E36 328i Compression loss

[MassiveP]

I have just encountered a problem with a friends Cabriolet, It hasn't been driven alot lately and now it won't start. He called me over as I usually repair his vehicle.

I attempted to start the car and it seems to have no compression, apparently it was running fine before. the car has got proper spark aswell as fuel. I removed the plugs and checked for spark wich is fine and saw fuel on the plugs aswell as on top of the pistons.

So that rules out those problems I haven't done a compression test yet, will do one tonight, but from all my years experience I can tell you it has no compression.

The car sounded like it wanted to start, but didn't.
I was told that it did start, but then it died and wouldn't start again.
Thats before I got involved.

only thing I can think of is that it jumped teeth on the timing chain, cause it seesms to want to start.
If the chain had snapped it would probably not hint at starting.

Has onybody experienced this sort of problem before?
Any Idea's?

P.S It is a vanos engine

[Rick V]

If the cylinders are flooded you will need to clear them out before doing anything including a compression check. It may just be flooded. Remove the fuel pump fuse and try to start the car. This may take a fair amount of cranking so a good batt. is in order. If the car starts with the fuse out or tries to start re-install the fuse and start the car. Then find the origional problem. Feel free to pm me if you need help

[MassiveP]

Its not flooded but there was definately fuel, I'm quite sure there is a valvetrain problem.

[Rick V]

If you have fuel in the cylinders and on the plugs The car won't start and it will have no compression. The fuel washes down the cylinder walls and compression goes bye-bye.
At the risk of being a smart @ss fuel on top of the pistons and soaking the plugs is flooded.
You will need to get the cylinders dry before you try a compression test. If you are sure it is a valve problem a compression test won't tell you about the valves you will need to do a leak down test.
If your friend drove the car to where it sits now and it had no problems getting it there I doubt very seriously he has any engine dammage. I strongly recomend trying the advice I passed on in my first post. If I am wrong you have only lost about 5nin. of time. It could save you a lot of trouble chasing problems you may not have.
I make a living working on these cars and I have seen this before even with my own car. A slow batt. will cause the engine to flood i.e. slow cranking speed.
Good luck

[Dave at Pelican Parts]

I agree. It's also a heck of a lot cheaper and easier to try than tearing down the motor to find a compression loss. If it isn't just flooding, you haven't lost much time or money in the diagnosis.

If you clear the fuel out and it still won't start, then try a compression test to verify that it actually does have zero compression.

--DD

[MassiveP]

Thanks alot for your input guys its really appreciated!

Ok, the plugs and cylinders were not saturated in fuel but there was fuel present.

This morning I did a compression test and less than 400 kpa on cyl1,2,3,4 cyl 5 had slightly more and cyl 6 had about 800kpa I think it should be around 1200kpa.

I will put jumper cables on it tonight and swing it again with the fuse out and then try another compression test.

What would cause it to flood?

The car 210 000 Km on the clock

[MassiveP]

sorry ignore that question.
I will check the battery.

[Rick V]

So MassiveP what is the outcome of your friends car? Did you get it started????