94 325is not firing, just cranking

[jdichief]

i have 94 325is that cranks but does not fire. i have checked relays, fuses and replaced fuel pump but the car will not fire just tries to crank. so i tried disconnecting the negative terminal from the battery and let it sit for 5 minutes, then i reconnected the terminal and tried to start the car and it fired right up. i took it for a short drive and it drove fine. then i cut it off and started it right back, no problem. i let it sit overnight and car would not fire again. so i disconnected the battery again, waited 5 minutes, reconnected the battery and the car started right up.

i do not think i am overlooking anything, but any help is appreciated.

[Lord Vader]

Have you checked your starter itself? What about your alternator?

[jdichief]

yes, i have checked the starter and alternator.

[Lord Vader]

So it only starts up when you disconnect the battery first?

I recommend doing the "stomp test" to see if their are any stored trouble codes.

[jdichief]

I did the stomp test and received the code 1444, with the research i did, does that mean there are no fault codes.

Just for additional info, my car has been starting up without disconnecting battery for the last three days until this morning. So I disconnected the battery for 5 seconds and reconnected it and it fired up.

i am going to perform the stomp test the next time it does not start before disconnecting the battery.

[Shinobi-Ninja]

next time u have a crank and no start tap on the fuel pump relay to verify if it starts or not
then if it does boom if it doesnt then make sure u have ipw and spark pointing toward the ckp
process of elimination

[jdichief]

After 300 miles it happened again, car would not fire, it had sit for two days. i tested battery and got 12.57 volts (just making sure). i did tap on fuel relay, still same problem. tried the stomp test and could not get it to work.

do not quite understand "make sure u have ipw and spark pointing toward the ckp", i know a few things but i am far from an expert.

disconnected battery and let sit for 10 minutes, reattached and boom it fired.

done the stomp test and got the code for no fault codes.