My 08 550i engine seems to sputter when I first drive it out in the morning these days. Granted the engine is cold due to the weather on the east coast these days, I'm just wondering if this is normal.
It is felt most at speeds of 20-30 MPH and RPM at 1200-1500. I have 30k miles on the car.
Any idea if this is normal? Its very annoying.

 

Once the car gets moving a little it should go away pretty fast.... how much do the RPM's fluctuate?

 

I don't recall the RPM fluctuating...I can check tomorrow, but the car sorta hiccups for the first minute of driving. you're correct, it stop doing so after a bit of driving.
so is this considered normal?

 

Doesn't sound normal to me.

Early v-8's had a recall action/warranty campaign for faulty/out-of-spec lifters that caused a very rough idle during cold weather. I doubt that is the issue here - sounds like it's a sensor out of whack.

 

i think its normal. My 2006 m5 on the startup revs a bit by itself, from 800-1200 RPM on idle than after 5 minutes its back to constant. So I think its normal for the startup it tries to warm up the engine, cuz dont forget its a V8 and a V10 engine.

 

My car has fluctuating RPMs for like 30 seconds after start-up

 

I noted that the RPMs did not fluctuate. The car acts like it loses a bit of power then regains power (hiccup), know what I mean? Hard to describe. It lasts all of 30 seconds, and only at around 1k RPM.

I recently had the DME (ECU) replaced, as the car was throwing a false error code (Oil Level Too High), and that was resolved after 30 days in teh shop(!!) by swapping out the DME. Wonder if that has anything to do with this?

 

Yea my car kinds bucks a little in 1st and a tiny bit in 2nd.....you when you first drive off..

 

Yea my car kinds bucks a little in 1st and a tiny bit in 2nd.....just when you first drive off..

 

If you are an early build date 2008, there is a SIB regarding "Engine Pinging & Idle Fluctuation" for N62TU engines (like in the 550). It refers to the following potential customer complaints:

1. Engine pinging on slight acceleration under the load at low vehicle speed (35-40mph)
2. Excessive idle speed fluctuations (1100-1300 rpm) on a cold start for the first 30 seconds of engine operation, when transmission is in P or N position
3. Creep-speed bucking when pulling away during warm-up phase

The cause is DME software calibration and a software update fixes the issue right up. I had my '08 550i in for this fix due to #2 and #3 last summer and have had no similar issues since.

In case you need it for the dealer, the SIB number is 12 27 05

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2008 550i M-sport
2006 X3 2.5i