A few months ago I drove my car to work in the morning,.. no problems, parked the car and when I returned later that day it turned over but just would not start. Left the car overnight, came back the next morning and started just fine. Since then I have heard funny noises from the engine bay at startup and during idling that resemble a squeaky fan belt or pulley, but car started fine and runs great. Finally two days ago I tried to start the car,... it turns over, but just will not start. I tried again yesterday and same thing. I am now beginning to think the fuel pump failed, but would appreciate any feedback or advise on how to trouble shoot this issue and what else could cause this. Thanks, Alan
Ok your first thought is a good one for the fuel pump. You will need to do a poor man's fuel pressure test. First you will need to remove the fuel rail cover (the one that is black with silver stripes running from front of the car to the back). There are two bolt covers on the fuel rail cover one if front and one in back they just pry up. Under them are two 10mm bolts that need to be removed. Once you have the fuel rail cover off on the front of the fuel rail you will see what looks like a valve stem cap remove this. Now take a small flat blade screw driver and push the pin in the middle of this valve down while someone cranks the car. Fuel should shoot straight up under pressure out of this when you touch it. If it does most likely not a fuel pump, if not then you have a fuel pressure problem. If you do have a problem you will need to removed the back seat and on the passenger side is a cover with 10mm nuts holding in on remove these and you will see electrical connectors. Remove the one with the two largest wires and measure the voltage while cranking the engine across them. Should be somewhere around 12v (or what ever your battery voltage is could be lower from the amount you have been cranking). If you have no voltage then you need to find out why either a fuse or relay.
Followed your directions on the fuel rail valve and fuel did not shoot out while turning over the engine. I will check the fuel pump next. Thanks for the help. Much appreciated.
Just thought I would provide an update. I checked the fuel pump wires and used a volt meter to determine power was coming to the unit. So I determined the fuel pump was bad, which was the original fuel pump (143,400 miles). I ordered a Bosch fuel pump from Amazon (got it in 2 days) and I found a great DIY video on youtube to replace the fuel pump. I took my time and was all done in about an hour. I can post the address for the video, but you can just google E46 fuel pump replacement and there are various videos out there. Thanks Charlson89 for you help.
