Anyone know what this part is

[DaveSmed]

Dave air part works fine. Opens as temp rises and closes as it cools down(according to the kids on bimmersport). Coolant pipes should be a straight through feed right? Mine are blocked with some type of crud :(

Not surprising. Clean it out real well, and soak the air portion with PB blaster or something. Maybe take it apart if you are so inclined and give it a real good scrub.

Reassemble and try it out, once at operating temp if you still have high idle, pinch it off (air side) and see what happens.

[crxb16t]

Well, kinda. I've bypassed them before (non-BMW) but the car in question needed to be manually kept at a high idle for a minute or two for the first start of the day.

Yeah that sucked 10lb flywheel and puck style clutch argh!