Cold weather engine problems

[dahifi]

Hello all,

My 2001 530i manual has developed a bit of an issue this winter season. I'll see a rough idle within a minute or two of starting the car while I'm loading up my daughter, but the issue will persist while I'm driving. The car will jerk and stutter while I'm driving down the road, especially when making throttle adjustments. I don't get a check engine light, but the car has even stalled out a few times when pulling into my daughters day care, which is about 5 miles from my house and requires a sharp u-turn to enter. I turn the car off and drop her off, and when I start my ride home it's smooth sailing.

I've replaced the CCV just over 3 years ago, about 40-50K miles. Just changed the spark plugs but the noticed the idle stuttering after running about a minute or so, so I'm I'm assuming I'm still going to have problems on the road.

What's my next course of action?

[edjack]

My guess would be a sticky or faulty idle control valve.

Get the codes read. There may be some pending codes lurking.

[NeilM]

When you replaced the CCV did you use the cold weather kit upgrade version? This sound like a classic CCV system freeze failure.

Neil

[dwint21]

Unless they started wiring in some heaters to the CCV, the little piece of foam for cold weather won't stop it from freezing.

A better question would be, do you do a lot of short drives in freezing weather and let your car sit for long periods between these drives. Also maybe what brand CCV.

[NeilM]

Unless they started wiring in some heaters to the CCV, the little piece of foam for cold weather won't stop it from freezing. A better question would be, do you do a lot of short drives in freezing weather and let your car sit for long periods between these drives. Also maybe what brand CCV.

Maybe, maybe not. However the point still stands: sounds like a classic CCV issue.

Neil