Ok, this has me puzzled. 2009 JCW that ran like a champ, sat for a few months and out of the blue will not start. Cranks just fine but wont start. Within the past 2 years, a new HPFP was installed along with fuel filter, new coils and plugs. Car ran perfect for months afterwards. Also, I'm not getting any codes at all. CEL is on during crank, but that's it.
Troubleshooting so far;
-verified 12v+ at battery, at each green wire on coil plugs, voltage at the fuse #10, pin #3 on the relay and pin #1 on the lower ecu connector. I've got 5v at the crank sensor and adequate fuel pressure on the rail upon crank, according to the Foxwell (0.71mpa upon key and power on, 4.18 at crank.) Before, when the car was still running, I would see a similar fp # until start up and then it would hover right around 4.88~5.0 mpa which is 700-725psi.

I pulled the plugs and with them installed in the coils, I'm not seeing a spark jumping across the electrodes., which I should see, correct? I also noticed the tach isn't moving at all when I crank it.. I've been trouble shooting this for a while now and I'm pretty sure that at one point, I swapped out the crank sensor for a known good one, but have another on the way just to check again.
I pulled the FRM, opened it up and inspected it and it looks fine, I also pulled all of the connectors off of the JBE and everything looks good there as well. ( no visible corrosion or scoring on the pins.)
I don't have a fuel pressure test gauge, but plan on picking one up tomorrow to check the pressure before the hpfp. I also don't have a scope, so I haven't been able to check the signal from the coils
If the pre hpfp pressure is good and the crank sensor doesn't fix it, I'm going to pull the JBE and inspect the back side. I don't see any indication of water intrusion and I've been pretty adamant about keeping my sunroof drains clean.

I'd really appreciate any input at all.. If I can't come to a resolution soon, I'm gonna take it to the local euro shop and see what they can come up with, although I was really hoping to not have to pay someone to fix it for me.

 

Seems like you've got a good head for diagnostics so I can't offer much. You won't see a spark jump unless the electrode is grounded. When the plug is installed in the head, it is grounded via threads. You need someone to hold it by the boot with the electrode against a grounded metal point or use an alligator clip wire and then crank.

No codes with CEL on is odd to me.

 

Thanks for the input. Is this a mini or coil on plug thing thing? This is one of the first cars that I've had with coil on plug, and I've checked spark in the past by either pulling the plug, or sticking a screwdriver in the plug boot and watching for spark jump. I'll give this another shot when I get home today.

 

Actually, my mini is the first coil on plug as well. In conventional distributors, in lawn mowers, I've never seen spark without the threads or electrode touching system ground.

Mind you, I am an idiot on the internet and my advice is worth what you paid for it.

It does seem bizarre that it was running fine, sat for just a couple of months, and now won't start. Smell rodent urine anywhere?

 

yeah, It's got me stumped. I had been driving the **** out of the car and using it as my dd for my 120mile daily commute.. Other than the hpfp taking a **** a while back, it's been a great car. I'm going to press with verifying spark and then move on to fueling. I was reading through some older posts that suggest pulling a plug and looking down in the cylinder during cranking. If it's fueling, there should be visible spray in the cylinder. last time I pulled the plugs out, they were a bit damp, so I'm assuming that fueling 'should' be ok. Later this week, I'll have access to a scope so i can take a look at the injector signal and see what it's doing.

 

When you crank the motor, the CEL comes on and stays on until a few seconds after the engine is running. That sounds normal to me.

I had a crank, no start happen to me many years ago and is perhaps a really dumb question but, is there ACTUALLY gas in it? Perhaps the gauge has gone wonky. I don't think this is actually your problem, but hey might be worth making sure before you bring it to a shop and pay labor rates.

Good luck!

 

O-scoping the injector pulses, yikes, hope you don't end up there. If the plug is wet you can probably smell the gas on it.

 

2009 JCW is an N14 motor.

Lack of codes points to more likely a problem with crank or cam position sensor.

You can read the fuel pressure at the rail with Foxwell. But unless you're getting no pressure, you would get something, and then the car would die. Having experience with cars that sit, I'd be more inclined to say this is a wiring issue (check harnesses for rodent intrusion).

Here's a link to a mechanic troubleshooting a similar problem in a non-turbo model. Maybe it helps.

 

Yep, it has a half tank, when I last parked it I had just recently put gas it it, so I know for a fact that's not the issue.

