control valve stayed humming which I believe was the cause of the drain. I guess the next step as BMWDIRTRACER suggests below is to get someone with a BMW diagnostic device to hook up to it and see what is going on. If anyone knows of an inexpensive one, please share a link for me and I may buy it.

I have checked to some extent the harness and really don't see any sign of more corrosion but I could be more thorough. Last night I pulled all relays and verified they were functioning properly just to have that done with.

I was told by someone off forum to disconnect the battery, connect the cables for an hour or so to reset everything. Does this actually work?

Thanks for the comments everyone. Keep them coming please.

Disconnecting the battery probably won't change a thing. You need to reset adaptations using a diagnostic tool, but the only thing that will solve the issue is obviously to find out what's causing the no spark issue and addressing it. If you want to save money on the long run and be able to run as many diagnostics as needed yourself, either get one of the dedicated scan tools (just make a search by keyword and you'll find plenty of options mentioned here) or better yet, if you have a laptop, install INPA and get an OBDII/K-line cable, which are very cheap:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/FTDI-FT232R...cAAOxyUrZSpypA

https://www.alibaba.com/product-deta...59097b56DRnNrY

328Power04 has written up a great tutorial on how to set everything up (I hope he won't mind) : https://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/s...xperimentation . It applies not only to Z3's but to all OBDII equipped cars.

If I were you I'd double check everything done so far (especially wiring, connectors, grounds...) and as bmwdirtracer said make a proper diagnostic before venturing any further.

[Sbanker123]

It appears the battery reset trick worked. Fired right up when I got home and reconnected the battery and reinstalled the plugs and coils. Maybe it was the coil connections but I don’t think so as I couldn’t get spark on any of them. And I ordered the software and cable today. Thanks for all the help and I’m a litttle surprised too. But at least she runs!

[Breeze1]

Good to hear it worked! All the best!