Cold-start issues and very worrisome behavior....help?

[bmwman91]

Alright, so here are the symptoms that are scaring me (mainly because I have to go out of town tomorrow and have already used my AAA towing a LOT this year):
- On cold starts (esp on cold mornings) it starts up just fine & idles fine, BUT when I stick it in first and get going the car will make it about 7ft and then lurch forward like the engine is about to die/stops producing power.  I stick the clutch in and it idles just fine, and when I try to go again it is fine.  It HAS gotten worse though this morning as after the initial slug, I restarted moving and when I shifted to 2nd it pulled the same crap, just not AS bad and it recovered without me pushing in the clutch.
- I was on the freeway on my morning commute and I swaer it felt like the engine was misfiring a couple times (was just maintaining speed in 5th gear around 50-55mph and it felt like the car lurched forward a few times).  I got real paranoid after that.  I downshifted to see if elevated RPM's would stop it and it did not occur again.  But, I slowed down a little and tried to match the conditions that caused the perceived lurching after clearing some traffic and it did not happen again.  So was I just overanalyzing potholes or some gust of wind (it seemed pretty windless though)?  I swear it felt like it was doing the same thing all along highway 99 one day like 8 months ago when I was having issues with my WBO2 sensor, but it was a really gusty day and I ended up attributing it to that.
- There are no CEL codes coming on at all.
- I do not hear the engine pinging, and I would think that I would hear somethign if it was misfiring badly enough that I could feel the car lurch.
- I think the input shaft to my tranny is getting progressively worse/mor worn out.  It is pretty noisy at idle in neutral with the clutch out.  When I start in th elower gears I can hear the tranny making noise....like the sound of stuff being looser than it should be.
-Could a shot tranny cause the cold-start lurcking I was feeling, and the jerkiness on the freeway that I think might be the car (again, might have been wind or bumps in the road that my paranoia was making into something else, but it felt like a misfire)?

I have a spare tranny in my yard from the last car, and I am really tempted to stay up late tonight swapping trannies.  I just hope that I make it home if something really is wrong.

[bmwman91]

Oh and the full throttle/almost full throttle acceleration seems just fine as well.  I just do not hear enough bad noises to be able to say what could be causing this.  The tranny does make more noise than I remember even while cruising though.  Could this all be due to that?  Gah!  Stupid car!

[FL318is]

My head hurts.  As much as I want to help, I can only ask more questions.  If all else fails I can forward this to my Tech and see what he thinks!

[bmwman91]

Please do.  Not only do I have some business to attend to out of town (work related), but later in the day I am going to pay the girl I am currently seeing a visit.  And I do not want to miss out on visiting the lady-friend.

[FL318is]

I will give it to him this afternoon and check with some of the other gearheads!

[nickmpower]

are you using the maf?

[bmwman91]

Haha, no no maf.  If I was it would be gone and I would be debugging this with the AFM on.

I have replaced virtually everything on this car since I got it (it is my 2nd 318iS). The FPR has NOT been chenged yet though, just the vacuum line to it.

Here is something i forgot all about. When I was going out of town this past weekend my Anti-Lock check light came on for absolutely no reason (seemingly) in the middle of a 90 mile drive. I have not had a chance to take a look around at the sensors & stuff yet, but if the ABS unit was tweaking out and firing here and there (and maybe acting weird upon startup) it would explain the seeming lack of power/joltiness with no CEL or mechanical noises. Hmmm......DUH.

So, why would the ABS light come on? Bad sensors? Bad control module? My car is haunted by brake-system ghosts? I HOPE it is just this, not that a bad ABS unit would be cheap (but I have an extra one of those as well). I could try unplugging the control module and seeing if the bad starts continue I suppose. If it is the fuel pump or the FPR that is no biggie either...so long as they do not die on me in the middle of nowhere.