Car Shakes At Idle - BMW Forum

fushuman · 03-19-2005, 06:39 PM

I don't know why when my car is warm and idling, the car lightly shakes sideways and feel rough. Now this doesn't happend everyday and cleaned the ICV, replaced spark plugs and O2 sensor. The car has no CEL on and it still has good gas milage. Is there anything else i should check? any suggestions will help.

swindon_matt_uk · 03-20-2005, 05:34 AM

I've noticed all BMWs rock a little when idle. I think its the way the engine is mounted.

BeachBunny · 03-20-2005, 06:29 AM

I've found that mine does that too sometimes... I'd heard something about "the BMW rattle" somewhere on this forum?

fushuman · 03-20-2005, 11:35 AM

So is there a cure for the "BMW rattle"?
if i change my engine mounts, would that help or is there something else i should check?

Delmarco · 03-20-2005, 02:43 PM

my car does the same thing...the RPM vibrates and the car kind of lurches forward as if its some wild dog on a leash trying to run off. I've noticed this sometimes when I'm stopped at a red lights, mostly if the car is idling at at red light on a hill going upwards.

swindon_matt_uk · 03-21-2005, 02:47 AM

Its nothing to worry about. Changing the mounts won't help at all.

illwasteyou · 03-21-2005, 03:14 AM

my hypothesis is that it shakes when youre low on fuel.
ive also gathered that when low on petrol the engine sounds like a rotary.

Linds · 03-21-2005, 08:30 PM

Mine does the same thing. I ran the fault code reader and it turned out to be the ignition coil. Check it just in case!

abemcclellan · 03-21-2005, 09:40 PM

mine does the same damn thing. except mine missfires too randomly when it idles. i was thinking mine has like a weak coil or something. does anybody know how to check the ignition coils, besides like taking each of them out singlely and replacing it with a new one, and drive it around and see if its better? i was wondering if i could somehow check the voltage on each one if its possible and see which ones where weak.

bryan1970 · 03-21-2005, 10:15 PM

well if you have acess to a scan tool to read out which cyl is missing you can take that coil out and swap it with another known good coil and when it mises out check the codes and see if the miss moved along with the coil.

Linds · 03-22-2005, 01:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by abemcclellan@Mar 21 2005, 10:40 PM
mine does the same damn thing. except mine missfires too randomly when it idles. i was thinking mine has like a weak coil or something. does anybody know how to check the ignition coils, besides like taking each of them out singlely and replacing it with a new one, and drive it around and see if its better? i was wondering if i could somehow check the voltage on each one if its possible and see which ones where weak.

[snapback]316085[/snapback]

If you do find out that it's the ignition coil(s), you should get them from pelicanparts.com. You'll save around $30 off the price that the dealer wants.

fushuman · 03-22-2005, 04:59 PM

But my CEL is not on, and i don't have any faulty codes on the computer so far.
I'll inspect the coils anyway to see if there working properly

bryan1970 · 03-22-2005, 06:14 PM

you cans till have a misfire fault and no CEL but if you said that it shakes all the time so i doubt it is a missfire i think it is jsut the nature of the beast a lot of E36 have a similar vibration.