E46 not starting (-_-)

Sorry guys I know theres alot of threads about this but this is the rundown of my car
2000 BMW 328CI approx 199xxx miles on it
only thing aftermarket is a Dinan CF cold air intake
never had any major issues just had a history of bad maf sensor

well one day I was driving my car and I noticed my SE light came on turns out my air filter fell off and was laying in my bumper. Anyways I get home and put the filter back on started up the car and SE light went away.

I drove the car to school and was going on a uphill climb suddenly SE,EML,DSC,and transmission light came on and the car started to sputter I pulled over and checked the intake which was fine everything was connected (this usually happens to me when something related to the intake happens)

so i hop in the car start it up and I continue on ( all warning lights were off once i started again) about 2 minutes from where I pulled over the car did it again I get into a parking spot shut off the car and turn it back on perfectly fine. Revved it a couple times to see if maybe it was a intake leak or something hopefully popping up the SE light but nothing.

shut off the car and try starting it back up and all it would do was crank
I tried many many times to fire it back up and 1 out of 10 times it fired up but the car was rocking pretty bad felt as if all cylinders werent firing. after that it never fired up again. But I got a SE light ran the code turns out it was the MAF sensor I disconnected it (usually it still fires up when its disconnected and same thing just cranked)

Towed it home and these are the things i did
Feul pump checked Good
Spark plugs Changed them out Previous owner never changed them out
Crank shaft position sensor swapped it out of another E46 that I know starts
Charged the battery even swapped batteries with the car that starts
Feul rail I pressed the little valve at the end of the feul rail feul came squirting out.
even swapped out MAF sensors
at the end of all this still just cranks I can also smell gas coming out of the tail pipe even when I dont press on the throttle to try to start it

can someone help me I looked all over and most people they dont even put their solution to this issue.
Btw I checked the fuses everythings good even under the little box under the hood


Solution : Check to see if charcoal canister hose is connected to intake manifold.
If you changed everything out intake boot maf blah blah and still get a SEL when driving about 10 miles or 20 miles check that hose charcoal canister hose. I will try to post pictures of the hose soon



ok so guys after my car fired up I had an issue.
I would drive the car from time to time and everytime the engine warms up completely the SEL would come on saying MAF sensor
so I waited for someone to come rolling into my buddys shop so I can borrow their MAF sensor to see if it was the issue.
My friend who is a mechanic took a look at the freeze frame and noticed that the readings from the MAF and the O2 sensors were wrong. So I went snooping around the engine bay and noticed I had a random hose laying under my intake boot that got disconnected. After looking at a bunch of diagrams and tracing the hose to the back of the car which was the return line from the charcoal canister back to the intake manifold.
so looking at diagrams I couldnt figure out where the hell it plugged into and I finally I blew smoke into intake area and noticed air was being sucked into a spot right by the disa box plugged it back in and never got my Service engine light back.

You checked the ignition coils? Make sure there's enough spark.

I think I found your problem : ) Knock sensor ! Please replace it ! Should only be $50

Read this -->

http://www.ehow.com/list_7488824_sym...ck-sensor.html

Here you go.

http://www.bmaparts.com/ShopByVehicl...Sensor&mode=PA

no I actually didnt. Im checking that tomorrow ill do some research in locating the knock sensor since i dont know the whole engine in my head still kind of new to the bmw world if once I locate it Ill swap it from the other bmw

Ok, keep us updated.

I am a bit puzzled how anyone came to the conclusion the knock sensor is causing a no start condition?

This is about a likely as me getting struck by lightening during a snow storm!

Hahaha, that's one of the more interesting ones I've heard.

OP, test for spark.

A lot of the symptoms he mentioned are symptoms that exhibit a bad knock sensor- I never said it's the cause the car won't start. And if you read my first post I mentioned that he should revise his ignition coils (spark) as they may bad. Before you begin getting confused with the simplest of logical conclusions, you should read. I 'm not trying to be rude and disrespectful, but you're coming off a bit egotistical. I think I'm being very helpful, but you how? I'm positive this guy doesn't need you to waste his time by bashing others on his thread. Stop wasting time, ok?

