Hi guys im new to the bmw scene. Ive owned my e46 about 2 month now. Its a silver 2000rej 316se. Im competant with cars and do all my own work on them. Just two main things bothering me

1 . Rough idle. Im going to clean the egr vavle and chech that the plug are in a condition that would match upto the last service. But is there anything else that is common that may cause a rough idle? Air mass meters ect?

This leads me onto number two

2. It has crank case pressure . When I take the oil filler cap off the revs drop drastically and the car wants to stall . This points me to either a bloked or split breather .but before i start taking pipes off and checking them/ steam clening them out is there a common pipe that may be blocked or split? Or is there anything else I may have missed?

Many thanks in advance ")

I think you have it covered mate, also give the idle control valve a clean

Yeh ill try that aswell thanks. Ino its a bit of a shot in the dark .I know that these engines only produce 103bhp anyway but its there anyway of making some gains? Without going down the turbo road or engine transplant. Cheers

Not really tbh, maybe a new exhaust and cold air intake and a remap, but for the 500-600 pounds you would see very little gains, maybe 15bhp?

Hmm thats what I was expecting . Probably better off not going down that route ,if I want to go gast I get on 2 wheels lol....its just embarrassing when a diesel kia does you from the lights "/ haha. Its going to have to be about the looks then I guess. Whats the best bet for the front lights? Projectors?

Welcome to the BMWOC matey, glad to have you onboard.

I've had the good fortune to mess around with quite a few 316's and all of them dropped revs when you either pulled the dipstick or opened the cap. If it's not effecting the functionality of the car, I wouldn't worry too much about it personally.I find that some BMWs do and some don't. The car's that I have had a straight-six in never drop their revs when the internals are exposed to atmospheric pressure :)

Daz

Hi and thanks for that daz a reassuring word always helps. Never the less I will be checking everything that I mentioned previously as soon as I get a minute away from work . I have noticed it is using a small amout of water, half a pint every 150 miles or so. Ive had the dye test on it or the sniffer as we calk it and its not showing any combustible gas through the water system therefore the head gasket would ok . Any ideas . Cheers