Cranks, No-start, CEL will not light up.

[benz-tech]

Hey all,
My '91 318i won't start. I did a stomp test immediately after I shut the car off and got 1444 (no codes). Thereafter, the CEL won't even come on. The car cranks but doesn't even try to fire. A few bits of info: mess under the intake cleaned up with all new boots, has an aftermarket chip installed. I verified 12v at pin 26 and grounds at both pin 28 and 34. Sounds like a bad ECU to me but maybe someone else has some insight.

[benz-tech]

small update: I don't have power at pin 54. My battery is in the trunk, where the batt would be under the hood is a block of wires on what is the would-be battery + terminal. There is no power at the top bunch of wires, but they are on the plastic body. I've serched for pictures. I will also try to download one to help explain. Do I need to have power at this terminal?

[benz-tech]

I will answer my question above: Yes, you should have power at that terminal. I had 0v yesterday when I but today I had 2.5v which made it much easier to trace. I dug around in the trunk and found a cobbed up fusible link with wires half soldiered to it loosely in an attempt to bridge the blown fuse. l have strip fuses from MB that I will use to permamently repair it.

[colin86325]

Glad you found the problem.  Make sure you use the correct amp fuse; I can't recall its rating but you can probably google "fusible link repair" and find the spec.

[DesktopDave]

Glad you found the problem - IIRC it's an 80 amp.

BTW, a bad crank sensor will cause a no-start condition without setting a CEL.  If you perform the stomp test you'll get a 1444 'all is OK' code.  The crank sensor should ohm out about 640, give or take 10%.  Cam sensor should be about 1280, but won't cause a no-start.