Where to start when a car wont start

Where do you start looking when a car wont start? I thought it would be handy to have a thread to help people diagnose non starting faults.

Post up your experiences here and what faults you have encountered and how to tell if that is the case next time.

1) Check you have fuel. (Seriously, don't assume you have. Lots of people call out the breakdown people to discover that they are out of fuel.)

2) Just a click could indicate a knackered servo in the starter motor. If there is no click then apply a fuse protected current to the +ve starter terminal to see if it goes.

3) Turning over engine that refuses to fire is either a fuel or electric problem (no spark). Where do you start tracking these ones down?

Other problems that could prevent starting. Blocked fuel filter, burned out coil, broken HT leads, faulty sensors (crank, temp, afm etc...) I'm sure you can add lots more to this list.
 
check the battery voltage - just because the central locking and interor light work doesnt mean theres enough juice to turn the engine over.

check the fuse box under the bonnet, youd be shocked at what these give power to, even as a second line to the main fusebox.

i the engines turning but not kicking check injector /ecu fuses. i removed my injector one and fitted it back in the wrong place by mistake while trying to track down another blown fuse. ( didnt have the little fuse map )
 
Don't get me started on the AA. Apparantly five call outs from a recovery service that costs an absolute bomb entitles them to say that I have "exceeded my yearly limit" on callouts and that I now have to pay a £93 surcharge every time I call them out for the remainder of my time with them. I politely told them to blow it out the back end and hung up =] Fixed the car myself.
 
1) Check you have fuel. (Seriously, don't assume you have. Lots of people call out the breakdown people to discover that they are out of fuel.)

As you say, it might seem a silly question but I've had occasion to help someone out whose fuel gauge was reading OK-ish, with a gallon or so still there, but as the lady said, it just wouldn't start.

Looking under the car, I could see why. She'd parked on such a steep camber (and on a hill), that the fuel feed, being at the 'uphill' end of the tank was no doubt above the fuel level in the tank. Pushed it to a more level position, churned it a bit an bingo!
 
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nearly all my no starts have been caused by a flat battery so I would strongly recomend starting there.
 
check fuel pumps are running by using a long item if hard to reach while someone cranks the engine, had my old freelander pumps go, 2nd high pressure pump went first then in tank went short time after
 
im having this problem at the moment my car wont turn over until ive tried bout 10 times then she finally comes to life but until its warms up even if you try and rev it the revs die off highly annoying but once warm its fine
 
im having this problem at the moment my car wont turn over until ive tried bout 10 times then she finally comes to life but until its warms up even if you try and rev it the revs die off highly annoying but once warm its fine


whens last time you serviced it, dirty injectors maybe,
check battery volts, oil condition,

had this on my misses focus turned out to be the battery being 10 years old the battery was on its last legs, but we did have slow cranking aswell
 
ive had spark plugs and ignition leads out and the distributer cap cleaned and oil change only 300 miles ago il have the battery checked later in the week as its only a 2nd car and only really for the weekend
 
I purchase BMWs that dont start, for cheap i might add. That's how I'm amassing my collection. My 01 530i i got for 800usd because it had a crank no start issue. I had to flatbed it home and wrench around with her. A few hours of research, well honestly a day or so worth of research lead me to replace the camshaft and crankshaft position sensors. Sure enough right after she fired right up. No problems since.
 
Another of my bimmers, 98 740il is not starting as we speak. I have myself to blame for this. I had to replace the general module due to it being damaged. I purchased the car cheap because it had a bad general module and the windshield wipers, rear windows, factory alarm and central locking systems weren't working. Previous owner had no idea it was the general module causing these issues. Assumed the car to have gremlins and got rid of it for 700usd.

I get to swapping out the general module with one from a same year and model off ebay. Car wont start now. Was starting and running just fine, despite the issues caused by the faulty general module. By me trying to replace it I believe I triggered and EWS lockout. I have yet to sort this issue out. Car is sitting in the garage right now. I just ordered BMW inpa cable and plan to try to possibly sync ths new general module to the car. Hope that works. if not then I have no idea what it is that I messed up lol...
 

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