E30 Fuel pump problem

["Gregory Ott" <ottg001@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello all,

I am having an irritating intermittent problem with my 89 325i with motronic
1.1 engine management.  Perhaps someone can help me with the
troubleshooting:

The symptoms are that intermittently, the car will turn over and not start.
Also, lately it has been periodically stalling.  I have done some
troubleshooting suggested by Bentley, but it is frustrating b/c the problem
is intermittent.  Here is what I have done:
I determined that the fuel pump is not running when the problem occurs.  The
relay appears to be good and the pump runs fine with it jumpered.  In the
midst of my troubleshooting, I turned on the ignition and noticed that the
idle control valve intermittently has power when the problem with the fuel
pump is occurring.  This seems to point to something with the main relay,
but at some points, I have had power to the control valve (it hums) and the
fuel pump was not running with the car turning over.  Seems odd because, as
far as I know, all of the juice running through the main relay goes through
one contactor.  The only thing I can figure is that the DME is failing.  I
don't even want to know what it costs to replace that!

Has anyone had any similar problems or know where I might look next.  As of
right now, the problem is not occurring, so I am at a troubleshooting
standstill.  My next move was going to be to take readings at the DME
connector to check for wiring problems.

Thanks in advance,

Gregg Ott
ottg001@domain.elided
89 325i
99 323ic

------------------------------