Strange fault with 330d - please help!

[jimbobd]

I recently bought an E46 330d sport, which i have been really happy with. Over th first 1,000 or so miles it has been faultless, but it has recently (last week) developed a weird habit.

Basically, parked up in a town centre car park at the weekend and when i came back to the car it wouldn't start. It turns over, catches for a split second, then just dies. After trying everything i could think of i resorted to calling the AA, but in a typical sods-law way, as soon as i put the phone down to them the car started on the button and ran perfectly... until last night.

Again, the same thing happened except i was in a hurry so left the car at work over night and borrowed another car. Tried it first thing this morning and it fired first time.

How confused am I?

When it is miss-behaving it sounds like it has run out of fuel, but on both occasions the car has had well over half a tank in it.

Has anyone experienced this before or got any idea what could be causing it?

The car is a 51 plate with just a smidge over 80k on the clock.

thanks,

[jimbobd]

Anyone?

[Slippydiff]

Mine developed a problem with the injectors, they suffered from excessive leakback. The pressure sensor in the fuel rail senses there is insufficient fuel pressure. The nett result being the car won't fire up.

HTH

Edited by Slippydiff on Wednesday 25th March 10:19

[jimbobd]

Slippydiff said:

How many miles has the car done ?
Mine developed a problem with the injectors, they suffered from excessive leakback. The pressure sensor in the fuel rail senses there is insufficient fuel pressure. The nett result being the car won't fire up.

HTH

Thanks for your reply.

What would be the best course of action to diagnose this as the issue?

[Patrick595]

Similar thing happened to my sons 530d, several times........ turned out to be a dicky crank/cam sensor. Indy told me they had chnaged lots of them. 1 sensor later and alls been well for over a year.

[Slippydiff]

I think plugging in the necessary diagnostic tester will give the fuel rail pressure. It's allowwed to fall a certain amount of pressure in a certain amount of time after the engine has been switched off. If it falls outside the parameters then the injectors are suffering excessive leakback. This frequently happens between 80 and 100 K miles.
But as highlighted above, it could also be the crank sensor.

[jimbobd]

Thanks for all your help, Hopefully it will not be too expensive to fix!

[jimbobd]

Thanks for all your help, Hopefully it will not be too expensive to fix!