Let me start off by saying I'm Mike and hello, I have been reading on here for about 5 months. I own a 1990 535i (manual ofcourse )and have had it for about 9 months. I love this car but had some things I wanted to learn about and that's how I came across this site. You guys rock. Straight and simple. Now to my short, confusing, story.

It was a warm 8 degrees in Ma today. I had to run out to drop some stuff off at the post office. I got in my car and pushed in the clutch and turned the key. They engine hesitated to start but succumbed to my will When it started it sounded aweful. Very noisey and something else weird happened. While letting it warm up I took my foot off the clutch and the rpms dropped and seemed like it was going to kill the engine. So I then press the clutch to keep the car from dying and sure enough the rpms go back up. I checked to see if I was a dimwit and had it in gear. Not likely but possible. Nope. In neutral but just to make sure I double checked and wiggled it and set it back in neutral. I let off the clutch again and same thing. Now just for the heck of it I released the parking brake and tried again. This time in neutral while letting go of the clutch the car rolls forward (it was not rolling before releasing the clutch). Still in bewilderment but needing to go to the post office I drove it and about 1 mile away the car warmed up enough and sounded a lot smoother so I try the clutch in neutral just out of curiosity, no rpm drop, all is normal.
Oh and one last thing, while driving during cold weather I hear a squeal from the engine. I'm quite sure it's a belt. Any idea which one. Does it need replacing if it squeals or is it normal? Maybe needs tightening or something? I hear other cars do this too while driving. I've done some work on cars but I don't know everything so I thought I'd ask before replacing stuff that doesn't need it. Especially with the part about the car moving in neutral. That beats the hell out of me.

Any idea what's going on?

Any ideas or suggestions are appreciated. If you don't know that's fine too. It's just an honor to be posting here with you guys. P.S. That EAT chip looks tempting