So, my wife recently purchased a 2014 BMW 228i.
The car has 56,000 miles on the clock.
This morning when she started the car there was a puff of white/grey smoke. It is the first time I've seen the car do this. I don't know if it's worth mentioning, but the car had been standing for about six days.
The 228i's have the dual tailpipes and the one was very black and wet.
Is this normal?
I don't know if it is related but I have also noticed that if my wife starts the car in the morning and immediately selects drive or reverse the revs fluctuate (hunting) quite badly. It will go from say 1,000 rpm to 400 rpm and then back to 1,000 rpm. As the revs drop it almost sounds as though its about to stall, but then recovers as the revs climb back up. The revs will fluctuate 2 - 3 times. The strange thing is if you start the car and leave it in park without selecting drive or reserve it does not happen. If you let it idle for a few seconds until the fast idle drops and the select drive or reverse it is fine.
I enquired with my local BMW dealer and this is the explanation I received: This is normal behavior. During the initial startup the vehicle’s main computer makes the injectors overfuel. This is to warm up the catalytic convertor as quickly as possible. When selecting a gear, this confuses the computer and it now “hunts” in the rev range because it’s still overfueling. There is nothing wrong and all cars act similarly in this regard.
My 2015 BMW 330i does not do this at all.
Is it normal, or should I be concerned?
Thank you
