Hey everyone I just picked up my 3, 2.0 auto, on monday, love it so far. Question though, when sitting at a light sometimes my idle rpm's fall a little and the car feels like it's gonna die, but then picks itself right back up again. It will do this a few times sitting at a light, but not every light. Any idea what's going on? Is this normal for a break in period on a car or what? Also when I turn the key to the On position my transmission light flashes, and that's the only light that's doing that. Is there something wrong there then?

 

Hi! I am from Hungary and I have a 3 for more than half a year now. I think the rpm falling down while you stand still is a problem around ignition. First I thought you don't have enough fuel in the tank but in that case the engine should stop eventually. I think you should call your dealer.

 

No the idle dropping and trying to stall is not normal. Maybe give it a week or two and if has not gone away then take back to have looked at. Try to make any notes about when it does it, ie when warm or cold, after starting up cold or when fully warm, etc. Anything that will make it easier for the service dept to be able to make it happen for them. Is it the 'AT' light that is flashing with key on engine off?

 

Yeah I'm gonna keep an eye on the idle thing for now, not really worried, just want my new car to be perfect. And the light that was flashing was the picture of the tranny. I haven't tried to see if it would happen again, just kinda noticed it while I was loading cd's without the car on.

 

Take a look in your owners manual and see if the light you see flashing is actually the 'check engine' light. It is normal for this light to flash with Key ON Engine Off if the engine control module has not completed all of its self tests. Since your 3 is so new that is entirely possible and should run those tests and stop flashing the light in a week or two.

 

I have a 2004 3 i and it idles like that...

I can sit at a light and the idling- needle on the RPM's gets lower and lower... but not too low, lowest it will get is about 500 RPM's...

In my old car that was a problem, because when it got down by 500 RPM it would almost die and did a couple of times but that car was wayyy older and had 150k miles on it!

But with my 3- i think for some reason having an oil change when you are supposed to, helps that idling problem and when the car idles rough... i know i am due for an oil change, maybe even overdue- so that could be the reason for my problem, ill have to see.
But it freaked me out watching it, because this car is pretty new!

should be alright tho!

And it should always idle high when the car is cold... and you are advised to let your car warm up when you first start it... that helps!

[sm=happybounce.gif]

 

Yeah I let the car warm up for a little bit before putting it in gear. It seemed to only be doing this when my ac was on. Drove it to class today and it was perfect, so maybe it just needed to be broken in, I'm not sure. The car is brand new so it shouldn't need an oil change yet, but thanks for the heads up. I'll keep an eye out on it and see what happens, thanks for the input everyone.

 

Well it seems to be directly related to warm up time as well as how soon I turn my ac on. I live in phoenix and even though it's the end of oct. it's till like 90 out so my car's getting pretty hot and I like to turn on the ac asap. I guess I'll just see what happens over the next week then take it in if it persists.

 

On another forum other members have posted that they had the same problem. Turns out it was the purge control valve, they took it to the dealership and got it replaced. Nice to know that I'm not the only one.

 

You might also want to check the vacuum system. If there is a leak somewhere, you car will tend to have problems idling at lights especially with the a/c on.