Took about 5 tries but it finally rumbled to life having been sitting in -30C weather (-40 windchill) for 48 hours. It sputtered and hunted for a stable idle while spewing black smoke for about 10 minutes, flashing the occasional check engine light in protest. It's so cold here I thought the driver's window was going to explode when I closed the door. It's now being babied in the heated garage at my office. Unfortunately, tonight calls for the same temperatures. Truthfully, nothing should be made to work in this weather!

Drop light under the hood trick?

Renovating the house right now. I forgot how much I hate having to scrape windows in the morning.

extremely bad idea to let it idle for 10 minutes in those morning temperatures.
much better to start it, let it run for about half a minute, and drive away, ... (keeping revs under 3000, or so, until temp needle reaches 'normal')

and so-called "wind chill" has no effect on a car

hope you've got heated seats! <thumbup>
it was a couple hours after sunrise, here today, before the thermometer started to climb towards zero

I tried going after one minute and after five minutes and both times the engine died. I disagree however about the wind not being a factor, especially when it's blowing through the grill. The engine block was frozen solid!

And ugh, my wife's 328i doesn't even have water temp gauge. Bugs the hell out of me.

Sounds like a stuck fuel pressure regulator (black smoke = rich.) It happens on the 3B's occasionally.

Also, idling in cold weather isn't good for cars. Give a minute or two for oil to get everywhere and flowing, then drive. You'll get heat into everything much faster.

~B

At one of the WDS's a couple years back, we were the coldest part in all of NA (yep, including Canada) and it was -25 degrees. Brrr. Miraculously, there wasn't even a hint of wind.

No smoke, no drama- just some really thick oil and a not-so-happy battery, but it started on the 3rd or 4th cylinder. Lots of brum, too, with those temps...

Well, except then I found I had a cracked after-run pump a few days later. *sigh*.

~B