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2002 325is Idle Surge and Oil Consumption

1K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  Dave 330i 
#1 ·
My brother's 2002 325is with approximately 190,000km has an occasional idle surge during which the idle will oscillate up and down more and more until the vehicle stalls or until you push the gas. It doesn't do this all the time and from what he's told me it is usually when he's slowing to a stop but I've experienced it just moving the car out of the driveway. Last summer we did the usual ICV cleaning (it was already pretty clean), checked for vacuum leaks, etc. but didn't find anything.

His car also consumes quite a bit of oil. I'd say probably around 1L/1000km. I'm not sure what the common causes of oil consumption are on an e46 so I haven't looked into it for him (although I like to brag that my 1999 323is with similar mileage idles fine and burns no oil at all haha).

Any suggestions on troubleshooting the surging idle? And are there any common, repairable reasons for oil consumption?
 
#2 ·
At this point, unless these were already done, that car needs the following:

VANOS seals

CVV (and all attendant hoses) replaced

Valve cover gasket

New plugs
 
#3 · (Edited)
The car does have new plugs but that's it. Would the valve cover gaskets leak oil externally because that is not the case with his car. The CVV is an interesting one, I wasn't aware of what that was until I googled it just now. The car also makes quite a loud "turbine" like noise and I was never sure what that could be...?
 
#4 · (Edited)
From what I read a vacuum leak is one of the more common issue with BMWs. When the "service engine soon' light came on. The dealer wanted to do a "smoke test" at $150 to find the problem and SA said the cost will apply to any repairs. I had that issue according to the "service engine soon" report, but it went away and the dealer never did the test. :dunno: The very infrequent idle surge went away and never returned. :thumbup:

Edit: Now the SES lamp came back on, but I have not felt any idle surge during stops, yet.
 
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