Tomo 0 Report post Posted September 27, 2007 Hi guys ive got a serious problem with the idle on my 318i. Half the time it acts completely normal, idles smoothly at 800rpm, and the other half it drops down around 500rpm, causing it to rev all over the place and stutter, and quite often stall (it stalled twice for no reason today while i was driving) what could be the cause of this? I took it to a mechanic (who im not going back to for various reasons) and he has replaced the vacuum hoses on the inlet side to no avail. Help! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jpp 0 Report post Posted September 27, 2007 Could be a few things, and getting quite common. I had BM Workshop look at my 320i, took them 3 days of labour, several parts and a dent later. They had changed the dizzy, rotor, exhaust gasket, some air inflow things, plugs etc... I don't think it was a simple one fix, was more of a several things had gone wrong -- probably due to one thing with flow on effect. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
HELLBM 1531 Report post Posted September 27, 2007 In this order check; Idle control valve,Throttle position sensor and then Air flow meter assuming there are no vacuum leaks. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tomo 0 Report post Posted September 27, 2007 In this order check; Idle control valve,Throttle position sensor and then Air flow meter assuming there are no vacuum leaks. thanks ill have them looked at. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EVLE30 0 Report post Posted September 27, 2007 thanks ill have them looked at. my car is doing the same thing, FL 318i. i've checked for vaccum leaks and didn't find any. mine is doing bascially the same thing. start it up, it runs beautfiully. next time you start it up while its warm, it won't idle. Tomo: let me know how you get on and where you go to get them looked at. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tomo 0 Report post Posted September 28, 2007 my car is doing the same thing, FL 318i. i've checked for vaccum leaks and didn't find any. mine is doing bascially the same thing. start it up, it runs beautfiully. next time you start it up while its warm, it won't idle. Tomo: let me know how you get on and where you go to get them looked at. will do Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
keen 6 Report post Posted October 7, 2007 Try this it may help. take the idle control valve off and get a can of throttle body cleaner spray it into the inlet and outlet holes,use plenty and keep this up till you can rock the body back and forward and you can hear a crisp action from inside and clean fluid comes out of the holes.then replace the the hoses from the throttle body to the idle valve and from the valve back to the intake.The problem is that the breather hose from the cam cover takes the dirty oil and returns it to the throttle body. vortexes forward to the idle valve pickup and the dirty oil causes the idle valve to become sticky and not function properly giving the fluctuation in idle. My theory, I,m not perfect but it worked on mine. Hope it helps you. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Phatputer 3 Report post Posted October 15, 2007 Recently with my 318i I had the same issue, turns out it was just a split in the hose after the air/fuel sensor. Bit of tape later, and confirmed the problem fixed, now its just a case of tracking down or coming up with an alternative fix for it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