It sounds like more than ( 1 ) problem, which is why the knock/coils were mentioned.

Anything op?

Hey guys sorry I haven't gotten the chance to attempt anything yet because it's raining and all kinds of stuff plus the holidays. I do take your guys advise into consideration but I think the knock sensor will be the last thing id do because it's a pretty big job but im going to test the spark/coils maybe today if I can get to them and try to get as far as I can with working on the car

Ok so crazy thing.....
I went out to my car the other day and I opened the door to realize that I left my Diagnostic tool plugged in (-_-)
So not thinking about it I just unplugged it and went under the hood pulled out the coil and spark plug of cylinder three.
Jump in the car tried to start it and realized the diagnostic tool drained all the juice of the battery
anyways I took the battery to the local parts store for them to charge it and I got it back
the next day I threw the battery in the trunk connected it popped the hood and pulled out the coil/sparkplug again ( when i closed my hood i actually only tightened the spark plug in a couple threads in for the spark plug so it wasnt fully tight)
craziest thing happened I jumped into the car and right away the car just went vroom and fired up so i shut off the car get out put the spark plug and coil in properly
and it fired up with no hesitation.
the symptoms I had with the car once it fired up was rough idle Service engine light said MAF sensor according to the code reader ( I didnt reassemble my CAI)
so I put everything back together and noticed the idle was good BUT when I would TAP the gas pedal it would sputter then rev
I cleared the code for the maf sensor and took it for a spin ( to get things flowing and to see if any new SEL would pop up sure enough it did)

New codes were
cylinder 1 & 5 misfire <--- my ignition coils are actually the OEM BREMI Two piece ignition coils ( which are said to be crap)
and also codes P0170 P0173 P1188 P1189 <--- I found out that I just need to change out some hoses and it should knock all these out

and On top of that I bought some fuel treatment that gets rid of water in the cylinders because I was reading somewhere in the forum that if you use shitty gas it would leave some water in the cylinders ( I pump Shell gasoline 91 octane all the time) but it doesnt hurt to throw the fuel treatment in I guess
Ill let you know how things go once I change out all these things

Read the first 2 links below in my signature.

Originally Posted by jfoj

Read the first 2 links below in my signature.

seriously, read these links. By far the best advice on this forum, most of what jfoj has listed in his threads were worn out or on the verge of failing on my 330.

Is there any way to convert to the one piece design?

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Bimmer App

Originally Posted by jfoj

I am a bit puzzled how anyone came to the conclusion the knock sensor is causing a no start condition?

This is about a likely as me getting struck by lightening during a snow storm!

Actually, that DOES happen! I have been in a snow storm with thunder and lightning, it was bizarre, but, it does happen. It is called thundersnow, who knew?

hey guys first off thanks for your guys advice JFOJ thanks for the links I gotta fix my sticks in my speedometer to trigger into the hidden menu long story short previous owner opened up the speedo and installed the sticks wrong when i first got my car i tried to turn the stick to the left and right and it didnt work because it was broken due to the improper reinstall! The next thing on my list is the fuel pump/filter really looking forward do that because i herd it improves gas mileage.
Atleast my car starts now Im going to take it to my uncle (been a mechanic for Mazda for a good while to take a look at my hoses) and also Im going to do a compression check just to make sure I still have good compression. I found out if you use a allen head that can connect to a socket and can be connected to a ratchet it works best when removing the Crankshaft Position sensor. Also this is why Im getting my hoses checked lol since my car popped up the codes for it
http://www.e46fanatics.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=799653

Originally Posted by chudzikb

Actually, that DOES happen! I have been in a snow storm with thunder and lightning, it was bizarre, but, it does happen. It is called thundersnow, who knew?

Yea I know all about Thundersnow, I have witnessed it.

But the likelihood of actually being struck by lightening in a Thundersnow is about as likely as me winning the $250 mil PowerBall!