RE: engine cuts out at idle - e36

[Greg Steinke <GSTEINKE@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Igshaan,
I had a problem on my 92 e36 (with m50 engine) that may be related. 
My problem was that one (or more, don't recall) of the coils was flaky. In
my case it was particularly bad when cold - when accelerating it would kind
of hiccup around 2000 rpm, pause, then kick in. Once warm it was all good.
The early e36s had some issues with the coils on the spark plugs, so they
would sometimes go bad and cause such a problem. Fixing this is important on
a car with a catalytic converter since the unburned mixture can foul the
converter. I don't know if you would have a catcon in ZA.
The other possibility that comes to mind is the idle control valve. This
could potentially be cleaned or replaced. My understanding is that it is
somewhat expensive to replace, so cleaning might be a good thing to try. I
don't know exactly how to do this however.
Well this is somewhat vague, but gives you something to think about.
Greg

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>From: "Noordien, Igshaan" <in1@domain.elided>
>Subject: engine cuts out at idle - e36
>
>Hi folks
>My e36 320 (small six) is due for a major service (260 000 km on odo) which
I'll be tackling myself. Yesterday driving home from work it >
>started to cut out everytime I coasted to a stop at a traffic light or in
bumper to bumper traffic. The revs would go right down to below 500 
>and cut out; sometimes it would kick back up to 700rpms and sometimes it
would idle normally. Also when it does idle it feels very rough - 
>as though there is a slight rocking motion coming from the engine. Any
ideas what this could be - I'd like to deal with it when I do the service.

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