car hates the cold

[spooner_dee]

On cold start ups my idle is a little ruff you can feel the car shake just a little, and if i dont warm it up and i start to drive, when i get to the end of my drive way and come to a stop the car kinda jerks... I had the ICV cleaned a year ago. In warm weather it runs fine. But the other morning i pulled out in the road and my car ran like dookie. It sputterd and shook and had no power at all.

smooth running when not on the gas, smooth running at a stop, But push down the gas pedal about half way and you could feel vibration through the whole front of the car, it did this for about 5-10 as i drove then just suddenly went away and ran like butter. I changed the plugs around last february. if i get a dry day this weekend im gonna try and take apart some things and look for wear I.e. coil packs spark plugs, icv look for oil in spark plug holes etc.... anyone else have suggestions?

Oh i also floored it to see if it would break out of it, the car downshifted and raced but still no power and rpms didnt really climb.

[Justin e36]

what kind / viscosity of oil are you running?

[M3ti Compact]

It's normal that the car will run a little bad when cold- because it's not warmed up yet- it's not burning the gas correctly.

You can try this next time- start on a cold day- dab the gas and your RPMs will initially drop, then go up. If you hit the gas hard enough you can even stall it lol.

Motorcycles are worse- even on a hot summer day, if you don't let the bike warm up before riding it'd stall out once you rev it just a little.

[bmdbley'sBro]

well if it isn't stalling it probably isn't the ICV.

kinda sounds abit like my 318 recently, it's at the garage right now *sad*
I want to say coil packs or tps...?

"I changed the plugs around last february."
:D so did you actualy put in NEW ones or just move around the old ones?!?
you can mist some water on your wires/coils (car running) see if you see any arcing?

[spooner_dee]

lol no i bought all new plugs and put them in.:P

Do you think it might be the oil im running right now, currently im running synthetic, as for viscosity its still on standard oil (cant member the number 5w30 or whatever it is), my car is now due for an oil change, what should i switch to?

i know most cars run kinda shaty when cold, but i wouldnt expect this bad, hence my concern. It did this last winter when i first bought it, all summer, perfect, cold again shaty.

[papo]

Hey my 87 e28 did that last year, but I beleive yours is alot newer than mine. I installed a block heater for this winter & so far it starts up fine & runs great in the cold weather that we have had so far.*th-up*
I would stick with Syn Oil if I where u. :cool:
Does your car have a block heater :huh?:

[propr'one]

hmm, i'd get a block heater, BUT, my car is parked on the street*shiner*

[spooner_dee]

Ok had an oil change yesterday, went from 10w-30 to now 5w-30 so we will see if that helps this morning when i start up.