Was hoping to get some insight and maybe ideas on what else to check that I haven't already. 2011 JCW with the N14. I am getting a cranking, no start.

Back at the end of August, I parked my JCW for a couple weeks and drove my other vehicle while I had some family in town. The day I parked it, it threw a CEL. Scanned the codes and found one for the O2 sensor. Thought it was a little fluke as I replaced the O2 sensor in August of 2022. I cleared the code thinking I will come back to it when I drive it again and also to see if it will come back on. Fast forward 2 weeks, I went to go smog it. I started it and it started just fine. I let it run for about 5 minutes, and pulled it out into the driveway where I let it run for about another 5 minutes or so. Gathered my things and hopped in. I backed out of the driveway and shifted to first and took off. I got it up to around 2500k-3k before shifting to 2nd. I let out the clutch and stepped on the gas, and it bogs all the way down. I throw it in neutral and try to rev it up a little, and it dies. I start it back up, and it fires up immediately. I go to take off again and it runs fine, except I notice my AFR is running a little lean. I grab second gear, and again, bogs and shuts down. I coast up to the stop sign, start it up again and rev it to about 3k and it runs/sounds fine. I take off down the street and come up to the next stop sign where it dies. This time, it won't start. So I get it home, start taking a look at it, can't find anything noticeably wrong with it. After sitting for a few minutes, it will start again. I took my little scan tool and scanned it, no codes. I stopped messing with it for the coming weeks as I just got busy and didn't want to deal with it. In November, I decided to buy a new O2 sensor since that was the only code that came up prior, and my AFR gauge was reading lean. Swapped that out, and nothing. I borrowed a nice scan tool from a shop I used to work at so I could monitor things, and found nothing out of the ordinary. No codes, and all seemed well. But yet it would still not run correctly. Now, if I let it idle for about 5-7 minutes, it would start to sputter and would eventually die. Again, no codes or anything. At this point, I had a feeling it was the HPFP. The one I currently have is a used one I purchase back in 2020 that had about 30k miles on. I put about another 25k on it. I was very confident that this was the issue as it wasn't running right and AFR was still a bit lean. And if I revved it up, it wouldn't go past 2500k without going immediately lean and then falling on its face. As soon as you let off the gas, it would come back to idle very rough and die after about 30 seconds. Next, the first week of December, I went to the junkyard and was able to grab another HPFP. It has unknown miles on, but I thought if it would at least run, then I knew for sure it was that and would purchase a new one. I got home, slapped on the junkyard HPFP. Nothing. Wouldn't even start. I all of a sudden couldn't hear my in tank fuel pump priming when unlocking the doors or opening the door or while turning over the motor. So I immediately ordered a new one. The one that was in there was replaced in early 2020. I put it in, and still, nothing. Just turns over. I took out the junkyard HPFP and installed the original I had in it, nothing.

So, what I have done. I have tested the power and grounds for the in tank fuel pump. I have verified with a power and grounds that the pump is indeed pumping. I have heard with a stethoscope, that it is running when the car is turning over. I also have pulled the fuel hose at the HPFP and tried to start the car, to verify fuel was flowing out of the tank. It is. I have also blown out the lines from the tank to the HPFP to verify it is not clogged. All good. I have checked the fuel filter on the passenger side tank, even removed it to see if it was clogged. Nothing.
I then checked the connector at the HPFP, verified it is getting power while the vehicle is on. It is good.
I received a BRAND NEW HPFP today, replaced it, no go. Nothing still.
I have checked the fuses and relays. I checked the passenger side fuse box, fuel pump fuse, and relay over there. Fuse has power. Relay has power coming in, and I can audibly hear the relay clicking on and off when needed.
I have checked the relays in the engine compartment fuse box. Specifically the one that starts the engine. It is getting power. And for fun, I swapped it out with another relay to test, and still no start.
With all this, I don't REALLY think it is electrical as it all seems to be working and turning on. I have read about the passenger fuse box burning up, I don't really see that being the case here. I could be wrong though.

I have checked the timing. The timing chain was done in early 2023. Has been running great since then. I verified it was aligned. I verified that the Vanos unit on the camshaft was torqued and timed properly.
After checking the timing, I checked for spark. I only checked on cylinder 1, but it had spark. Spark plugs and coils have less than 10k miles on it. I verified the ground was "grounding" on the valve cover.
I inspected the cylinders with a borescope camera. They're all there lol. Nothing out of the ordinary, and nothing seems off.
I have gone over most (75%) of the wiring. In the engine bay and back to the fuel pump. I don't see any problems that a rodent could have done or anything. I have checked the FRM, nothing looks burnt or anything. I had this rebuilt in 2021.

