My daughter's 1995 318i crapped out again. She said the idle was a little erratic, then the car stalled. The car had been running for about half an hour by that time, so it was at operating temperature and she had no problem initially starting the car this morning. After the stall she could not get the starter to turn over. I tried to start it, and although the ignition key turns fine, and the dash lights come on, at the third ignition position nothing happens. There is no relay, or solenoid noise, no "clicking" sound...nothing. I have checked the fuses, and they are fine.
Yesterday, I took her car for a wash, but was careful not to get too much water on the windshield area above the DME housing. The production date of the car is May 1995, and BMW says that the DME flooding problem was fixed by that production date, but I am still careful about that anyway. Yesterday, I also sprayed a little graphite spray into the ignition because occasionally the ignition key would not turn in the ignition. Now the key turns fine, but could I have damaged the ignition lock set by using that spray? Would that have caused a poor electrical connection in the ignition?
This car has been running fine for the last two weeks. Before that, the ignition coil-pack had burnt out on cylinder #2, which toasted a transistor in the DME. The ignition coil-pack has been replaced, and I bought a DME from an auto salvage. I exchanged the EPROM chip for the EPROM chip from the original DME, and all worked well, until today.
One other thing, before we bought the car 2 months ago, the starter had been replaced, however, I don't think there is any voltage getting to the starter relay, or the starter now.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks