BMW 323i 1999 takes a long time to start in mornings and after short layoff. Engines seems not to want to crank. Battery OK. Changed sensors, fuel pump & relay. Dealer cant find fault. Starts after long journey for a few days but then goes into limbo. Chaged top gasket last year and since then intermittent problem has occured.

For crank i think your alignment has been compromised and if your car is not in starting condition then you need to tow to experienced BMW service provider for realignment.

for bmw 1999 323i

On the 2.0 and 2.4 engines there is an ignition module that fires the coil from input from the computer and sensors.
You may have to get a shop manual to have the testing procedures needed to check the module.

I rencently had the same problem. Lasted a week or two before it threw a code. Ended up just being a camshaft position sensor. Replaced sensor, now it runs like new. Just be careful with the crankcase breather hose, it's very brittle!

No danger involved, just useless. If ONE vehicle won't jump it, there's something drastically wrong with the engine. A charging system will only charge a max of 14 volts when charging a low or dead battery. Over that will hurt something. If you have two vehicles connected to your low battery, there's still only 14 volts going out from them and into yours. There is no reason why one jump vehicle won't charge and start your vehicle. Unless of course the jumped battery is really bad or has a bad/dirty connection. So clean your terminals before a jump. You may not need a jump.

Have the computer scanned Auto Zone may do this for free to see if you have any stored sensor malfunction codes in the system if so this is the way to ease your search finding the culprit, what you explaining sounds like an engine that is "surging" which could be an IAC(Idle Aior Control) motor...code should be stored to verify this...what happens is the inside of this part, that is located in the fuel injector body, has a pintle(pin) that moves forward abnd backward it is controlled by the computerelectronically, the signal it gets, allows the pin to lean out the mixture by having the pintle move backwards off its "seat" thus allowing more air to flow with the fuel mixture then fuel which is determined by throttle position(idle versus WOT..Wide Open Throttle), or to richen the fuel mixture which signals the IAC to move its pin more toward the tiny seat and close off or limit the amount of air into the fuel mixture...if the pin gets carboned up and freezes in one position the engines performance is greatly hindered and thus can cause the syurge/hunting/stalling/stumbling that you describe, over the years I have tried to clean these pins with cleaners etc. but to no avail. it has a 90% failure rate so I just suk it up and replace them, using fuel injector additive helps keep them clean(Chevron) black plastic container.
Hope this helps!!
Happy Motoring!!

is it getting fuel??? u might have a bad fuel pump

check cam Positioning sensors

i would try getting the ecu checked over and check the dizzy cap for cracks.