BMW E36 Forum

I turn on the car and it immediately revs up to 2000rpm or even higher when it's cold outside then it sputters down to a rough 1500 rpm idle. Sometimes when it's very cold in the morning it will just sputter till the engine shuts off. I give it gas for a few minutes and leave it at 3000 rpm for the engine to warmup and then it'll settle back down to a somewhat rough idle of 1500 rpm. At stop lights, the engine usually idles in-between 1800-2000 rpm when the engine is warm. The lower the rpm's get, the more the car jumps and sputters. The engine usually dies if it dips down to 1000 rpm(when I start it in very cold weather without giving it gas)
I love this car but this is a very serious and annoying problem
PLEASE HELP!!!!!! 200k miles auto tranny 1996 BMW 328i

Sounds like you have 1 very sick BMW
Try having a look under the bonnet for any cracks in the inlet pipes if there are any try taping the cracks up to see if that helps if it does replace
You could then try removing the spark plugs and checking that you have a spark at each 1 when you remove them check to see if any are wet or look a different colour to the others. if there is 1 thats not working try swapping it to test if there is still no spark try swapping the lead other than that it could be anything and would recomend a trip to your friendly mechanic.
Tese are just a couple of very basic things you can check yourself b4 you bend over in front of the mechanic and leave him all your hard earned reddies...... hopefully someone else might have a couple of simple ideas as well
taking the motor upto 3000 rpm when it's cold is definatly not a good idea unless you want a whole new motor

check out (rough idle) note i left elsewhere this sounds like a classic intake/vaccum leak the maf doesnt know whats happenning, the bellowed intake pipe will be split i bet ya !

ill have my mechanic take a look for intake/vaccum leaks and I will prolly order hoses, gaskets, and connectors from pelican parts if necessary. i also have 2 bad ignition coils and idk if my o2 sensors need replacing. o2 sensors for bmw are pricy
I took it to BMW dealer in greenwood IN for alignment and the did a great job
i used a couple and only paid $147 for everything, got free drinks and free car wash
idk if they will be this cheap when is comes to leaks and engine work