540i was stalling in mid drive, now won't start at all, mechanic doesn't know why?

[Ylano S.]

About a month ago, I took my 540i to a mechanic to have the trailing arms fixed. A week later, I'm driving downtown and my car just stalls out (never in my 5 years of ownership has it done that.) Then, it takes several tries to get it to turn over. Eventually it did and I made it home. Took it back to the mechanic, he "put it on the machine" and couldn't find anything wrong. He changed the temperature sensor, and it stopped stalling out in mid drive, but now it won't start at all. For the past week or so, whenever I try to start it, it just churns and churns, but won't turn over, not even with a jump.

My car won't start now. Clearly there's something wrong with it. But the mechanic says he doesn't know what's wrong (WTF?).

Can anyone help me?

[brettski]

Welcome to the Werk.

So the car will crank over but not fire?
Do you have a good spark on the plugs? (Check with a spare spark plug)
Do you have fuel being injected, check by cranking for a while and have some one smelling the exhaust for unburnt petrol fumes?
Are the injectors firing at all? Check with a mechanics stethoscope or by putting a screw driver tip on an injector body and the handle to your ear whilst the engine is cranked over.
Is the fuel pump running? You hear it start and run for two seconds then stop again when turning the ket from position one to two.

[DaGunster]

Hi,

I just bought a 95 540i and am looking for the kinds of problems people have had and what they did to fix.

Would you ... what was the final solution?

FYI. My wife's Chrysler did the same exact thing - just die. It was the pickup for the ignition - telling the ignition where in the 360 degree the engine was so that it knew when to fire a plug. $80 part, about $100 labor.

Let me know...