BMW E39 528

Pull the fuel pump fuse and give it a long bout of cranking with wide throttle, then replace fuse and try again.

Full throttle is meant to stop the injectors injecting when cranking. Ie, flood clear mode.

that is the theory, in practice is different (from my ford experience)

Right - I can give it a try. But flooring the throttle did work before. Most injection systems have this flood clear facility - even my ancient Rover.

Any comments about the plugs shearing off when you try to remove them? If it's just an old wife's tale, I'll just get some new ones. It's probably about time it had them.

If they were put in with some coppaslip they should still be fine, but plugs can snap off on anything. The only regular cars that suffer plug breakage are those with taper seats and iron heads, like old fiestas. I would always prefer to remove the plugs on anything normal on a maximum two year basis. Although some makes now have 100,000 mile plugs and they still come out ok ! ensuring that the turning force is at 90 degrees to the plug will minimise the likelihood of breakage.

OT a little Something I found out recently is that for diesels that are prone to glow plugs getting stuck they make a high frequency impact wrench to get them out.

Ah, the little victories of urban living...

You win some, you loose some. ;-)

If the parking space is a bone of contention, maybe a peeved neighbour pushed a spud up your exhaust. Although the effectiveness of that is probably an urban myth. Is there anything else someone could do to prevent a car starting, I wonder.

[...]

So 1960's!

Contents of a can of expanding foam up the tailpipe is favourite.

Chris

Like most of my best-retained memories. :-)

Good grief, that's mean. Have you ever seen it done?

[...]

Not personally, but my step-son was an AA patrol for 7 years, and saw it several times on non-start calls.

Chris

Soil can also be quite effective - as I found out when I backed slightly into a grassy bank when attempting a 3(+) point turn in a narrow country lane.

>

+1 my neighbour reverse parked up to a grass bank in a pub car park. The RAC found it quite quickly.

It's not. It is simply the space outside my house on the street. I don't have any legal claim to it, other than paying for a resident parking pass. But I wanted to wash my car, and would rather do that outside my house than someone else's. Besides, my hose won't reach very far. ;-)

I'm under no illusions as to why my car won't start. It's down to a fault in BMW (or Bosch) software.

So went to Eurocarparts to get some new plugs. What make would you like? NGK, I said. After waiting some time, only 5 arrived. Out of stock. Can get them in later today. But the return journey etc takes well over an hour. So asked for an alternative. Their website had a page of choices. Several Bosch, Denso, Beru as well as NGK.

So he gives me NGK BKR5EK.

Get home and look things up. The only NGK listed is BKR6EK. The NGK site only lists that one for my car. There are 9 alternatives to the correct NGK listed on their site. But only the one NGK.

Phone them up. Guy says I will have to pay again to get the correct ones ordered in. I (fairly) politely mention that this is odd, given they have supplied the incorrect parts. He said it wasn't his fault as he didn't serve me.

Last time I used Eurocarparts I did a web order and collect for a car battery. The paperwork was all correct, but they supplied the wrong one. So had to go back to get it changed.

Sadly most of the other generic parts places round here have closed.

Tighten 'em, then.

One of my sister's opposite neighbours has taken to snapping off the wipers of vehicles that park ouside his house. I have got her to install some cctv, just in case it happens again to any more vehicles.

"Oooh, look, the parking space outside the house is empty! QUICK! MOVE OUR CAR IN!" "Hold on... Our car was there. It's been stolen."

New plugs didn't work - even although the old were very wet. Bit of Googling suggested the excess petrol washes the oil from the bores resulting in poor compression. And adding some oil through the plug holes can sort it.

And it did, but only after two attempts. Here's what I did:-

1) Remove plugs 2) Disconnect the loom plugs to the injectors 3) Crank engine on full throttle to expel as much unburnt fuel as possible 4) Insert 3 tablespoons of engine oil to each of the cylinders. I used a funnel with some plastic hose to do this. 5) Crank engine on full throttle to lubricate the bores. 6) Refit new or cleaned plugs. 7) Reconnect the injector looms. 8) Start using about 1/4 throttle. It won't work without. 9) Apologise to the neighbours for the clouds of smoke.