Picked up my new-to-me 2008 550i manual this past Saturday. Had a long 6 hour drive home, and loved every minute of it. The torque of this car is amazing, and I love how planted it feels. Yes, it feels heavy, but it feels strong, too.

Anyway, something I noticed while at idle and want to see if it's normal. The car idles at 500 rpms which, from what I've been reading, is normal. However, when I depress the clutch, without/before the throttle, the rpms jump to 700. I've been driving manuals for 25 years and have never seen this with my other cars.

Thanks in advance for the help! Looking forward to contributing on this great forum!

 

Hmm, i had a 530i and when i depress the rpms should go down and should idle at about 700rpm. I have a 550i and it should rpm around 700rpm.

 

I have the E50 530i Sport 6MT. When at idle, depressing the clutch will bring up the engine RPM a little. It's normal operation.

When the clutch is disengaged, the load on the engine is decreased slighly, thus the slight increase in engine RPM. Not sure if it is also an engineering feature to minimize the occurrence of stalling in 1st or 2nd gear.