Well sounds funny but I will tell you it had me stumped. My 2001 740i would stall on cold start ...usually twice then would run but a little rough. after a brief time it would make this strange vacuum leak sound that I can only explain as a UFO. I checked and checked but gave in and took it to the dealer...It ended up being the Oil Seperator under the intake...OUCH! $930.00. $575 for labor. Well it was in and out in less than a day and the folks at Autobahn BMW in Fort Worth Texas are what I would say OUTSTANDING.
What other work did they do? We (when I worked at a shop) charged only a little more to reseal the entire intake and the valley pan gasket, and would do the valve cover gaskets at the same time for only a couple hundred more while everything was apart. I'd be careful around that shop. They are notorious for having totaled a guy's M5 on an unnecessary test drive, lying about the conditions of the wreck and the amount of work necessary to repair it (they said $2000, the estimate of over $30,000 by another BMW dealer in the area totaled the car) and have not offered an actual replacement value to the owner of the car. The techs are known to race the cars out back (there is a short track and a long track) and the management does nothing about it.
