Hey fellas, bear with me, bit of a long 'un.

It started at work yesterday, i'd abandoned the motor for a few days as the snow was too bad and was planning on driving it back last night. Cleared the snow off the car, reconnected the battery and it started first time but was majorly low on fuel. Chanced it to the nearest petrol station to find it had shut and headed off to the next nearest one. Turned the engine off at the lights to save petrol and *click*... starter motor was stuck.

Purely by luck Xav was passing and helped me bump start it, running like a bag of crap due to the lack of fuel I assumed, it wouldn't rev over 3krpm and kept hesitating. Anyway got me to the petrol station, brimmed it, got another bump start and got the motor home.

Had a look today and swapped over a diesel starter I had lying around, it cranked first time and ran at 900rpm idle as per usual but the starter made a horrible bearing type noise, so whipped everything back off and realised I hadn't put the little locating dowel in the middle bolt hole. Fitted everything again, put it all back together and the car turned over with no squealing noise, but now... it won't fire

Checked everything I could think of:

TPS
MAP
ICV
Throttle body heater
Power steering pump all plugged in
Vacuum hoses all present and correct
Throttle body and cable all fitted correctly and working freely
Manifold fitted nice and snug with a PTFE gasket and a smidge of sealant
Coil packs all getting a +ve and sparking
Spark plugs all removed and cleaned, had a bit of fuel on them presumably from turning the engine over
Fuel lines removed and refitted, pump priming and pumping on ignition-on
Inertia switch reset
Two different known working batteries

What else could it be? Starter motor's absolutely fine, it's getting fuel and air and unless someone stole my pistons its getting compression. All I can think of is CPS, which I do believe is the bluey-green coloured plug up by the cambelt cover? It also won't bumpstart now either, but the starter motor spins the engine fine so I know it's not the belt that's gone. Did a coolant flush a month ago with a winter mix of 60:40 water:antifreeze so the coolant should be safe to -20degrees or so.

Doing my nutsack in.

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Bye bye Sundance Kid

Plugs have all been cleaned and all spark

Been doing some reading, crank sensor is my next port of call. f*ck knows hom I'm gonna get hold of one in this weather though...

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Bye bye Sundance Kid

The plugs were wet, hence taking them out and cleaning them. The fuel lines aren't blocked either.

The spark i was getting wasn't continual spark, just an intermittent one every few cranks.

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Bye bye Sundance Kid

Good call, heard a lot about the relay. Also might have disturbed the gearbox earth when i was fiddling with the starter motor, had to move quite a few wires out the way.

Fuel filter is only a couple of months old but I guess it's full of crap from running the tank so low

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Bye bye Sundance Kid

Right, spent the day fiddling about with stuff and hopefully getting somewhere.

Cleaned up the battery terminals
Earth points cleaned and copper greased: Gearbox, two on chassis leg
All plugs checked over and WD40'd
Relay behind ECU checked and cleaned
All plugs present and correct

Battery is now being charged, fingers crossed that'll sort it

The two earthing points on the N/S chassis leg were corroded as hell, they weren't touched when changing the starter motor but you never know, could be a coincidence they've packed up already.

Mab, the MAP is fine, can't see any breaks in the wiring either.

Also, is there only one gearbox earth? I found one at the back of the gearbox that joins the loom connected to the coilpacks, have i missed any down there?

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Bye bye Sundance Kid

Good shout, but checked the teeth by turning the engine over by hand when I refitted it

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Bye bye Sundance Kid

Mei you said a faulty TDC sensor would mean no spark at all, could a faulty one cause intermittent spark?

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Bye bye Sundance Kid

I bloody hope not!

Going to pick up a pressure gauge and to a compression test this week. The car was running one minute, turned it off to tidy up some bolts and plugs and now it won't start. That's what's confusing me, something's happened between turning it off then back on again.

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Bye bye Sundance Kid

Starter ring's fine

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Bye bye Sundance Kid

Mother f*cker. I wish I knew that before I fitted mine. Oh well the sealant will have been burnt by now.

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Ex SC-6

Now in a Megane R26