Just a Thank You - Starts, Won't Run Issue

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cfisher
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2015 5:01 pm

Just a Thank You - Starts, Won't Run Issue

Post by cfisher »

Just wanted to write this for two purposes. One to possibly help someone with the same issue, and to say thanks for all the knowledge found on this board. I resolved my issue by searching the archives.

I have an '81 528i. I was unable to get it out of storage for a couple years until this past September (2014). I drained the old gas out, put in fresh. Put some oil over the rockers and camshaft and squirted a small amount of oil in each cylinder. Turned it over a few times and it fired right up and ran rough for just a bit and then leveled out once all the little bit of old gas left was burned out.

I put it back into storage for the winter.

Fast forward to March of this year and went to pull it out to get it drivable for this year and it wouldn't run. The car would start and run for just a few seconds until I released the key. I verified that I was getting healthy spark, the Combo Relay was working, fuel pumps working and fuel flowing and checked all the electrical readings I could find here on the site and the Haynes manual. Had narrowed it down to the ICM (Ignition Control Module), the ECU, or something with the injectors. Rented a Noid light from AutoZone and verified I was getting power pulses at the injectors.

I then found a suggestion in a post by Peter Florance where you could, using a long rod tap on the metal body of each injector to open them in cases where they were stuck shut. I used the long handle in the onboard toolkit and a hammer and tapped each injector 5 times lightly. Turned the key over and it fired and kept running. So my issue was due to injectors being stuck shut.

I assume that since I had only ran the car for a few minutes in September and then stored it, some of the old gas may have collected in/on the injectors and they stuck shut.

As I said, I hope this helps someone else, and again I just wanted to say thanks for all the valuable information on this board.

Love these old BMWs!
Happy Motoring!

Chad Fisher
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