Stranger12

Hi all,

My e60 drained the battery overnight and next day it was impossible to start even with another car charging the battery.

The engine cranks for 10-20 turn or as long as i keep it but no firing.

it is a 530d and when I plugged inpa to it, it is showing all 6 glow plugs as open circuit which makes me think it is the controller.

the day I was testing was quite warm and it wasn't strating.

is glow plug used even in warm days ? is it possible to conclude it is impossible to start the car without them if all 6 have failed or controller has failed?

it is £129 from bmw or £60 on ebay for beru brand which is a famous brand.

Please share your thouhts.

I clear all error and as soon as I crank the engine over the 6 glow plug failures come back thus making me think it is 100% the controller but need confirmation.

I couldn't see any post suggesting they have a fuse or external relay to check.

many thanks

sanjsanj

it's not the glowplugs or controller that's stopping the engine from starting. With those faults I could start my car even when it was -5°C!

Stranger12

Many thanks

I can hear the pump but seems to whine as if it is not producing a constant flat pumping but it is working

Glow plug could be the cause and thought it is better to replace rather than first changing fuel pump

There is no error on anything apart from glow plugs for all 6

Could it be the car didnt go to sleep and there was some sort of short circuting which caused the glow plugs to work all night even though the key was in off position?

This would drain battery and possibly kill all of them

sanjsanj

Nope, not at all. Glowplug errors are extremely common and make no difference to starting the engine. I'd say at least 60% of diesel E60s have a glowplug error.

I would focus on why the battery went flat. That is a very unusual thing to happen, and could well be related to the non starting, though glowplugs are definitely not the issue. Get DIS up and running and get that to check the current errors, INPA isn't as informative as DIS.

Tigr

The BERU is not only the famous brand you mentioned, BERU is also what you get from BMW. The only difference is the price )) and a small BMW sign on BERU.

Stranger12

changed the glow plug contoller but battery was flat to try and start it up.

i am hearing an inconsistent whining fuel pump sound from back of rear of the car.

can it be the fuel pump but it is not showing any errors?

Stranger12

I did an inpa test and dis test and no fault coming up re fuel pump however as said earlier the fuel pump has a funny whining noise

When i did a dis fuel pump test it said current expected for the fuel pump is 7-10 A and mine was 2.5 A

Fuel pump voltage was expected to be between 8-10 and mine was 9

So concluding i should get a pump but have a question

In your view is current in A which i guess is amp refering to the internals of the solenoied on the pump and measured on the pump rather than the current through the fuel pump?

If current through fuel pump then blocked fuel filter could cause issues i guess but again i changed the fuel filter 1 year ago around 10k ago

So in another word the A is amp and isolated to the pump rather than anything else right?

Stranger12

ok changed the pump and still no start.

I realised the fuel tank on right which is where the pump is was empty almost and left side had plenty in there .

There is two pipes from fuel pump on right going to what I would call something like a relay which is a fuel level sender. in most article it is referred to as fuel filter but I couldn't see any filter at least not for diesel

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/show...diagId=16_0554

anyway I think fuel from left tank is transferred to right using one of those pip eand then pushed by the pump through the same relay/fuel fiilter( although there was no filter) back to engine.

car was parked on a surface which was reclining toward right which wasn't helping the situation as all fuel in right tank would have gone toward right side of the right tank and on left tank on fuel would have gone toward right wall of left tank

the pump suction is pointing toward left so it couldn't such diesel but why it couldn't transfer fuel from left tank is buggling me.

anyways put 4 liter of diesel and boom it started.

i am pissed as I had to changed the fuel pump at 180
the fuel gauge was showing i have 1/4 tank diesel in there yet there was nothing on right tank and plenty on left and transfer was failing

i am confused

any help understanding how fuel is transferred is much appreciated


£180+70 so £250 didn't solve the problem and needed to spent £6 get 5 liter of diesel!!