Classic Alfa Forums

Calling in the collective experts on here,

I’m having trouble getting my bmw e30 started.

It has been sat for several years, but I’d like to get it moveable again. I’ve put in some fresh fuel, bypassed the fuel pump relay so the pumps are constantly running ( I couldn’t hear them while the engine was cranking ) and can hear fuel flowing around the fuel rail.

I just can’t get it to fire. Even after extended cranking there’s no attempt to start and the plugs are dry.

I undid the brackets so I could pull the fuel rail out of the inlet but doesn’t seem to be any signs of fuel after cranking.

I’m hoping it’s not the ecu, it sits above the glovebox and the inside of the car is dry and all the other electrical systems seem fine so unlikely to be the injector drivers on the ecu I would have thought?

Any other thoughts / ideas?

Hi Harry.
I’d be inclined to reinstate the pump relay to stock. and then check the wiring at the Pump and make sure the pump gets juice (also check it has a good earth very common !!) as you start to crank the engine.
After that I’d look at the TDC sensor. To make sure it’s creating a pulse.
The Ecu needs to see a cranking pulse before it triggers the pump to avoid filling the engine with fuel.

Another thing is has the car got any kind of after market immobiliser
That may of gone duff. These are commonly connected to fuel pump or ignition circuits
I may have a schematic of the std E30 wiring and injection system some where.
I’ll see what I can dig out.

Lou

Good point about the crank sensors, I seem to remember them being a little fragile, probably because the s14 4pot is a fairly buzzy and not particularly smooth engine.

A helpful mechanic told me to remove the tdc sensor and clean the glass , on a twin spark engine.

It was good advice!

Maybe try that first?

Sadly rain stopped play the last couple of days, but crank sensor ( I believe there’s actually two on these ) will be my next step.

Just need to find where they are, no doubt buried somewhere annoyingly tricky to get to under the inlet or something.

The Alfa one picked up its signal from the flywheel.

Not bad to get at if you have 4ft long arms and Xray vision.

Or better done from underneath

I pulled all the inlet off the throttle bodies last night only to then be able to see that they would have been east to get to from underneath

Rain stops play again so I’m off to hide in my shed and polish the spare front bumper which came with the sud.