Car running very rich

Hi Joe,

Today I got around to doing the testing by getting a loaner tool from the local equivalent of AutoZone. I feel a bit bummed out because things didn't go well.

First of all, I cannot retrieve codes by using the method as given in the first like above. I have no idea why I cannot do it. This is something I tried some time ago when I first discovered this info. Not sure why it does not work.

I then just went ahead with the fuel pressure testing. Following instructions, I installed the fuel pressure testing kit just before the fuel enters the fuel rail. On a 320i the engine is exactly the same as a 323i, just a bit bigger in capacity.

After adding the fuel pressure gauge and some extra hose, I removed the fuel pump relay and jumped pins 30 and 85 as per the Bentley manual (the instructions you gave in the second link up above are more for load testing the vehicle when test driving it) in order to have the fuel pump working for 1 minute with no engine on to show the psi in the system.

I had purchased a jumper cable with a 20 amp fuse for this purpose and added some spade connectors on the ends of the wires. I put the spade connectors in the correct connectors and when I put the second one in, there was a spark and the fuse blew. I was a bit puzzled by this and took a multi-meter and tested the voltage between the same connector receptors in the fuse box and I got a reading of 11.96 volts.

The multi-meter didn't notify me of a short so am wondering why the jumper cable's fuse shorted out.

When I put the fuel pump relay back in there was no sound of the fuel pump working when I turned the key to on, but no engine. Usually there is a humming sound of the pump priming. When trying to start the car the battery crapped out so I am now charging the battery.

Any ideas?

I made an error in locating the fuel pump relay. In my Bentley manual it showed the relay being one of three on the outside of the fuse box. My car only has two. Which is what confused me, so I took out one of the relays inside the fuse box - top row, third from the right. Obviously not the fuel pump. Now I have to figure out where it is. Images uploaded to show what I am dealing with.

I don't know why, but your system rotates the images 180 degrees when posting. I even tried rotating them 180 before posting to see of your system rotated them back. But for some reason they don't. So the pictures are 180 degrees turned to what they should be. And the system doesn't delete the images properly! There are two sets here.

Hi Joe,

The fuse in the wire (jumper cable) blew. And I had jumped the pins 30 and 85 in the headlight relay!

Hi Joe,

No, I have not been able to determine which one it is. The Bentley manual I have doesn't even have any schematics for a 320i!

But some interesting news.

I was not able to get the fuel pressure gauge kit to work. I attached the gauge via a brass t-fitting that had a schrader valve and when I hooked everything up nothing happened. I figured that because of the jimmying I had to do to the hose that attached to the end of the fuel rail, in that there was very little room to work with, when the gauge was attached (which meant that the original hose had to be moved about 6 inches away) the hose somehow got pinched because no pressure showed when trying to run the engine (and hence the fuel pump). That was borne out by the fact the car wouldn't start.

So I unhooked everything and put back the hose to the fuel rail the way it had been. The car started without any problems or delay. On my way to return the fuel pressure test kit I noticed that the fuel consumption gauge now quickly showed the needle hovering around the 10 liters/100km mark, whereas before it would take forever (15-25 minutes of driving) to get there. On top of that, I even got the needle to go down to 7/8 litres/100km which has never happened before.

So it looks like this problem might be fixed though I have no idea how that happened! Maybe I have the magic touch or something! :0

Hmm, a thought just occurred to me; I had to take the battery out to recharge it. That meant the computer reset itself. Maybe that and the fact that the oxygen sensor had been replaced is what really made the fuel consumption improve the way it did.

Just to be sure, I will also clean the Mass Airflow Sensor.