BMW e30 won't start! What happened and what should I check next?

In My Humble Opinion
1

A little backstory: 1989 BMW 325i that was given to me by a neighbor. This car was not much loved during its hard life. His two kinds both used/abused it when they went to college. Then it sat at his house for a while. He gave it to me a few years ago, telling me he suspected it had a blown head gasket. He didn’t feel like messing with it.

I started driving it short distances to see what it did, and figure out what it needed. No oil/coolant mixing, ran strong, never overheated. Seemed to run pretty darn good, actually.

So I started driving it all the time. Always started right up, ran good. Aside from a couple blown hoses, didn’t really have any problems with it. Despite 170K miles of abuse over its life, it was remarkably trouble-free.

I left it sitting for a couple months recently (unrelated issue). Put in a new battery and it fires right up. Then I did something pretty stupid. I was driving it around and decided I wanted to do a burnout on the newly laid 2-lane highway they just built out here. :stuck_out_tongue:

I hit the rev-limiter two times. No problem. Still ran fine. Drove it the next day. No problem. (this may not be related, but I suspect it is!)

A couple days later, I took an extremely gentle drive, taking the dogs out running. Just kind of idling around in first and second gear. Do it all the time. Pulled into the yard and opened the door and I hear a “tick-tick-tick”, pretty loud. I figure its the fan hitting the shroud. It wasn’t. It was loud, metallic-sounding and coming from the head area. But the car was idling just fine. I shut it down immediately.

Next day, it won’t start. I wanted to diagnose the noise and fix it, figuring it was a valve issue. Car cranks over nicely, but no noise! Huh? Not a trace of ticking/banging/knocking. Well, now what? Checked fuel pump. Works, at least at the filter. Checked spark. Good and strong. Checked compression. Low, but consistent across all 6 cylinders. Cam is rotating, so I’m guessing the belt is intact. Pulled all the plugs, shot a little starting fluid in and NOTHING! Not even a “pop” or “cough”. Oil clean, no coolant detected. Coolant full, no oil detected.

What the heck broke? What should I check next? I’m guessing pull the valve cover, check the cam belt drive gears and timing. But I’m stumped why it ran (albeit with a wicked knock) but won’t even pop the next day!

Despite having and driving this beast for nearly 4 years now, I’ve never really worked on it much, other than belts/hose/oil/tires and wheels* because its always been so reliable*. I really don’t know that much about it! :smack:

So, who wants to play, “Guess the Problem”?

I wanted to post this on the “e30 forum”, but after registering, I have to wait for a “moderator” to “activate” my account. :rolleyes: Still waiting… :dubious:

Makes me want to bump my other rant about other sucky web-sites.

2

I feel your pain. I was going to start a “My golden toilet won’t flush!” thread.
What do you think? Go to a fucking BMW mechanic.

3

Haters are going to hate.

You should get some good info from the E30 forum, give it some time.

If spraying starting fluid doesn’t get it to even cough, it sounds to me like an ignition problem. Try again, spraying the starting fluid in the air box, close it up, and crank it. If nothing, then it is pretty sure an ignition problem.

The BMW forum you singed up for will probably have people who are knowledgeable on your specific model. It might be something as simple as a sensor (throttle position?) that tells the ignition when to fire. See what they say.

BMWs are a bit different than other vehicles. Don’t expect a “we fix all cars” mechanic to be able to figure out what is wrong. Don’t expect a BMW dealer to be able to, either (they only know how to fix the new models, they will be as confused with a 1989 model as they would be with a space shuttle). If you have to take it to a mechanic, look for one that works on older BMWs. Whatever he charges will be cheaper than any other option besides fixing it yourself (and maybe even that).

Good Luck. If it was a '98 instead of a '89, I might have some better advice, but a BMW forum that specializes in your vintage of vehicle is your best bet.

excavating (for a mind)

4

Repeat after me:
Fuel
Air
Spark

At the right place,
At the right time,
In the correct amount

At least one of the above items is not right.

Now go out to the car and start checking them one by one.
Are all of the air ducts to the engine connected? (we will leave off time and amount for right now)
does the engine sound normal when you crank it? NO? you have a timing issue. (right time)
Are the spark plugs sparking? No? Are the injectors clicking? If the answer to both is no, you have a primary ignition issue. If the injectors are firing, but no spark it is a computer/secondary ignition issue (don’t recall if an E30 has coils on plugs or not)
the the plugs wet? Car is flooding.
Check the fuses (long shot, but hey)
Have fun

5

Whatever beefs you may have with another poster, take them to the Pit…but this is unwarranted in this thread. Don’t post like this again.

6

Its people like you that keep Golden Toilet Plumbers in business, because you don’t have the balls or are too stupid to fix a problem yourself. :smiley:

Obviously, you didn’t read the history of this vehicle. Its a toilet, but it sure ain’t golden. ( And, I* am* a Fucking BMW Mechanic. I keep a 2002 that I rescued from a field on the road and a 740 in prime condition (for its age). )

Agreed! (I’m primarily a 2-stroke mechanic, so I can cut that shit in half! :smiley: ) I thought I had all these bases covered, but NOTHING! I even disconnected the battery for an hour or so, hoping some unseen error code would reset, but again, nothing.

My thinking is that the timing somehow jumped (belt slipped? Broke cam?).

Rick, why wouldn’t I hear some obvious noise (like I did when I shut it down) while cranking? Not enough RPM, I am assuming. Something broke loose and was knocking, but won’t be bangin’ at cranking speed.

Valve cover off next? Head? Still waiting on that e30 forum. :rolleyes:

I like the way you sign off with **“Have fun”. **:smiley: Indeed!

