Thanks to all who have responded to my post about the idle problem I'm having with my 2004 non-s model.
Here's an update. I'm confident that it is not in limp home mode because there are no indicator lights, and also the RPMs go all the way up past 2000. It is limited to 2000 when it is in park or neutral.

What it still does is: on startup, it helps if I give it a little throttle.
After it is started, if I don't feather the throttle, it will quit. If I slowly ease off the gas from about 1000 RPMS on down, (about 30 seconds), it will idle around 7-800.

When I put it in gear (CVT), It will quit unless I give it some gas while putting it in gear. (I know that isn't good on it, but I had to troubleshoot it somehow)

I guess this thing has electonic throttle (no cable), so there is no idle air controller? I might not be using the correct terms here, but I'm referring to the baseball sized unit that the air box feeds into just before going into the engine. In some cars I've seen, that little bugger can stick if the car has sit for awhile. (like mine has). but if I don't have that, I'm stumped.

A friend of mine mentioned the mass air sensor. I can't even find that.

As always, thanks in advance for the input gang!
Tim

 

a simple thing to try and i know it works on gm cars with [tac] throttle actuated control is to clean the throttle body. simply take off the inlet tube open the throttle plate with a srewdriver and clean the inside bore and plate with carb cleaner and a rag. reassemble and hold the throttle at about half way as to draw more air to help it start from all the cleaner in the intake once it starts let off the throttle. dirt build up on the plate throws it out of calibration. hope this helps

 

How many miles are on the car?

 

I have a 2003 MINI CVT, and my engine will rev way past 2000 RPM in both neutral and park... hmmm... did they program some sort of rev limit on 2004+ models (when in park or neutral)?

Seems to me it may be a programming problem? I know early model CVTs were sometimes plagued with stalling issues at idle, but new programs fixed it. Although your 2004 should have updated software already. On my 2003, the idle does dip below 800 at times, but it quickly recovers before stalling out or shaking. The dip happens when I first engage it into Drive in the morning after starting it up...and sometimes at red lights or stops, it'll do a quick dip below 800 and then recover back to around 1000 RPM.

Sounds like something the dealer should check out. Let us know what they find.

Best,

-boognish

 

The car has 32k on it. There were some problems with BMW programming the new computer (ECU). They kept saying I had a wiring problem. Well 5 hours into it, they said, oh it was our mistake, we had the wrong upgrade to our software, we fixed it now, and there was nothing wrong with the wiring in the car. They didn't charge me for anything except the programming of the ECU. They said they were pretty embarassed about it.
So about the 2k idle issue, could they misprogram something like that? and could that also cause idling problems?
When in gear, it does go above 2k without a problem.

 

My 95 Staurn (last car) had a limiter at 4k in nuetral to prevent engine damage (it was manual) so the ability to do so has been around for quite a while.

 

I must have missed something. Did the re-program work? Could BMW misprogram your ECU? Yup.