Member
I've been scouring the internet for hours now to no avail so hoping someone could help me out.
About a week ago my fuel pump started to cut off while driving, did it for like 2 minutes and stopped. I pulled over but couldn't find anything wrong so I kept driving and after about 30mins the engine suddenly stalled and wouldnt turn on again.
Turned out the fuel pump wasnt getting any power, and after a couple hours of messing around with it, it started working again. Unsure why but it didn't have any problems after that untill 2 days ago when the car suddenly stalled again, this time without warning and wouldn't turn on again.
All fuses and Relays were fine but I'm getting new Relays tomorrow just in case.
CEL came on and it gave me a code for the crankshaft position sensor and I checked it and it was giving me about 1300 ohms so I swapped it for a new one and the code went away but still wouldn't start.
I couldn't hear the fuel pump turn on so I hotwired it, no help. I unplugged the fuel line at the fuel rail, put the line in a bottle and turned the pump on and it was fine, but there was no fuel in the backpipe when trying to start so I'm guessing the injectors aren't firing either.
Tested for spark aswell and got nothing, all the coilpack plugs are getting 12V but 0V at the coil itself. They all measure about 1.3ohms and I read online it should be around 0.4-0.8 ohms so is it possible that all of the coilpacks blew at the same time?
Tested for the fusible link aswell but it seemed fine.
Tried to disable the immobilizer even though I'm unsure if the car even has one by opening all doors and boot, turning key to 2, disconnecting battery for 11minutes then reconnecting and waiting another 15 minutes and then turning on.
The infoscreen shows a "check coolant" message along with a CEL on startup but it's done that since I got the car and I'm pretty sure it's just a faulty coolant level sensor.
Could it be a grounding issue somewhere? If so how would I go about finding it?
TLDR; No spark, no fuel, swapped CPS, fuel pump is fine, fuses are fine, getting new Relays tomorrow, no error codes.
Member
So when using a multimeter there is internal resistance and in the test leads, this could easily be 2 ohms, to check the internal resistance touch the two leads together. You could then subtract that resistance from what you measured on the coils. Now realize that the resistance check is not a complete understanding of how these coils fail, more typically high voltage jumps to ground through cracks that the eye cannot see and that leads to a weak spark.
To properly check a relay, you would energize the coil with 12v and while energized you would measure the resistance of the two terminals that are the switch, resistance should be less than 2 ohms. Check the relays one a time otherwise you will forget where they go.
Your fuel pump test is inadequate, you need to use a gauge.
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Oh yeah, welcome to the forum!
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Do you have coil over plug? A distributor?
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Member
Got new relays, didn't help although the rev meter jumped on the first start attempt but not after it.
Thanks for the multimeter resistance tip, don't know how I didn't think of that haha but it gave me around 0.7 So The coils should be fine around the 0.6ohm mark.
I can no longer connect the obd scanner and it just says the car isn't responding
I'm starting to suspect a fried DME, is there anyway to check it without buying/borrowing one since I can't borrow one anywhere and shipping is upwards of 2 weeks.
Member
The circuit board of the older e36's are not sealed from moisture so oxide will grow and short things out. Get a can of Deoxit 5% and gain access to both sides of the board and spray it down heavily, use an old toothbrush to scrub it. You can post pics of the board just make sure its in good focus. If you sprayed the board it has to dry out for 24hrs in a warm dry place.
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I took a look at the DME yesterday and it was a Silver Label 402 which confused me since aren't all the pre '95 supposed to have red labels? I opened it and it had 2 circuit boards on top of each other unlike everything I've seen on google with just one circuit board, Didn't take them apart yet since I didn't have time but I'll do it later today to look for any corrosion.
Any explanation for my double layered DME? lol
Member
My 1994/5 has a double layer DME with a white label Siemens 40.1 on it without any red. Even I was surprised to find it's a two piece DME. Not sure if that helps but ye.
Member
So it's not just mine then, good to know.
Thought it could be something like an aftermarket ews but it looked like stock tbh.
I guess the only thing left to do is try with a new DME if I don't find anything obvious inside the current one ;(
Sucks since I won't be able to install it untill after Christmas at the earliest :/
Member
So you will be looking for white oxide.
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So after a busy January I'm back working on the car.
Replaced:
ECU
Camshaft position sensor
Crankshaft position sensor
Still no luck. Most of the times I can't connect to the ecu but when it does it gives error code 26 -control unit input.
Also can't read live data off the crank sensor. Faulty wiring?
Read online that cheap crank sensors (this one was 35€) might not work at all so is it worth it to throw in a more expensive one?
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