I’ve gotta drive that e36 on a little business run for abut 900 miles turnaround, starting tomorrow at 5am, so I’ll check this thread when I get back. Should be about 11 hours. :smiley: Maybe 12 if I stop for lunch/dinner.

I’d like to say a special thanks to Rick who has helped me with mechanical stuff in the past.

7

I didn’t see the mod note till I refreshed. I responded, jokingly. Sorry for that. I’m not tweeked by the post.

8

IIRC, the E30’s still have a good old fashioned distributor. Before you tear the engine down any further, you might want to just confirm that the rotor is pointing at the #1 tower when the engine is at #1 TDC. If the distributor wiggled loose or if there’s something going on internally with it, the timing could be off enough that it still kept running (but knocking) but won’t start cold.

A bit of a long shot, but easy to check. Nice car, though! It’s getting hard to find E30’s with less than 200k on them.

9

Jesus, dude. He’s got a 25 year old BMW that his neighbor gave him after it was beaten on for 20 years. The shit broke. He’s looking for some help, not a BMW dealer. Lighten the fuck up.

10

Distributor? Yes check that. I had a Bosch distributor shaft break on a car once. If it goes far enough out of time it won’t even sputter when cranking.
Assuming you have covered all the bases with stuff intact I would pull the valve cover and front cover (T-belt engine IIRC) and verify everything is lined up AND the valve clearances are at least close to spec.
::: Customer: what is wrong with my BMW?:::
::: Mechanic: I’m not sure but I’ll bet it is expensive:::
:slight_smile:

11

Which injection system is on the car? If it is Bosch K- jetronic ( no electrical connection to the injectors and a fuel distributor) check the boot between the sensor plate and the throttle. If the engine backfired on shutdown it can either blow the boot off or blow a hole in it.

12

I’m a rank amateur but I had a similar problem with my VW that also uses Bosche electrics. My ignition coil housing cracked and was grounding to the body so the car would not start when weather was damp. Now, weather may not be a factor for you but the issue may be similar.

I found this for your model/year: BMW E30 3-Series Ignition System Tune-Up (1983-1991) | Pelican Parts DIY Maintenance Article

“Have fun” indeed. :slight_smile:

13

Gatopescado I know you are having fun, but how about an update.

14

Hey there!

Just got back from my little trip. 820+ miles at an average speed of 73.8! God Bless Eisenhower and his Interstate Highway System! Thankfully, the other BMW is awesome! Got 23.7 mpg with the air conditioner on! That one is the Golden Toilet. :wink:

We’ve got record-breaking temps here right now, so it might be a couple days to tear into the e30. Supposed to get a cooling trend Monday. I’m thinking pull the valve cover first, look for the broken clunker, then verify the timing.

Learned something about a “crank position sensor” from reading the e30 forum threads the other night. I have no idea what it is. :eek:

Thank you all for your support and input so far. I’ll post an update when I get any progress or resolution.

“Have fun” :smiley:

15

A+ in Reading Comprehension. :wink:

Yep. Despite, or maybe because its so beat up, hammered and ugly, yet ran so well, it was one of my favorite rides. It was my “ski car” that I would drive in the worst of snow storms, not afraid to bounce off the odd snowbank or plow thru berms to get where I needed to be. With a set of killer studs I rounded up for it, I was unstoppable! I used it to fill in for the Jeep sometimes and toss the dogs in to take them for a run out in the desert. The seats were so messed up, a little extra dog didn’t hurt them.

If worse comes to worse, somebody in Sacramento has a rebuilt engine listed on Craigs for $500. Then all I would have to do is replace the control arms, fix the power steering leak, maybe some “new”’ hoses and I’ll have an old beat up car! :smiley:

16

I doubt you have a broken cam since you said you have even compression. A broken cam would result in no compression past the break.
If you have spark don’t sweat the crank position sensor. It is a magnetic pickup that tells the system the position and speed of the crank for spark generation.
It’s usually found on the bellhousing. Many cars use a CPS and a cam position sensor, but I seem to recall your BMW just has a CPS.

17

Good to know! Thanks.

Still waiting for approval to post on the e30 forum. Been nearly a week now. :rolleyes:

18

You are barking up the wrong forum. There are several out there, so try another. The large ones will have separate topics for the various models. If they haven’t gotten to you in a week, that is a strong indication that the moderation isn’t strong, so it’s probably not what you want, anyway.

I just scanned one that seems to be associated with Bimmerfest, and a not starting problem on a E30 was suggested to be the crank position sensor (cps). I said throttle position sensor as a WAG, but from what I read, the cps will cause it not to fire if it is bad. It seems it is a common failure.

Good Luck

excavating (for a mind)

19

You’re probably right. The more time I spend looking for answers there, the less confident I feel about it. There are way too many sub-forums and threads get very few replies.

One thread had 2500 views, and *one *reply, that was, “Don’t know”. :rolleyes:

Missed a good opportunity to work on it yesterday. It was rainy and cool, but I had to shove it out of the garage to put my wife’s truck in that had a bunch of heavy stuff in that shouldn’t have been out in the rain. No rain today, but hot as Hades!

20

I went out and pulled the valve cover, expecting to find some kind of carnage. Nothing! No busted rockers, no stray hardware. Pulled the cap, checked the rotor. All good.

I guess its gotta be the timing belt (slipped a tooth?) or some crazy sensor/ecu/computer somewhere.

Found some other fun stuff however. Broken motor mount. Explains why the fan hits the shroud now and then. I’ll replace them if I get this thing started.

For those interested, here is the lovely car in question: PLAN B TRAILER on Vimeo

I really regret renting them this car! :smack: