My new baby

[land9]

I bought my first bmw last sunday - 1998 318is in hellrot red, beautiful car to drive, very comfortable!
When the car is idling, it feels very lumpy - but when I accelerate, the engine revs up smoothly and without fault. A local fellow beemer driver told me that post 97's were supposed to do this, something to do with fuel management at idle - can anyone vouch for this? There's only 47k miles on the clock, and I'm hoping the ignition coil or mass air flow meter don't give trouble this early! I changed the spark plugs, ngk-r, for bosch plugs as specified in the vehicle handbook but this made no change to the cars idling.
Should I be worried?
Also, could anyone tell me if my car has a timing belt or chain? What is the interval between renewal?
Thanks a lot,
Tommy

[WarNox]

hey, no, no car is ment to have a rough idle, thats just silly. its probably that your icv is dirty and needs a clean, search for a diy here.

your car has a chain. after 93' 4cyl engines got chains (or smtin like that), 6cyl ones were always chains. sorry i dont know how often you're supposed to change it. dload the bentley and have a look

oh and post some pics.

[land9]

These are the only pics I have at the mo - eBay.co.uk: 1998 BMW 318 iS RED (item 110044230726 end time 22-Oct-06 17:00:00 BST)
I have to re-register it as an Irish car monday, I'll get some pics of it on Irish plates then

thanks warnox

[land9]

I looked through the tech archive and found the article about the icv - it seemed to be for the older engine (my oil filter housing is plastic, the one in the article is metal) I couldn't find the icv valve, so I took off the air intake pipe at the throttle body and sprayed a load of carb cleaner in - the workshop was full of smoke, but I didn't notice with my head under the bonnet! It made a slight difference - but still feels lumpy. Got back and discovered this - United Bimmer - BMW Enthusiast Community and Forums : Bimmer Technical Help
- more indept and I think I know where to start looking now!
Checked my tyre pressures while I was at it, down an awful lot - so pumped them to correct pressure; now I can hear a knocking from the right hand front wheel when I'm turning at low speed or braking. (checked this out - inner tie rod, wasn't that noticeable with lower pressure in the tyres)