Hey guys,

The car will keep turning over whenever I turn the key. I was low on fuel so I added some more to see if that was it but that solved nothing. Some of the guys at work tried jumping the car but it still just turns over, and the battery is almost dead from starting it. Sometimes while the engine is being turned over, the engine will start for a split second and they just die. The guys at work say it might be a bad coil? Should I switch out the one I have in my 2002 into the 320i? Do you think its fuel or spark related? I also noticed that the boot that connects the fuel distributor to the throttle body is cracked open, but I doubt that can be the cause because the car still started a couple days ago even with that.

Thanks

That crack is vital to starting and running. It's vacuum related and these cars are more cranky (pun inserted) about vacuum leaks as my wife is on certain days of the month.

That being said here's what you HAVE to do before you'll have any hope of success. You'll have to look for ANY cracks in ANY of the vacuum hoses/components. They hide!!! They'll be on the underside of the hose sometimes where it's toughest to see. After you're SURE you have all the worn and cracked hoses replaced then the next things that are vacuum related is the oil filler cap, radiator cap and the gas cap. No, I'm not joking. These cars operate on a "closed" system. What this means is when the car is running and you pull the dip stick the car should die. Just because the car started once doesnt mean that the silly little crack in the intake boot isn't part of the overall problem. Usually where you have one crack there'll be more and until you fix those you'll only put undue wear on your ignition components trying to start it.

Do this. See where you are and then focus on your dizzy cap, rotor and coil if you're still having problems starting and running.

HTH's

Thanks alot!

Cover your crack, dude. :stickoutt

Replaced the hose and it still won't start. We checked the ingintion plugs and they're working fine. I also loosened the intake line to the fuel distributor to see if there was any gas in there, and there was along with alot of pressure ( which I assume is good bc CIS runs on high pressure?). Any ideas what else i could check? Could the WUR, fuel filter, or fuel pump be bad?

I am helping my neighbor with her slick 78 320i, same kinda deal. I replaced the plugs today but to no avail. Turns over very strong but doesn't fire. How do you test the coil? This car has been sitting for a year in the garage so I need to test the fuel, How? Car has 151K miles, nay help is greatly appreciated! Oh all rubber look soft and in great shape as this is a very well cared for car but hasn't been driven in a while.

When a motor doesn't start it's either fuel or spark related. First check for spark by pulling a plug and cranking while grounding it on the valve cover (or pull a boot and ground it with a screw driver). It should be blue hot, not yellow. You can also spray starting fluid in the intake, if it runs on starting fluid you have spark.

If it's fuel related and you have fuel pressure at the fuel distributor, then the fuel is not being injected at the right air/fuel ratio. The first thing to do is check for vacuum leaks. An easy way to do this is (after a visual inspection fails) is to spray vacuum lines, intake boots, intake manifold gaskets, injector seals, etc with starting fluid. If the motor doesn't start that may not work well unless the leak is big enough to let enough fluid in to start the motor (while cranking of course).

You said you saw a crack in the intake boot? If you didn't replace the entire boot you should. The car will never run with a bad boot, and will run like crap with even the smallest vacuum leak.

don't forget the basic stuff too...I cranked and cranked on mine and then discovered the fuel pump fuse wasn't making contact...

I replaced the boot that connects from the air box to the fuel distributor. I'll try looking for other cracks. What confuses me is that the car was running just fine although it took about four to five cranks to start up normally. I just parked it and it stopped working. Where exactly is the fuel pump fuse?

you really need to get a repair manual and a fuel injection manual (with CIS or K-jet included). check out the fuel pump relay thread http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=606386. As for the fuses, they are right in the engine compartment on the left hand side. The cover is labeled, there is a 16amp fuse for the el. fuel pump in the forward left hand side.
Have you tried to pull the cold start injector when the engine is cold and see if it sprays on start up?
Are the plugs wet after trying to start? Do as jrcook says to check for spark. Did I mention to get a manual? Good luck, and check every vacuum hose too.

in your fuse block, well mine is. the fuses on our cars can be very touchy somtimes.
see what kind of spark your getting. and see if the plugs have any fuel on them at all, if your getting fuel and spark i would look at fuel/air or a set of plugs that are braking down under load.
*edit shadetree beat me to some of it*:)

Thanks guys. I replaced the distributor rotor and cap as there was a crack in the distributor cap. The car seems to be alot stronger with firing now, which makes me think that the engine was flooded with all the cranking. To test this i removed the intake line to the fuel distributor and cranked the engine. THe engine started up for a bit and then died, which leads me to think that the engine is flooded. I know for certain that fuel its going through the injector lines because i took them off the fuel distributor and saw fuel in those areas. Im going to try and unbolt all the fuel injector lines and screw the bolts back in, crank the engine awhile and see if i can remove any excess of gasoline that might be in the engine. I'll check the fuel pump relay too. Thanks.

how low have you been running the tank?

The tank was near empty when i parked it. I added a gallon of gas afterwards.

if you come close to running it out of fuel you could of clagged an injector or the fuel filter?
nothing likes running of the sludge in the bottom of the tank:)