Cosmo

Evening gents, am hoping some of you boys nay have some knowledge of BMW's?

I have a workhorse 1994 325td (with 188k on it) which i use for towning the 3dr and for the daily treck to work, the car has always had a poor start up from cold since i bought it a few months back, but it would always eventually start and then would run without any problems, very smooth.

That was up until yesterday when without warning on a motorway the car suddenly lost power, felt like someone had put the brakes on! I noticed that no matter how hard i pushed the accelerator the car was slowing down, it didnt appear to run rough, was still smooth as far as i could tell, i pulled over and the engine died on me, attempts to start the engine again failed.

I had a look at the engine and noticed a large air bubble in the plastic pipe that goes from the filter to the injection pump, so i used the hand primer pump to try and re-pressurise the system, trouble was that no matter how much i pumped the hand pump i could not remove the air bubble, it alaways cam back within a second or 2. I tried the engine again, it sprang into life for 2 seconds or so then died again, after that i couldnt get it going.

After a tow home i've had chance to have a quick look today, again using the hand pump i tried to remove the air and re-pressurise the system, without success, i've had a torch out and been looking for leaks all over the pump, injectors, pipework and it all looks dry? I removed the rear seat and exposed the in-tank pump (so far i've only looked at the driver side one not sure if thats the main one or not?) I then went to turn the ignition on to see if i could hear the pump make a noise, when i did this the dash lights came on as normal but the glow plug light and injector light flashed up intermittantly and as they did so all the other dash lights/service lights etc dimmed, even the interior light dimmed, i assumed it was because the car had sat with its hazards and sidelights on for several hours the day before (recovery truck took 3hrs!) and the battery was a bit dead, so i plugged the battery into a battery charger to give it power - still the lights did this strange flashing and the car refused to even crank when the ignition was turned?? I've no idea if the 2 problems are related, the car did crank over fine yesterday after the engine had died and its only sat on my drive overnight, the only difference now is the engine is cold i suppose?

So it turns out i have 2 problems, it looks as though i cant get fuel pressure, is this the pump or injector pump etc?? Seems strange i cant remove the air bubble with the hand pump but cant see any leaks? And for the car to stop while in motion (about 70 Mph at the time) must relate to lack of fuel?

And also the strange no turn over which i swear looks like a dead battery? But i would have thought running the battery through a charger plugged into the mains would give it enough "umph" to at least crank?

Anyone got any ideas, i use the car for work and am desperate to get it running again as fast as possible, and with christmas wiping out all of my cash am looking to do the job on a shoestring budget!

Sorry for the essay, just hoping someone can help me! I only know cossies not BMW's unfotunately.

Thanks

Lee