Help! What now?

[BMRBOI 8]

Ok so the bmw has been sitting in the garage for a month now, it went to the mechanic on Monday. The problem was it was making a ticking noise which increased speed when you reved it more, then all of a sudden it stopped. A few days later the car wouldn’t start, it sounds like it has no fuel in it when you try cranking it over. The mechanics put it on a diagnostic computer which came up with no error codes. They said to find the problem is like looking for a needle in a haystack, there is no spark. Also they said that the crank and cam angle sensor has low ohms readings. Where do I start? Replace the two sensors? Anyone herd of this problem? Any information would help my cause! Cheers

Oh by the way it’s a e36 1992 325i.

[JasonZE 0]

Take it to a decent mechanic or auto sparky as the needle in a hay stack sounds like (im to dumb to fix it) I used to fix cars but now do seadoo jetskis and quad bikes, The e36 is not a hard car to diagnose.

Any decent sparky will be able to get a pattern output from the crank sensor and say if its working or not a resistance test is meaningless.

It will still start if the cam sensor is fautly just hard to start and runs gutless.

I may have a secondhand sensor if you need one.

The ticking noise was most likely a hydraulic valve lifter which is quite common and most almost definately not related to your current problem.

[ducatiss 1]

I definitely second that - take your car to someone who knows what they are doing - I would suggest the local BMW dealer for a start unless someone else knows of someone better. You can spend a whole lot of money on mechanics who operate on a "replace and see" policy.

[keen 6]

My car also ticks on start up when cold just the one tappet though but it stops when the car warms up.

It does sound like two faults.And any mechanic worth his salt would have picked the hydraulic tappet I would have thought.I second the above suggestions find someone who knows, its a lot cheaper in the long run.

[BMRBOI 8]

I know what a tappet noise sounds like and its defiantly not that. Yeah these guys where supposed to be good, they even got a bmw specialist spark and a $15000 diagnostics machine (so they told me). Ive been told they they are pretty money hungry from a few people, anywho ive got hold of a crank sensor and should be here tomorrow so ill try that. If not I don’t know, Might have to take it somewhere else.