Will not start! HELP

[Philo]

My car will not start. I did every test in the bentley manual and am still dumbfounded. it is a fuel pump issue. to discover this i tested the line running into the fuel rail, got nothing, then listened for the pump to kick on and got nothing. replaced all relays and fuel pump and the pump will still not come on. i jumped the relay connecting 30 to 87 and it turns on the pump, which is insanely loud (i can hear it standing over 10 ft away from the car). but with it jumped it still doesn't push fuel to the rail, therefore, no start. so i need to figure out why the pump won't come on without jumping the relay and why the pump doesn't . . . well, pump. any ideas?

[jlevie]

Are you sure that there's fuel in the tank? You don't say whether this is a late car with the single in-tank pump or an early car with the externally mounted high pressure pump. In the former case you'd know if there was fuel in the tank when you changed the pump. But in the latter case, a change out of the high pressure pump wouldn't asy anything about the fuel level.

If both pumps are operable, no fuel to the rail with the jumper in place implies a blockage somewhere between the rail and the tank.

[Philo]

the car is an 89. There is fuel in the tank and a replaced the in tank pump already. Today I will replace fuel filter and check the external pump. But this still doesn't explain why the pump doesn't come on without the jump.

[SpecM]

the car is an 89. There is fuel in the tank and a replaced the in tank pump already. Today I will replace fuel filter and check the external pump. But this still doesn't explain why the pump doesn't come on without the jump.

'89s only had the one pump

[jlevie]

'89s only had the one pump

Correct.

[Philo]

yes. I realized my stupidity seconds later. That's why it still says noob under my name. Four people have now diagnosed the car and we believe it to be a problem with the dme. Thanks for the replies. Any other ideas are welcome. will let you know the outcome

[SpecM]

swap out the DME with a known good one, before you bother buying one

[Philo]

Hopefully i can do that. It's hard to find an E30 in KC. I might be able to borrow one from a local shop. Thanks for the advice. The weird thing is that, at the pump relay, i have 12v at pin 30, when i jump 30 to 87 it runs the pump, and when i test 85 to 86 and crank the car i get 12 v. So this leads me to believe that the relay is bad. Ideas?

[Philo]

Ok so i decided to quit trying to figure it out and called in a ringer, jim from MM. He said reference sensor right off the back and was right. But thanks alot for all the ideas. At least now i know everything about the fuel system on this car.