I've been through that exact video along with a few of the other ones... I was actually following his procedure step by step and I came to a few discoveries. I definitely do not have spark. I pulled the plug, grounded it and when i cranked it, I'm not getting a spark at the electrode at all.

I went through the underhood fuel relay break out and while I'm getting power at pins 1&3 as I should, I'm only getting a ground signal at pin 4, when pin 5 should be reading ground as well. That's issue #1.
Issue #2 has been traced an issue at the JBE or fuel pump relay. I tested the lp fuel pump, and it's not coming on as it should. I pulled the fuel pump relay at the JBE like the Bentley states, and jumped the two terminals to force the pump on, no dice there.. Read voltage at the fuel pump plug and I'm not getting voltage there. I attached power directly to the pump and it came on as it should. I have adequate rail pressure when cranking the motor; I wasn't able to test pre hpfp pressure, but once I forced the low pump on, I'm 'assuming' that I have the 70ish psi as I should.
I'm leaning towards a bad JBE, which I will pull sometime in the next few days and take a look at.
The new crank sensor showed up right as I was wrapping up, and i decided that I'm done for the day..
Everything that I've been watching and reading is pointing to the JBE as the culprit for both issues, so I guess that we'll see when I get it out of the car..

and rodents are a non-factor. the car is garage kept, and we don't have a rodent issue here at all.

 

More discoveries.... So the new crank sensor came in, even though I doubt that's the issue, I swapped it out with no change.. I'm really trying to diagnose this and not just throw parts at it, but at least now I have a spare.
Pulled the JBE apart and it "looks" fine. I can't see the bottom of the fp relay without pulling the boards apart, so that's where I'm at with that.

After doing a quick test that I should have done yesterday, I found that I have no coil control. Hooked a test light to the green wire of each coil and verified that I have a light with the start button on, light dims slightly as it should while cranking. moved test light to the coil signal wire and it's illuminating like it should, but when i crank it, there is no change.. That tells me there is nothing controlling the coils. Which means a potential DME (ecu) issue or a relay issue. After testing the DME relay, I found that I have no ground being supplied from pin 28 from the DME When I pull the dme plug, I have continuity, but not at the DME Pin. I jumped a ground to pin 28 and now have ground as I should at the relay. Still no ground at pin 5 of the coil relay, which I will tackle tomorrow.

I'm starting to realize that the K24 swap that I have in mind might happen sooner than I thought.. At least I won't have to deal with the Mini DME

 

Do the coils get battery voltage?

 

Yeah, I'm getting power at the coils, I'm just not getting coil control from the DME. I'm missing 2 grounds that the DME should be providing but they're not there. I was able to provide one by jumpering the dme relay, but I haven't had the time to get a ground to the coil relay and see if I can make some progress.

From what I'm looking at in the diagram, that would also explain why the LP pump isn't coming on when the start button is pressed.. I'm pretty sure that I have an issue with my DME.

 

A common way to cause a no-spark issue is to forget to reconnect the valve cover ground after doing engine work. If you crank the engine without the valve cover ground connected, the DME will often be damaged and a no-spark condition will result.

Edit: Checking the resistance across the valve cover ground connection may be worthwhile.

 

Thanks for the great input! The valve cover hasn't been off as long as I've owned the car, and as far as the documentation that I have shows, the prior owner has the head freshened up with a new timing chain, seals and guides about a year before I bought it from him. (The car was very well maintained and has meticulous record keeping).
That said, after reading this, I did go through it and look at the grounds and they're all solid, and I have solid continuity.

I watched that video, and right now, I think that I have watched every single youtube video made about no start/no spark conditions. Seriously, I've been trying to figure this out

Like I mentioned previously, this car was my DD and ran flawlessly right up until I parked it a while back when I started traveling pretty heavily for work.

Another issue did pop up though and I don't know if it's related or a side symptom, but when attempting to jumper in a ground to the coil relay, when I inserted a jumper into one of the ground spots, one of the other relays started to cycle. The relay socket had a bit of excessive movement, that wasn't related to the removable pin covers that are in the under hood fuse box. I pulled the fuse box and discovered that one of the layers of electrical paths that run vertically was making contact with the path below it. If any of you have ever taken the under hood fuse box apart, you know that it is assembled in layers consisting of contact plates and plastic insulator plates. I will try and take some pictures later on and post them for info.

I'm done trouble shooting for now. I have to go out of town for a few weeks, so this is getting put on hold.. I'll put the fuse box back together when I get back and if I'm still seeing the same issues, I'm gonna send the DME out to get looked at because this is starting to get past my knowledge level..