1997 BMW 328 No crank, no start, no push start

Tiny
BRALDEN
  • MEMBER
  • 1997 BMW 328
  • 6 CYL
  • 2WD
  • MANUAL
  • 135,000 MILES
Hi. My 328is will not start. I put a fully charged jump box on it to be sure it had enough power. The key turns all the way, the intrument cluster lights up, but the starter does not bugde. I thought I had a bad starter and then had a friend pull the car with his truck so I could get a start off of the clutch. I eased off the clutch and the engine came up to rpms (about 1500-2000) but no rpm reading on the cluster and the engine would not kick over on its own. Tried this three times and got nothing. I even jumped the starter with the key in the on position. I checked both sides of all of the fuses(all have power), swapped all of the relays(with the proper ones), and checked for power at the DME relay and to the DME afterwards. I recieved power to 8 pins with the key on, one with it off. My friend has an M3 with the exact same DME but if I try it I dont think it will work with my key because key has to be coded to the DME. Any advise?
Monday, July 12th, 2010 AT 11:13 AM

9 Replies

Tiny
DOCHAGERTY
  • MECHANIC
  • 9,603 POSTS
The drive away protection (called EWS) is suspect. If the alignment between the DME and EWS is not correct, it will not crank/start. The DME from another car wont do anything either, as you seem to have already found out. So the next thing to do is to seek out a shop that has a GT-1 or an Autologic computer to realign the DME/EWS. Where in the world are you?
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Monday, July 12th, 2010 AT 12:07 PM
Tiny
BRALDEN
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  • 34 POSTS
Thanks for the promp reply. Yes you are probably right. I live in East Moriches, New York. I was thinking it was an EWS problem. Wouldnt that prevent power from going to the DME totally? Some forum stated that. Or does it prevent power FROM the DME and why would it just drop out of sink?
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Monday, July 12th, 2010 AT 2:02 PM
Tiny
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  • 9,603 POSTS
Sometimes a voltage excursion will upset the alignment, there may actually be some sort of issue with it. The version of EWS would determine what happens, some interrupt communication, some stop the starter, some stop everything, regardless of which, the next thing is to get it to the shop that can do the alignment.
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Monday, July 12th, 2010 AT 5:53 PM
Tiny
BRALDEN
  • MEMBER
  • 34 POSTS
Hi. In the past couple of days I had the car towed to the BMW dealership where I used to be a tech. They charge 145 an hr and told me a min of two hrs just to diagnose, not including parts and additional labor if a control module was bad. Someone told me the astronomical price of a DME and after that I hi-tailed out of there. They changed owners and I no longer could be helped. That day I called up a friend selling a beat up 328i 4dr for $1900. I took the DME, EWS out, and swapped key chips (which I figured out), started my car at the dealer and drove home. LOL! Ok now I get a VIN mismatch code. Now if I swap the rest of the modules will that go away? I still know it will be a different vin. I also think I am going to buy a GT1 on EBAY. They said that they are updatable only by hard disk. Is that any good since I will be working on newer BMW's? I am going to buy them from the auctions. I'm sure I'll need it. I just bought my first, a 328is two dr.
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Friday, July 16th, 2010 AT 9:39 AM
Tiny
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  • 9,603 POSTS
What does the code for the VIN mismatch show up as? How was this code extracted?
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Friday, July 16th, 2010 AT 11:15 AM
Tiny
BRALDEN
  • MEMBER
  • 34 POSTS
Hi. You are the tech helping me on the E30 short ckt. Sorry but I am a nut. I am still battling with this problem on my e36 328is. I should let you know that I got a hold of a GT1. Anyway I plugged it into the car and the GT1 lights up. One light solid and the other (yellow I think) flashes but never stops and I can not establish communication between the car and the computer. I guess I will keep trying.
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Wednesday, September 15th, 2010 AT 3:39 PM
Tiny
DOCHAGERTY
  • MECHANIC
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Any luck?
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Friday, September 17th, 2010 AT 7:44 AM
Tiny
CLEMON
  • MEMBER
  • 1 POST
  • 2000 BMW 328
  • 2.8L
  • 6 CYL
  • RWD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 180,000 MILES
Hi I recently bought the car listed above it is a 328i e36. I have a problem when starting it as soon as you start the car it burst out in flames, but if you start it in front with a screwdriver and throw petrol through the pipe in front it idles smoothly and revs nice. Can someone please advice me what can be causing the problem?
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Thursday, August 17th, 2017 AT 4:16 PM (Merged)
Tiny
STEVE W.
  • MECHANIC
  • 15,233 POSTS
So you are saying that you try to start it and it backfires through the intake? I've heard of this happening if the intake manifold had a break or hole in it. Never seen it myself though. I would start with a good visual inspection around the area you see the flames. Check around the entire intake and exhaust manifolds for any burned or broken areas or gasket failures.
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Friday, August 18th, 2017 AT 9:42 PM

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