I don't get no spark
 

No respect these days, and no spark either. This on my 325 Bimmer. Poor thing might be on its death bed and with only 380K on it. I've checked the usual suspects I know of and they all seem to be good.

One thing that puzzles me - the manuals and other help online all say that the coil should register 0.50 ohms between the terminals and 5K ohms between positive and the main tower. I get the latter but consistently get 0.8 between the terminals. It's enough off such that I'm guessing it means something but I'm not sure. 0.8 is the figure given for the 318 IIRC, or 0.82 anyway.

I also hooked a test light on each the pos and neg terminals and each lights up connected to ground, with the key on. One online source recommended cranking the engine while hooked to negative, a flickering test light means faulty coil. I did that and I'm getting some flicker but it's light, seems as though most electric items do a little bit of a fade when running the starter motor.

One other thing, the much vaunted Peake diagnostic tool has been useful for resetting service light indicators but nothing else. Never have I gotten a clue about any problem, but I'm thinking surely now it will give me some help, something like this should show in the computer. I plug it in, hit the right buttons, and I get a large flashing E. My manual doesn't refer to this but their website says it means (Error obviously) that the device is unable to communicate with the computer. It ain't right, I tell ya.

Is it a conventional coil?

my response has nothing to do with your issue but I thought I would post a picture I took early this morning. My car and my neighbor's care were parked face-to-face on the street. His car probably cost him $60k and mine set me back $2k but I think my cars lines look better than his jelly-bean shaped BMW.

no offense meant towards your bimmer of course. i just thought I would share a picture showing two cars separated by 30 years.

They're both good looking cars in their own day imho. Cmac's beemer is the boxy style that was common in its day...a handsome car too imho.

Yes, it's not the newer coilpack.

I'm not keen on the newer BMWs. The E39, the 500 series approx. '96 to '03 is the last one of the modern models that I like. I've heard numerous times that serious Bimmer heads prefer the E30 model that I have, the 325i. I didn't know this when I bought it, just lucked out. The parts man at a nearby BMW dealer told me that about half of their service techs drive an E30 for their main car. Has a more raw connection to the road.

Prolly can get a good used one from a yard for $10 and just switch it and try. I've got a few around but you are a long way from here.;)

This is your punishment for driving a gasser.

cmac,

You won't find it in any manual, and use common sense with it, but on a modern FI car, the best and quickest way to see if you have spark is to pour a jigger full of gasoline in the throttle body, and making sure you put your gas can away from the area. Turn it over and see if it tries to run. It doesn't have to start, but if it will just give a little burst, then you can eliminate the ignition system as your problem.

It's the quickest to find out if you have a fuel or ignition problem.

Hope this helps.

I normally hit it with a can of starter spray and then see if it fires. If not, no spark.

But.... Long ago I was doing this with an old Porsche. I tested and tested and then, when I found the problem, I hit the key and all of that ether went off at once. It was a good sized boom but nothing was hurt. It did throw quite a flame out of the exhaust, so I guess some ether had settled in there during starting attempts.

So if you go with the starter spray method give it some time to vapor out between tries.

Yes, too much starter fluid can blow it to kingdom come. A very quick little squirt is all you should use. I personally reserve starter fluid for NON GLOW PLUG DIESELS. If you use it on glow plugged cars without disabling the glow plugs, you can blow them to pieces too.

That is a good suggestion and I regret to admit that I didn't think of it until a couple of days before I posted this thread, and I didn't think of it then, my warehouse neighbor, a metal fabricator and good mechanic, told me to get a can a starter fluid and spray it into the air intake to find out for certain if it's a fuel issue. I'm thinking, well duh, why didn't I think of that.

So after I couldn't find the one I thought I had, I bought one (will keep that one in the 'toolbox.') Not a trace of fire up after a light spray, and more spray, and then a good bit more.

Perhaps worth mentioning, the two plugs I pulled were badly fouled with deposits and had a sort of wet, greasy look. About 30K ago, I bought the Bosch +4, for some undiagnosed reason. I'm not suggesting that all 6 plugs stopped working at once, it had run smoothly hours before it died but it is curious. It was hard to see a gap on any of the 4 electrodes, or whatever the metal parts are referred to. I believe the electrode is the post in the middle. With a magnifying glass I could see there was some gap - I cleaned and sanded them and put them back. I hadn't been burning that much oil but I am burning some, I suspect that's the source.