I'm New - Hoping Someone Can Help

[Bimmerknut]

Okay fuel to the rail is NOT the issue now. I just checked using the wife to turn the ignition on. I hear the pump just fine and the Schrader valve shot fuel up with a lot of velocity so getting fuel doesn't seem to be the issue.
What else should I be looking at? How do I test for spark on this car?.....I'm old school. My Bimmer still has points even though it's fuel injected.

[gadget73]

Check the crank sensor and the connector for it. If thats not working, you'll have no spark, no injector pulse, and not much of anything else. It lives on the passenger side, down towards the bottom sort of near the AC compressor. Its on the back side of the crank pulley, mounted to the front side of the motor. The connector should be right on it. May be worth pulling and re-connecting that plug just to knock loose any corrosion.

[Bimmerknut]

Check the crank sensor and the connector for it. If thats not working, you'll have no spark, no injector pulse, and not much of anything else. It lives on the passenger side, down towards the bottom sort of near the AC compressor. Its on the back side of the crank pulley, mounted to the front side of the motor. The connector should be right on it. May be worth pulling and re-connecting that plug just to knock loose any corrosion.

Jacked up the front end and checked the connector to the Crank Position Sensor. It looked fine. I reseated and tried to start the engine but no-go. I thought to check the fuse for the CPS but I have no idea which fuse it is. Do those sensors go bad very often?

[gadget73]

sometimes they give up. There is no dedicated fuse for the CPS, it feeds straight to the PCM. There has to be some way to test them, but 1998 is well into the land of more modern than I really know very well.

[Louis]

Did you check the PCM fuse? It's a green 30 amp fuse, 3rd down, middle row.

[Bimmerknut]

Did you check the PCM fuse? It's a green 30 amp fuse, 3rd down, middle row.

Yeah, I did and it looked in great shape.

[85crownHPP]

It acts like it WANTS to fire just like it did before when I would spray starting fluid in the line it would run. It seems like it's starving for fuel.

Does it still run off some spray? You've got spark if it does. You can get a 'noid light' to check injector pulse pretty cheap too, 10-15 bucks. It's just a little doo-dad with a light bulb in it that you plug into an injector connector, it will flash-flash-flash when you crank if you have injector pulse.

Also, it could be that 5 year old gas in the gas tank too...

[Bimmerknut]

Does it still run off some spray? You've got spark if it does. You can get a 'noid light' to check injector pulse pretty cheap too, 10-15 bucks. It's just a little doo-dad with a light bulb in it that you plug into an injector connector, it will flash-flash-flash when you crank if you have injector pulse.

Also, it could be that 5 year old gas in the gas tank too...

Crown the gas is less than a year old. It SHOULD be trying to fire even if the gas is a year old. I'd never use 5-year old gas. I had the tank cleaned when I dropped it to put in the new fuel pump inside the tank. I'll go check out O'Reilly's and see about the solenoid tester. Are you saying then that just because fuel is getting to the rail doesn't mean it's getting to the injectors?

[jaywish]

It may not be getting out of the injectors and into the intake.

[gadget73]

Its possible that the injectors are gummed up bad enough to not move any fuel. I had missed that it would start on fluid. If it will, its got spark but no fuel. A quick test to verify if the injectors are getting pulse is to hook a test light from the + side of the battery to whichever wire on the injector plug is not red. It should blink when the engine is cranked. If it doesn't, the injectors aren't pulsing. To verify +12v, a test light from ground to the red wire will tell the story. If no +12v, check the PCM fuse and PCM relay. The injector power feed should be off that circuit.

[Bimmerknut]

Its possible that the injectors are gummed up bad enough to not move any fuel. I had missed that it would start on fluid. If it will, its got spark but no fuel. A quick test to verify if the injectors are getting pulse is to hook a test light from the + side of the battery to whichever wire on the injector plug is not red. It should blink when the engine is cranked. If it doesn't, the injectors aren't pulsing. To verify +12v, a test light from ground to the red wire will tell the story. If no +12v, check the PCM fuse and PCM relay. The injector power feed should be off that circuit.

I think I will try the starting fluid trick again and see if it runs. I don't have a test light but I do have a voltmeter. Don't really know how to use it (dumb I know) but I have one. I just went and got batteries for it today. I was going to check to see if the crank sensor was getting any power but then we got hit with rain, so any testing will have to wait until tomorrow (Friday).

[gadget73]

I'm honestly not sure if the crank sensor gets any voltage. It may only generate voltage pulses. At least I believe it works like regular electronic ignition pickups, and they aren't fed any power.

If its a digital meter, it may not be as easy to read as an analog or a test light for checking injector pulse. They tend to sample slow enough that you just get a jumble of numbers when doing stuff like this. Once in a while a more crude tool like a light bulb can be easier to interpret.