92 318 i won't start

My son's 318 was backed into and now wont start. It did start briefly after the hit but only once. Does this BMW have an initertia switch to shut off fuel after an accident? Damage does not seen too bad although grill has been pushed into aux fan. are there any sensors in the area that could have been dislodged ? Any ideas?

TNX

RR

Hey billerica

i need a little more info please.

Yes there is an initertia switch to shut off the fuel supply when a car is hit from the front, and there is a way to reset the switch, but i'm not sure how to reset the switch on beamers. However i could find out and get back to you by monday afternoon at the latest. Yes there are sensors that trigger the initertia switch but 9 out of 10 times the sensors can't be dislodged that easlily.

This is what usually happens when te initertia switch is triggered:

When triggered, it cuts off fuel supply (the fuel pump). Therefore no matter how hard you try to start it, it won't work until the switch is deactivated.

I''ll check the wiring diagrams on monday morning, and get back to you...hopefully you don't need your car till then...


Dj Zero Flau

Its running!

It turns out that BMW's can flood fairly easily if started and not moved or started and moved slightly. There are posts on this in this forum.

The car will stay in this flooded state for some time, a couple of days in this case.

I spoke to the service manager at a BMW dealer and he confirmed this. When you suspect this, you need to crank the car for an extended period and keeep the gas pedal floored. It will blow out the gas and start as ours did.

I was not able to find any reference to an initertia swith in the owners amnual or fuel system diagrams ???


Thanks for your reply I am interested in what you find out on the switch for future reference.

RR

Hey again...

I'm glad you found the problem...I was working on a suzki a while back at it had the same problem, it just floods every time it sits for more than a day... Apperently the model is nortirous for flooding.

SOrry i check Mitchell On demand and i can't find any wiring diagrams on the inertia switch, but i know for sure they were ooptional on your car....

sorry again...