Car not starting...

[Travis_WA]

Hey guys, bit of a problem with the car tonight. Stopped at a grocery store and when I went to leave, couldn't get her started.

The battery is fine, engine will fire for a couple seconds and then die. If it sits for a few minutes, it runs a couple seconds longer, whereas repeated starts it dies straight away.

Thought it might be bad gas, or the tank being a bit low and the car on a (very) slight incline, but adding another half gallon of gas didn't help.

Currently waiting until tomorrow to get it towed to the indie... Thinking it might be the fuel pump?

I have tomorrow to try whatever I can to get it started and avoid the tow, so any ideas would super helpful.

[bmwrp8]

I had the same problem a couple of years back, check your fuel pump as mine before it was the pump

[Travis_WA]

Yeah, that'll be the first thing I check. Trying to work out the best way to get it towed. Worst part of this might be having to drive the family S-10 around -_- the ride makes me cringe.

[BMWCCA1]

How far away was the store? M50 is known for flooding out after a short hop. Have you checked the plugs? Just a thought from a country away.

[Travis_WA]

Five miles or so. If it was flooding wouldn't it not want to fire at all, rather than run for a few seconds before dieing?

[Travis_WA]

How far away was the store? M50 is known for flooding out after a short hop. Have you checked the plugs? Just a thought from a country away.

Meaning checking the plugs to see if they're wet? I haven't, didn't think to do it the first time. The car wouldn't fire at all the following day though, so would I be correct in ruling out a flooding issue?

[bubba966]

Had this happen on a '95 525iT. Turned out to be a huge vac leak under the intake manifold. The plastic connector that connects the vac line from the ICV to the intake had snapped it's retaining clip off and it's come out of the manifold. $6 later at the dealer and the problem was fixed.

The car was also throwing a MAF code when it was doing this. And the MAF was never the problem (found that out after buying a new MAF after having no luck with a used one).

What code/codes is the car displaying on a stomp test?

[Travis_WA]

Haven't actually gotten my car's stomp test to work, and I've tried several different times.

Just went over and tried to start it again, won't fire at all now. Looking in the bentley real quick before calling tow places.

Fuel filter probably wouldn't have a sudden clog this severe after months of smooth running, eh?

Might try and test the fuel pump relay.

Will definitely check the air intakes again, nothing seemed out of place under the hood when I looked, but it was just a few minutes. Also pumped the little accelerator thing under the hood (don't remember what it's called) and that didn't do anything either.

[bubba966]

You should try asking the local CCA people if one of them's got a Peake you can borrow. I know there's lots of people that frequently step up when someone asks to use one. Just aren't recalling anyone close by you at the moment. I'd take a look at it if you were closer.

And you aren't going to see the connector I said to check just by looking under the hood. It's underneath the intake manifold. Only real easy way to see if it's connected or not is to pull the throttle body off and look into the intake manifold through the hole that the throttle body connects to.

That connector is #9 here http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...24&hg=11&fg=40

and in fact you can almost see the hole for the connector in the manifold in that diagram. Though it might not make any sense if you're not already familiar with the intake manifold and how it all looks when it's pulled apart.

[Travis_WA]

Well, I had the car towed to the mechanic Sunday as I couldn't really leave it there longer, and didn't want to pay for two tows if it wasn't something I could fix at home.

Got the car back tuesday. Was told he found a loose electrical connection, bled the fuel system, and that my fuel gauge was optimistic in its reading. Not sure how low my tank was, but I know it had gas in it.

All was fine until today when it failed to start at the store again. Thinking I'd check the electrical connection I took off the access panel in the trunk (I've since learned this is just for the fuel level sender) and basically jiggled the wire, and then the car started, ran fine, and has since started just fine 5 more times. So, I'm pretty much back at the start, although it's now apparent this is something intermittent.

Thinking it might be the fuel filter, not sure when it was last changed as I've only had the car since June, so I'm going to do that in the next couple days. Possible the tank got low and some water got into the system? My mechanic said he bled the fuel system, but I don't know if that would include draining the tank or not...

So I'm fairly lost again, but at least I now have a photo of my car getting towed -_-