I am at a loss of what it could be. The only things that I have not been able to check are:
Compression (waiting for my adapter to come)
Fuel Injectors
Anything else that may come to mind...

For the things I haven't checked. I had my cylinder head rebuilt in 2023 and that is when the timing chain got done as well. It has been running great since then. And fuel injectors, I did not replace them when I removed them. It is on my list of things to eventually do. I can't verify if they are leaking or anything because it will not start. I can't imagine all 4 went out.
I will be getting the nice scan tool from that shop again this weekend to see if I can runs some more tests, but I am not too sure what I am going to be looking for or even expecting. The only thing that comes to mind is I might be able to monitor Injector cycle, spark, and also relearn the Vanos to see if that helps.

Anybody have some other insight? Thank you!

 

Do you have an Ultraguage or other scanner that can show flow rate at the fuel rail? I understand that the HPFP has been replaced many times but Ive had the same issue, replaced it 3 times and it was until I ordered one from FCPEuro and paid and arm and leg did I fix it....but if you can see if the fuel pressure, you should be able to determine if its fueling at all. Check grounds, vacuum leaks, cam sensor, vanos, ect.

 

Currently no scanner to do that. Will be borrowing one from shop this weekend so I can monitor. New one i just put on was from ECS. Like you, paid an arm and a leg lol.
Grounds have all been checked. Vacuum leaks shouldn't be an issue, but haven't checked in a minute. When I did the head, I replaced all the vacuum tubing. I checked all my turbo hoses, they are all on. Cam sensor and vanos will be looked at with scanner this weekend. I checked vanos cam gear, that's good. I'd imagine the cam sensor would throw a code. Crank sensor was replaced in 2022.
Thanks for the ideas!

 

Hope you get it figured out, I know how frustrating and annoying it can be....but Im sure its something stupid that never crossed your mind if it isnt one of these things...

Make sure to check Intake tubes, Intercooler, throttle body coupling, ect!

 

Yeah it is lol.

I will double check everything this weekend. Hopefully that scanner will tell me something I can't see.
Thanks for the replies!

 

Just an update for this. I got it started.

Was able to borrow the nice scan tool this weekend to monitor everything. First thing I did saturday morning was to install the new fuel filter that I didn't the other day when I installed the fuel pump. Got that in and went to verify compression. Compression all came back great at about 10-10.5 Bar. Put everything back and plugged in the nice scan tool. Went to fire it up to see what the scan tool sees, and it fired. Still kind of at a loss at this point. It's more shocking to me than anything.
So what I am thinking is, the fuel filter acts as something that allows that module to build pressure. I know there is a pressure regulator on that side as well. But I am assuming that when I put the new fuel filter in, (the old one was very black and dirty with 90k miles on it) it was able to build pressure needed to get up to the fuel pump as needed and maintain flow. Plus the clean filter probably helped being clean. When I tried to run it without a filter, it didn't hold pressure and couldn't feed the motor.
Anyways, it fired and has been running well. Got to drive it all weekend.

 

just an fyi, I installed a fuel filter recently and the engine wouldn't start.... It turned out to be the large o ring had slipped (Hengst filter and I think the supplied o ring was a little too big allowing it to slip down when I was putting it back together.). After allowing the pump to prime 4-5 times with no luck, I decided something was very wrong and decided to reinstall -and found the large o ring all mangled..... I used the old o ring (thank goodness I kept it) and used sil glyde to hold it in place and had immediate success with the engine starting.

So I think your thought of the filter holding pressure is probably very correct!

 

I had a similar experience and to make a long story short the issue was the solder joint on the fuel pump relay located on the Printed circuit board near passenger foot area. My conclusion was, as the fuel pump relay operated the solder joint world heat up and suddenly stop the fuel pump from working. After the car sat for a few i could start driving again. It was so hot on the solder joint it melted the solder when in operation.

I removed the circuit board (requires dismantling the two boards) and re-soldered the pins on the fuel pump relay. It's been running perfect now for over a year.

 

Lol dang how did you figure that one out? I tested that relay and everything going through my diagnosis and I would imagine if you test it while cold, it's fine. But even so, you wouldn't be able to really test it while hot and see the solder melt right? Unless you somehow rigged it up so you could watch it do it

 

I read about all the fuel issues I could find and after installing a new fuel filter, new fuel pump (in tank) and new high pressure fuel pump - it was one of the last things I read about. I actually took the car to the mechanic and they couldn't fix or find the issues so I did it.

After taking out the PCB I examined the solder joint on the fuel relay with a 10x and could visibly see the cold joint.