Car Idling funny

Thu Jan 03, 2008 4:33 pm

Hi guys, my cars struggling to start in the mornings and when its does it starts to idle up and down...like its caughing or something.

Anyone got any ideas as to what it could be.??

Car was serviced about 3/4 months back.

Regards

Rips

Thu Jan 03, 2008 4:34 pm

Air leak?

Thu Jan 03, 2008 4:42 pm

When you say air leak, could that mean the air filter too.

I'v recently changed my air filter to a BMC induction kit.

Thu Jan 03, 2008 5:31 pm

to asses for air leak ( inlet, plenumn or bellows ) run the car to warm idle, and remove the oil filler cap, if the inlet side is airtight the car should hunt and run poorly whilst the cap is off.

should there be no change, then you have a leak somewhere, spray carb cleaner in the area and listen for the idle to smooth out/speed up, then investigate further.

some M42 and late M20 have cats and lambda probes, these failing could cause the issues you have.

HTH

Thu Jan 03, 2008 5:51 pm

Ant wrote:to asses for air leak ( inlet, plenumn or bellows ) run the car to warm idle, and remove the oil filler cap, if the inlet side is airtight the car should hunt and run poorly whilst the cap is off.

should there be no change, then you have a leak somewhere, spray carb cleaner in the area and listen for the idle to smooth out/speed up, then investigate further.

some M42 and late M20 have cats and lambda probes, these failing could cause the issues you have.

HTH

Cheers Ant...

I'll get on it soon as.

Rips

Thu Jan 03, 2008 6:21 pm

Keep us updated mate, mine is doing exactly the same thing (though it doesn't appear to struggle to start).

Tue Apr 08, 2008 1:04 pm

This sounds similat to the problem I have. Starts OK, but from cold the engine revs between 800-1100 rpm for about 30 seconds, then evens out. Try to pull away before it's evened out and it stalls, but after it's fine. The colder it is the worse it is.

91H 316i