E30 318i (M10) won't start. Any ideas?

[m3t4lm4n222]

Hello,

So my younger 16 year old brother has a 1984 BMW 318i with an M10 and 5 speed manual transmission. The other day, he was driving and his car randomly shut off and would not start back up, so we had it towed back to our grandmothers.

The car cranks, is getting spark, you can smell fuel, but it simply won't start. We initially replaced the ignition coil, the car will still not start.

Any ideas of what could be causing this? Thanks for the help!

FYI:He claims it shut off when he was upshifting and let off the clutch.

[ahlem]

Where did you check for spark? At each plug? Pull the plugs and see.

[m3t4lm4n222]

Where did you check for spark? At each plug? Pull the plugs and see.

We checked at the plug, however we only checked the spark on one plug. We also checked the plugs, they're fine. They where replaced back in December.

[m3t4lm4n222]

BUMP:

Car still not starting. Cranks for days. So far the following things have been replaced:

Battery (Tested original, failed)

Ignition coil


Any ideas? Car has spark and fuel. We did find that the spark plugs had some oil on them, cleaned them, replaced them, car still won't start.

[gettinscurvy]

I'm personally invested in this issue. Mine does the same thing, but has never started since our engine swap. GL!

[rommaster2]

Did you check ignition timing

[m3t4lm4n222]

I know this is an old thread, it turned out to be the ignition rotor. It was actually the first thing we looked at back then, but after we lifted it up, we found a small amount of plastic to be warped. After replacing it, it started right back up.