Rough idle on '90 BMW 735il

I have a 1990 BMW 735il, and it has recently developed a rough idle
problem. If the car is cold it will idle just fine - for a minute or
two. Then the idle will become very rough, requiring me to give it gas
(sometimes quite a bit) to keep the engine running. Moreover, the car
has no power during this time unless I give it quite a bit of gas. The
Check Engine light will come on during this time as well. Once the
engine is fully warmed up the engine idles more smoothly, but it's
still not that smooth.

I've had this car looked at by a couple mechanics, and so far they
haven't been able to figure out what's going on. Does anybody have any
idea what's wrong? I don't see any white smoke coming out the tailpipe,
and it doesn't look like the oil and coolant are mixing, so it doesn't
appear to be a fauly head gasket or cracked head. Thanks.

> I have a 1990 BMW 735il, and it has recently developed a rough idle
> problem. If the car is cold it will idle just fine - for a minute or
> two. Then the idle will become very rough, requiring me to give it gas
> (sometimes quite a bit) to keep the engine running. Moreover, the car
> has no power during this time unless I give it quite a bit of gas. The
> Check Engine light will come on during this time as well. Once the
> engine is fully warmed up the engine idles more smoothly, but it's
> still not that smooth.

M30s are always a little agricultural at idle.

It's possible you have a small vacuum leak. But if the distributor and
rotor arm are ancient I'd replace them. New plugs might not hurt either
(Bosch single electrode).

If the car hasn't had a valve adjustment in the last 30k miles I'd
rectify that.

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