E39 cold stall/rough idle & temp weirdness

[Matthew Zahorik <matt@xxxxxxxx>]

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Howdy all:

- - -- Symptoms:

   I have a '99 528i that has developed a worsening cold start idle.

   At low temperatures (still in the blue) it will almost die then surge, 
run fine for 30 seconds or so, stumble, surge, etc.

   When it gets to the edge of the blue, chances are good that it stumbles 
and dies.  Once warm, it idles fine.

   If you restart it immediately after stalling, it's likely to warm up the 
rest of the way without stalling, although I've seen it stall twice.

   Weirdness:  Sometimes after stalling and a immediate restart, the 
temperature gauge immediately shoots all the way to hot and pins itself to 
the right.  Stopping the car and restarting returns the temperature gauge 
to normal.  Happens about 20% of the time I need to restart.

   Note: I haven't tracked gas mileage, so I don't know if it is 
significantly worse than before.

- - -- Solutions?

   Now I figure the culprit is the usual ICV, but I'm not familiar with the 
E39's motor.  Also, the weird temperature gauge behavior has me wondering 
is the temperature sensor is shot, or if the immediate restart confuses the 
ECU and causes the console gauge to pin at hot.

   Thoughts?

   Thanks!

- - - Matt

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