E36 323 Engine wont start

Hello,

I have a 98 E36 323 auto coupe have owned it for around 1 and a half months and all has been ok until this weekend. The car was moved from one side of the drive to another and sicne then we have been unable to get it started.

When we turn the ignition on the starter turnes over and try's to get the engine going but failes. We have checked a plug and it seems to sparks ok. I have had the Green Flag guys out and they said it could be the engine??

On the dash the oil and batter light stay on - the spark plugs seem to work and there is oil in the engine.

Any ideas of what this could be or what I can do before I get it taken into the garage ??

Any help would be appreciated.

Reply to
Mark
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The engine is flooded. You need to spin the engine over with (IIRC) the fuel pump discionnected (e.g. remove a fuse) and then try putting the fuse back.

It's a bit hit and miss but this exact same thing happened with my E39 and the AA guy knew exactly what had to be done. Took quite some churning to get it alll sorted out so you may be advised to use some jump leads as well (careful they don't get too hot though if they are poor quality).

NEVER move the car such a short distance unless you are prepared to leave it running until it reaches some level of normal operating temparature.

This will definitely be the problem.

I may not have all the facts right but, in principle, this is what you need to do.

Reply to
Jeremy

Thanks - I will give that a go and see if that sorts it.

Reply to
Mark

I had the same problem with my 525i E34. I simply floored the accelerator, and kept trying with the starter. Took some minutes, and nearly flattened the battery, but eventually it fired up. As Jeremy says, avoid starting the car and only running it for a minute or so, otherwise it'll do it again. :-) Mike.

Reply to
Mike G

Fek me, I just had exactly the same problem (must be the weather) and cause and car (sounds eerily familiar)! I got it going using similar techinque see 'E36 spinning on starter' for full explaination.

Its not so much flooded, its more 'oil washed away and losing compression'.

If its not working try a fresh battery from another car (driven recently).

-- T>

Reply to
Tony

Thanks a lot for your help guys have got it going again now. In the end we had the plugs out - put a bit of oil in each cylender and turned it over a couple of times without the fuel pump. Next we put the plugs back in (warmed up & dry) and managed to get it ticking over.

Thanks again for your help.

Mark

Reply to
Mark

We're having a bit of a debate on the other thread whether is is compression lost caused by lack of oil on the rings or 'confused ECU'.

I don't suppose you did a compression test? Do you think the oil restored compression?

-- Tony

Reply to
Tony

It is a pain, though. Many have to take their car out of say a garage or driveway onto a public place and don't fancy leaving the engine running (it's illegal in the UK anyway) while they lock up or close gates etc. I've not owned another car which does this.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Neither have I, and like the OP I only became aware of the problem when it happened to me, with the E34. Even if one only needs to move the car a short distance occasionally, to have to guard against it refusing to start, by leaving it running, is something that isn't normal, and something that shouldn't be necessary for any car. I'm not so sure it is a flooding problem. I moved the E34 one evening, and it was next morning when it wouldn't start. IME after such a long period, any initial flooding tends to clear itself. Also with a wide open throttle, it doesn't usually take that long to clear a flooded engine. All told, it took several minutes of churning the starter, before my car fired up. I had a good battery, but towards the end, the starter was slowing down, so to avoid flattening it altogether, I connected another good battery in parallel. It still took another couple of minutes before it started to fire. Until then it hadn't fired once. And it still took a further minute or so of churning before it fired enough to keep running. ECU? Mike.

Reply to
Mike G

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