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<E36 M3> <E36/7 M> Missing at idle



> I just left my dealer (9/18/98 AM) with the same kind of story on my 98
> M3/4 with 3600 miles on it. My car idles a bit rough and is a bit sluggish
> (retarded) the first couple minutes when first started up cold (overnight).
> It is annoying to be told that's NORMAL! My VW's never did that, including
> my highly motified 79 Scirocco. I asked the dealer whether one of the after
> market chip changes would help. He didn't know. I'm planning on a JimC's
> (but I'm also waiting for some time to get to the mountains)
> Thanks.
> George R Carr Jr

I have a 98 M roadster that does the same thing (when you first start it and give ita little bit of gas it stumbles and the RPMs go down).  This lasts for about 2 minutes.
I was at the Z3 homecoming athe factory in Greer over Labor Day and asked the
techs there (they had guys fixing problems and taking out dents- they were all
fantastic).  They said they never heard of the problem (denial is always the first answer
huh?- but again they were wonderful).  But one guy had an idea what it was.  This is
what he said:

In the M roadster there is a space up by the firewall on the passenger side that is
separated from the rest of the engine compartment (note: it was where the inital
96 Z3s had the battery located).  Now there is some compontents and one of them
is a second fan for the engine.  This fan comes on for the first 2 minutes (coincidence?)
after a cold start.  This fan blows air into the exhaust to heat it up to reduce emissions
(the M3 engine is a TLEV engine I think)- how that helps when the outside air is
around freeezing I don't know, or maybe the problem doesn't happen in the winter?
With the extra air the car runs lean causing the stumbling.  He said if that wasn't  the
problem, it wouldn't be easy or cheap to fix.

It is a bit annoying but I can live with it I think (it's still less than 3 months old).

Bruce
98 M roadster
97 Z3 1.9- sold to the parental units

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