Re: <e30> no spark

[Louie Rendek <ljr7@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Adrian,

The best I can do is offer you what I did on my e30 to fix the no spark
situation I had 1 year ago.  I have a US 1987 325e.  Here it goes:

I started checking the whole ignition section in the Bentley.  I checked
the coil resistances like you said.  I checked the reference and speed
sensors on the transmission bellhousing.  They are supposed to have a
certain resistance also.  I new the plugs and plug wires were new along
with the cap/rotor.  Alot of people started suggesting to check the
ignition control unit.  Upon further reading I determined that there was no
ignition control unit for my car, it was built into the DME.  After
checking all the above, which was most of the Ignition section of the
Bentley, I decided that the only thing that it could be was either, the
main relay or the DME.  Luckily (for me?) someone on the digest had wrecked
his 1987 325e and was parting it out.  I got the used main relay, fuel pump
relay, ignition coil, and DME from him cheap.  I decided to swap out the
DME first and the car started right up.  This doesn't mean that your DME is
bad and yes our cars are different.  Even for the US spec cars there are
differences (like older cars having the separate ignition control unit).
You could be lucky and it could be as simple as having a bad main relay
(maybe $25 new).  Best of luck to you.  I did the whole troubleshooting and
repair, luckily for me the electronic stuff is all I am good at.  I
wouldn't tackle too much else on this car by myself.  This took me almost a
whole week to fix, because my research advisor wouldn't understand me
taking off a few days to fix my car!

Louie Rendek
1987 325e 133k miles
BMWCCA #144328
Case Western Reserve Univ.
PhD candidate; Chemistry Dept.
email:  ljr7@domain.elided

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