james69z28

Hi, once again I need help from the bmw gurus: I was sitting in my 545i today in 90 deg heat while my wife ran into my mothers house for about 20 minutes I had the engine running and the air on. my wife left her door open and after about 15 min. I started getting hot so I put the car in reverse and backed up about 2 feet and hit the brakes, the passengers door shut gently, not hard, but within a few seconds the engine started stumbling and ran reakl rough for about 45 seconds then died and now it will not start, it turns over for long lengths of time and almost fires up but will not run.
history: this car was in my garage when my house burned down and it did get hot but only shows damage in the exterior plastic areas and there was a lot of water intrusion in the trunk but I have dried it out and had everything functioning correctly except the radio due to melted sharks fin on the roof and the 4 dash needles not moving at all.
The one thing I was glad of is I have replaced the tail light on the drivers side and rear bumper cover and have been driving it for about 2,000 miles with no mechanical problems until now!
I am frustrated because this is backing me up and I need to move forward!
Now back to the problem, it acted like something dislodged in the tank blocking the fuel flow?
the car only has 7,000 miles on it so it sat a lot only being driven when it was beatiful outside!
so there is a possibility of contaminated fuel especially with the sorry gas now! but it has ran perfectly for 3 months since the fire. the other possibility is a loose connector or the fuel cut off switch in case of a rollover? or maybe the computer or another component has stopped the electrical firing of the coiuls?
here is where you guys come in, what is the best way to prove it is firing?
I had heard that there was a problem with sticking in the fuel pump floats on some of these so I imediately pulled the rear seat and when I pulled the fuel line on the drivers side of what appears to be a fuel filter (only has 1 fuel line with a quick disconnect on it) I got a lot of pressurized fuel out so i reinstalled it quickly. I went in the same hole on the passengers side (appears to be the fuel pump because it has a 7 wire harness plugged into it, I tapped on it and when I turn on the ign. switch I only hear 1 click and can't tell if it is actually pumping fuel? is there a good connection where I can prove thatr it is getting fuel?
I have worked on cars all my life but BMW's have so many special quirks, it will save me lots of time and money if any of you can give me some troubleshooting help.
I went back 4 hours later after it was totally cooled off and it will turn over with the starter for 30 40 seconds with no sign of igniton at all? any help will be appreciated, thanks in advance!

james69z28

I cleaned all the connectors in the spare tire area and removed them from the foam and put them up in the left rear quarter much higher and away from any leaks, they had been wet but I dried them in the sun with the case removed and didn't notice any corrosion but they may still be fried? but the car ran perfectly for a month after this but yesterday it just died--it is dead---.
new info: I bought a download of the service manual which helps a lot but not all is great. I could not hear the fuel pump running when the switch was turned on so I removed relay K96 (fuel pump relay in the glove box), and jumpered terminals 30 to 87 and the fuel pump does run but with it jumpered it will still not try and run when starting it?
so I put the relay back in and tore apart the E-box under the hood on back passengers side and disc. the battery and pulled all the connectors and both computer modules --no evidence of water in the box but did find some in the passengers air plenum where the air filter is. We cleaned them and dried it up, I plugged all the connectors on and off several times just to clean all the terminals and connectors--all look fine.
I then tried to see if the ECU was just killing everything thus not energizing the fuel pump relay, so I removed the air filter box and sprayed starting fluid in the intake pipe while my wife was starting it and it started and ran, so the ECU isn't killing the spark ect.. so now I just need to find out what is killing the fuel pump relay signal--- and this is no small task either but I am narrowing it down!
I am going to check out the diagnostic module for fuel tank leak next? anyone have other places to look?