Crank but No Start Help
 

Hello everyone. I'm a new owner of a 2008 X5 3.0. It was my parent's car and as they were looking to downside as they are elderly, I've bought it. It has fairly low miles as they barely drove it (58,000) and has been routinely serviced.

Vehicle was in NC and had driven very well. I was bringing it to GA and about half way, the car cut off. I had a little below 1/4 tank of gas and was going to stop soon to fill up and take a pit stop so I thought, "Oh no, I've run out of gas!" After putting 2 gallons of gas in it, I tried to restart it but only get cranking over but no start. I figured it had to be more than just low on gas.

I had it towed home thinking I could figure it out. I've done a good bit of troubleshooting and changing and now I'm stuck, please help.

Currently unchanged... It cranks strong and just won't start. Yes, it has gas, about 1/3 tank.....

1. I checked the fuel pump relay. It's good.
2. Checked connections with a multi-meter and getting 12V to the pump.
3. I put 12V power to the original fuel pump and it only clicked, no whir. (Ah, bad fuel pump!)
4. Replaced said fuel pump.
5. Put 12V power to the new fuel pump, get a whir! Fuel Pump works!
6. Rechecked connections with Multi-meter and getting 12V at connection.
7. Still, when I try to start, I have a strong crank, good turnover, can't really hear the pump during this time, and NO START.
8. Checked the fuel pressure, no fuel pressure.

Help is greatly appreciated. What else should I look into?

Thanks in advance.

I had a similar problem with my wife's rig (same specs) and it was the fuel pump relay. Checked out fine when testing but intermittently was having issues. I initially whacked it a few times and it fixed it but ended up getting a new one and it hasn't had the long crank/ no start issue.

This. If you just want to troubleshoot, you can jump the relay with a heavy wire and see if it starts. There's only so many things that would show no fuel pressure - no signal from DME (sounds fine), bad fuse (sounds fine), bad relay (???), bad wiring, bad fuel pump (replaced, unlikely to have two bad ones, but I'd verify it anyway).

OP...assume you know www.newtis.info for schematics, etc.....

Yup that’s what I used for my troubleshooting to start with and to get the wiring diagrams.

Another question - have you tried to start it on starting fluid? Just as a sanity check to verify the problem is fuel related. Do you have an actual fuel pressure gauge hooked up to the rail? Does it prime the pump when the door is opened after a period of inactivity?

Read this..

https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/e...supply/XhflKCR

Sometimes just putting 12v on a term may not cause a pump to run...

Dunno, mines a D...

Some background - E70s and even the 3.0i were produced in two different configurations. One (early) uses a relay to turn the fuel pump on and lacks any kind of control mechanism other than on or off. The other configuration uses a control module, the EKPS or EKPM, to electronically vary the speed of the fuel pump. Turbo vehicles use the electronic module and some 3.0s do as well, I believe. If Legokcen has a relay, it doesn't use the electronic module.

Thanks for all the help, it's fixed and all good. Combo of both the fuel pump and the relay. Relay was working when I put 12V to it, would hear it click and would OHM through the power leads. I guess it wasn't happy when under load. But, once I replaced that too, she cranked right up and I've been driving her for the last couple days. Thanks a lot again for the help and I'll be a contributor here on the forum too, these are a wealth of knowledge.

Now.... I'll search for a trailer hitch harness connections! :)

Good news and thank for posting an update after the getting it solved.