Need Help
 

I am a new to the BMW family. All of my other cars normally act the same way. When you start the car in the morning the RPM's go to around 2k. But not in the X5!!! It starts up like it's been running all day. What could this be? On days it's cold, this is not good and especially when the check engine light flashes. Please help. Thanks!!!

The idle on an x5 doesn't go up much when cold. If the light is flashing and it idles rough probably detecting misfire.

But it only does it on days it is cold on start-up after not running for a while. I pulled the misfire code and replaced the spark plugs and it is still doing it.

do you have a V8? it will be the intermediate levers. i had that exact problem

Yes sorry I have the 4.4 sport

Yup sounds like intermediate levers. I had mine fixed under warranty. To my understanding, they regulate the pressure inside the cylinders. Hence a shake and blinking of SES light.

also been proven to the ccv valve and hoses when cold.

What year X5 do you have? If it is an 04 or newer it could be the intermediate levers, but that is not the most common cause of misfiring. It is a coil often as well, can be confirmed by swapping the coil from the misfiring cylinder to another and seeing if the misfire follows the coil. If that doesn't isolate it to a coil it may be worth paying for dealer diagnosis as there are ways to isolate if it is indeed the intermediate levers causing the problem with the BMW test equipment. (yet again, only if you have 04 and up)

It's a 2005 but it only acts up on cold days. Wouldn't the coil be bad all the time? Was there a fix for the intermediate levers with out a warrenty? I sure the hell don't have $3k to spend...

Coils usually do go out pretty quickly and stay out... and the only real fix is to change parts. The testing function through the BMW equipment actually ups the minimum valve lift at idle from 0.1/0.3mm to 0.8mm to see it if smooths out the idle quality and solves the misfiring etc. But you can't leave it set like that on any x-drive vehicle like the X5 or it will cause other problems, so it is just for diagnosis. The hours diagnosis spent at the dealer will be worth it with possible major repairs like this, because it could be something else as well.