You opinion, please:

My 2000 328i with 115,000 miles (manual transmission) seems to have great power whenever I need it, but it does have the idle problems mentioned here (on cold morning starts, it will idle normal for 10-15 seconds, then try to die, recover and repeat the cycle--sometimes it will completely die). This only seems to occur when I park uphill on my driveway. My mechanic parked it in their shop and could not replicate the issue. When I park the car facing downhill, it seems to idle just fine (I plan to experiment more with this tomorrow).

I'm pretty sure the VANOS is original.

I changed my spark plugs for the first time last weekend (plus the air and cabin filters), and cleaned the MAF sensor thinking I was going to solve my annoying problem, but it stalled the next day.

Question 1: Does the angle imply a VANOS problem (will the seals stay coated better if the car is facing downhill overnight)?

Question 2: Does it hurt my car to have this problem (right now, I only think a) it is annoying that it wants to die while the engine is cold and b) I am getting slightly poorer gas mileage).

Question 3: The engine work I did this weekend is the extent of my experience, but the instructions seem OK for a novice to follow. Do you know of anyone messing things up (besides the broken fan blade that I read about on this forum).

• 2000 328i Morning stall when parked uphill - thecommish 2008-10-28 20:01:44 (179 views)
  • Repair comple. Broke a bolt (pic) - thecommish 2008-11-10 13:59:27 (196 views)
    • Re: Repair comple. Broke a bolt - Rajaie 2008-11-10 18:02:53 (117 views)
  • Re: 2000 328i Morning stall when parked uphill - Rajaie 2008-10-28 23:11:05 (155 views)
    • Re: 2000 328i Morning stall when parked uphill - thecommish 2008-10-29 17:28:01 (114 views)
      • Thanks for the kind words. Good luck on the repair (nt) - Rajaie 2008-10-29 19:02:57 (81 views)
  • Re: 2000 328i Morning stall when parked uphill - thecommish 2008-10-28 20:19:23 (108 views)