Annoying 525i idle problem

[ber55ber55]

1990 5-spd 525i - m20 SOHC - manufactured 05/90
Located in SoCal
123k miles on the car

Okay, my 5 series....great car....couple issues im workin on...idle is one of them

IDLE

when i start the car cold....runs fine.....but...if i start the car after its been run (like 15min-1hr later) the idle goes between 200 and 2k rpms irradically until i drive for a while. I already replaced the intake manifold gasket because it was leaking. Thought this was the prolbem.

WHAT ELSE COULD IT BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (IDLE REGULATOR VALVE - but if it was this, would the idel be jacked all the time?)

[BillionPa]

heat can cause the ICV to mess up, could be a couple of other things though.

like the PCV system (oil thins out and starts getting into the intake through leaky valve) or the o-rings along the intake manifold area: engine warms up, plastic expands, orings dont, leak occurs.

if you havent already, replace the distributor cap and rotor, they are cheap and the car runs quite a bit nicer with fresh ones.

[DaveVoorhis]

like the PCV system (oil thins out and starts getting into the intake through leaky valve) or the o-rings along the intake manifold area: engine warms up, plastic expands, orings dont, leak occurs.

It's an M20. No PCV valve, no intake O-rings, no plastic.

I'd guess a flaky ICV.

[BillionPa]

and somehow i know that, as evidenced by the distributor comment, yet decided to blurt out nonsense anyway!

[Bill R.]

are dripping and puddling fuel in the manifold and the icv is going for a short time trying to adjust the idle will all this extra fuel or possibly the tps is sticking and not at the idle position after the car warms up.

1990 5-spd 525i - m20 SOHC - manufactured 05/90
Located in SoCal
123k miles on the car

Okay, my 5 series....great car....couple issues im workin on...idle is one of them

IDLE

when i start the car cold....runs fine.....but...if i start the car after its been run (like 15min-1hr later) the idle goes between 200 and 2k rpms irradically until i drive for a while. I already replaced the intake manifold gasket because it was leaking. Thought this was the prolbem.

WHAT ELSE COULD IT BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (IDLE REGULATOR VALVE - but if it was this, would the idel be jacked all the time?)

[cableface]

I had almost the same problem two weeks ago except the RPMs also fluctuated when I was coasting. I cleaned the ICV and everything is A-Okay. Acutally, I just squirted some WD-40 in it. I didnt even really clean it. Seriously, it was incredibly similar to your symtoms.

[ber55ber55]

alright...im going to try .....its just the most irritating nonsense ive ever experienced with any car..

[cableface]

alright...im going to try .....its just the most irritating nonsense ive ever experienced with any car..

Tell me about it. I looked, looked, and looked again for a vacuum leak but there was none to be found. It was the ICV the whole time. I laughed when a couple squirts of penetrate fixed the prob.

[The Melmaan]

I'm experiencing the same problem at this time but the issue I think is the pedal cable is sticking intermittently. I still have not worked on it yet. I will see if I could thinker around with it this weekend.

[t_marat]

I had an idle issue before. My problem was that after the engine is fully warmed up, it would not hold idle properly. While cold no problem. turned out to be dead MAF. Yours must be AFM, did you check that?