[BurrNinja]

Usually when its really cold like 10 below I start my car fine, sit till idle is right around 800 put in drive and idle drops down to nearly stalling at 500 rpm. This only happens when its really cold out. Is this completely normal with frigid temps?

[ChiNorm]

Nope.

Good luck.

[wcr3d]

Cold ya but my normal warm idle is like 600

[BurrNinja]

Originally Posted by wcr3d

Cold ya but my normal warm idle is like 600

Yes when my car warms up idle is steady 600 only issue is shifting from park to drive after car sits in below zero temps idle dips hard. Car doesnt stall either. What im asking is if its normal for the car to dip low shortly after turning car on and putting into drive/reverse during these frigid temps.

[RMNB]

Mine does the same thing when it's really cold. I just had my HPFP replaced 2 days ago but my car just doesn't like it when it's 0 outside. Idling dips, sometimes stalls, start up and go. It takes about 10 minutes or so to warm up while driving. All the fluids harden and stiffen when it's that cold...oil especially. We'll see if it still happens. Then who knows... another service bulletin fix for the injectors next probably. N63 engines...arggg!

[AZ-MCRacer]

It's times like these I love AZ the most. It was a cool 74 today.

[BurrNinja]

Originally Posted by AZ-MCRacer

It's times like these I love AZ the most. It was a cool 74 today.

-40°F wind chill Really sucks and seems harsh on my car. My heat is barely blowing air. Crazy how the car shuts off eletronics to save energy.

[keeyu]

My car takes a long time to warm up. Around 10 minutes of driving the temp gauge finally moving up. Anyone else see this?

[Surly73]

Originally Posted by BurrNinja

-40°F wind chill Really sucks and seems harsh on my car. My heat is barely blowing air. Crazy how the car shuts off eletronics to save energy.

If your fan speed is being limited (e.g. you cannot turn it up) that is the IBS system limiting your loads because your battery has a low state of charge. If these things are all true, you need a long drive or to charge your car from a plug in charger connected to the under hood terminals.

Other observable impacts include seat heaters.

Eventually you will get a "Charge Battery" message when shutting off the engine.

[Surly73]

Originally Posted by keeyu

My car takes a long time to warm up. Around 10 minutes of driving the temp gauge finally moving up. Anyone else see this?

The gauge reads oil temperature so this is reasonable.

A few things learned over the decades in cold winter weather:

- other than a few moments to get fluids circulating, your car doesn't need any warm up time idling. Idling produces almost no heat compared to driving gently

- always drive gently when things are cold. Go easy on the throttle and the revs. Remember there are driveline fluids too that the engine doesn't warm.

- be conscious of how much heat you rob from the engine with use of the heater. In this cold snap, my HVAC is set to manual fan, one bar (out of 12), and 16.5C (the second coldest setting). This moves just enough cool air over the glass to keep it from fogging or frosting on the inside. I only turn it up if I'm on a longer trip and everything is getting warm.

- Use a plug in trickle/float charger at home overnight to keep the battery in a healthy state of charge. IBS-equipped BMWs keep the battery below full state of charge by design. Batteries that aren't fully charged can freeze at temperatures like these. Unless your daily commute is long (30 min?) don't count on the car to keep the battery topped up in these conditions. Able to start? Almost certainly. Optimum? No. The CTEK MUS and MXS chargers are great.

- most of my experience is with MT cars. This is my first AT. An AT may benefit more than an MT from a 30 second idle before driving off on a full cold start (e.g. outdoors more than 8h).

- short trips can be really bad in the extreme cold. In this weather condensation inside the engine and other nearby parts is more likely. This condensation can also freeze causing failure, cracks, blockages or other weird behaviour. You're also more likely to have emulsion "mayonnaise" in your oil system. Try your best to plan to get the engine up to temp on each trip. This is part of why I reduce my heater use - keep the heat in the engine and melt/boil/flash off condensation. I know the M54 engine had some serious CCV freezing issues and could clog resulting in catastrophic crankcase pressures that blew things apart. This led to a heated CCV design. Not sure what all may affect N20/N55/N63 designs. You may find that you have a rough or surging idle, or the engine seems to want to stall on the next restart after a short trip - this is often the condensation/frost/ice in passages and on sensors.

- don't go through the car wash. Your doors may freeze shut, your windows get stuck, your locks fail to unlock, or door latches fail to hold your doors closed the next time you get in the car. Lubricate your door latches and seals before winter to reduce the chance of this. Wait for weather closer to the freezing point to get a wash.

- occasionally dump snow/slush/water from your floor mats. They will contribute moisture inside the sealed cabin and increase fogging and frosting on the inside.

Stay warm out there...

[BurrNinja]

Originally Posted by Surly73

If your fan speed is being limited (e.g. you cannot turn it up) that is the IBS system limiting your loads because your battery has a low state of charge. If these things are all true, you need a long drive or to charge your car from a plug in charger connected to the under hood terminals.

Other observable impacts include seat heaters.

Eventually you will get a "Charge Battery" message when shutting off the engine.

As of right now my heat blows a lot better since its 14 degrees haha. Below temps make my car eletronics run terrible. Also no battery message when I turn the car off when its above temps. Usually when its really cold I get off work an drive for 20 to 30 minutes around town.

[lsturbointeg]

the other day when temps was at -6 I took the car out just to get the battery going but the car ran just normal

[Surly73]

Originally Posted by BurrNinja

As of right now my heat blows a lot better since its 14 degrees haha. Below temps make my car eletronics run terrible. Also no battery message when I turn the car off when its above temps. Usually when its really cold I get off work an drive for 20 to 30 minutes around town.

Not really conclusive. "Heat blows better". Hotter or more air?

My question was whether the HVAC system would not allow you to turn the fan speed up to the max settings or whether it stopped you part way and went no further. If yes - your battery needs charging whether the car shows you messages or not. If all you meant was that it's cold out and there isn't really any heat for 15 minutes - yep that's the way it is.

[BurrNinja]

Originally Posted by Surly73

Not really conclusive. "Heat blows better". Hotter or more air?

My question was whether the HVAC system would not allow you to turn the fan speed up to the max settings or whether it stopped you part way and went no further. If yes - your battery needs charging whether the car shows you messages or not. If all you meant was that it's cold out and there isn't really any heat for 15 minutes - yep that's the way it is.

Fan speed was really slow. Even on max setting. Now that its warmer out the fan speed changed a lot blowing more air.

[RMNB]

Originally Posted by keeyu

My car takes a long time to warm up. Around 10 minutes of driving the temp gauge finally moving up. Anyone else see this?

Yup me to. Even with a new HPFP it still acts up. Let's see...fuel injectors, vacuum issue, maf sensor, O2 sensor, turbo inlet seal, etc. Mystery still.

[Surly73]

Originally Posted by 335xi Beast

Yup me to. Even with a new HPFP it still acts up. Let's see...fuel injectors, vacuum issue, maf sensor, O2 sensor, turbo inlet seal, etc. Mystery still.

I'm still not sure why this is so concerning...

1/ It is OIL temp
2/ the bottom peg is 70C
3/ It's cold out

[RMNB]

Originally Posted by Surly73

I'm still not sure why this is so concerning...

1/ It is OIL temp
2/ the bottom peg is 70C
3/ It's cold out

I was actually having these symptoms this past summer....just saying. Cold weather seems to enhance the N63 engine issues. I don't run very well until I'm warmed up either...