A few months ago I posted a message about a cold starting problem that I was having with my '97 Z3. When it was cold, the car would start but then the idle would drop. The car would stall if I didn't keep the revs up for a minute or so. Then once I got going it was fine. I asked if it might be the idle control valve. Scott D. said to start there by giving it a good cleaning. I didn't know that it was something that could be cleaned. I was figuring that I would need to get a new one. So I found some instructions online for getting to the valve and cleaning it and went through the steps on a nice day last month. After spraying a bunch of carb cleaner through it, the little flap inside started to move. So it was definitely gunked up and stuck. After replacing everything, the problem was gone. And before I did this, I was even seeing engine faults related to the oxygen sensor, but that is no longer occurring as well. So thanks again to everyone that responded, especially Scott. So glad to have been able to resolve this with a minimal amount of effort and cost.
-=- Tom