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[jonnyhall]

Hi, i own an E36 BMW 325td and knowing that it shares the same engine as the Omega and landrover i was wondering if i could pick anyones brains for potential solutions to my problem:

I'm desperately trying to find suggestions on what this problem might be.  It broke down yesterday about 150 miles from home without any warning.  The car has always been great, starting instantly and ticking over well and running smooth.  My partner was driving at the time and she said that the car just lost power and wouldn’t start up again.  The symptoms are that the car turns over well as normal, (i always wait for the heater plug light to go out before trying) The car then begins to fire intermittently, but never enough to start.  If i keep the starter motor turning then it fires occasionally but will never pick up.  I've been scouring the BMW forums for clues, but all i can find are issue's with the tank lift pump and hot/cold starting problems. Seen as this was running at the time it died I’m ruling out the lift pump (although diesel level was low).  

Any suggestions/test i can do to diagnose the problem would be useful.  The first place i'm going to look is whether diesel is getting to the pump.

thanks

Jon

[Marks DTM Calib]

Diesel to the pump is an easy one to test.

These lumps are a bit ficcle....not the greatest. Common to see worn and stretched chains at higher mileages and/or poorly serviced examples (they realy need 3k oil changes to keep them tip top) which can reult in the pump timing and/or cam timing going very out!

I assume by the lack of horrible noises that there are no holes in the block!

[TheBoy]

Don't discount the lift pump - not sure on reliability of BMW ones.  When the engine is running, the lift pump does little, with the main injection pump doing all the work.

Again, not sure if you can 'paperclip' the beemers, about 50% of Omegas with that engine you can, and virtually all range rovers it would appear.  See a post called Paperclip/Pedal Trick in the Maintenence Guides section on this site.

Although supposedly self bleeding, if its run very low, you may need to bleed.


Will it start if you give it severl lots of glowplug time before attempting to start?  If so, glowplugs or coolant temp sensor.


Hope that helps a little

[TheBoy]

Diesel to the pump is an easy one to test.

These lumps are a bit ficcle....not the greatest. Common to see worn and stretched chains at higher mileages and/or poorly serviced examples (they realy need 3k oil changes to keep them tip top) which can reult in the pump timing and/or cam timing going very out!

I assume by the lack of horrible noises that there are no holes in the block!

In addition, but related, is broken chain guides (seems to happen if chains wear too much) may cause it to jump a tooth.  You may get it to run if this happens, but virtually no power, and difficult to start.

Sadly, the chains on this lump are a pig to replace, or even check, as the head and the sump have to come off.  Not BMW's cleverest design!

[Omegatoy]

sounds like a fuel problem to me? think i would start by replacing fuel filter with a full one and see if it fires up as we did on the boys when his fuse went to the pump!!!

[dieseldean]

could just be the filter on the lift pump in the fuel tank. don't know how easy on bmw but on omega it's just a ten minute job (but smelly)to remove and clean.