M62 vanos solenoid oil in connection

[YotaMike]

Car is getting totally tore down for all the m62 goodies

Ok my buddy found oil in the connection of my vanos solenoids

dear experts, what do you think or advise?

[rf900rkw]

Time for new solenoid(s). You should open the E-box and check the DME for oil intrusion.

[YotaMike]

Time for new solenoid(s). You should open the E-box and check the DME for oil intrusion.

Thanks for chiming in
so this is something for sure internally wrong with them? Any ideas as what leads up to this?
And ill check the dme. I hate the idea of oil making its way up there

[rf900rkw]

It is odd that both of them are wet. Truely odd, as I have not seen a leaking solenoid before. Admittedly, my sample size is small and Google does have hits.

[peter540]

Perhaps the solenoids aren't leaking. I'd bet the oil is from leaking solenoid GASKETS.

[YotaMike]

Perhaps the solenoids aren't leaking. I'd bet the oil is from leaking solenoid GASKETS.

That's my thought because they were leaking bad 145k miles on all original gaskets. They were as hard and brittle as plastic. So I'm gonna clean them up and see if the oil comes back or gives me any problems.
EXTREMELY unlikely that one, let alone both, solenoids have failed internally.

[Silverlight]

I would agree with Peter on this one. I think the vanos solenoid gaskets must have been weeping a good amount of oil. Enough in fact to make it all the way to the plug therefore filling the plug with oil. And plus, don't you think you would be getting a cel from a faulty vanos solenoid? I once forgot to plug in my vanos solenoids and got a cel right away. I'm sure if they were bad, you would know

[rf900rkw]

I don't see how the oil from a gasket at the base is going to wick out and in past the weather seal, but maybe it ran in after the connector was unplugged. Dunno.

There is absolutely no reason for it to set a code if it is leaking past the electrical plug pins. Nothing is changed electrically.

[YotaMike]

There is absolutely no reason for it to set a code if it is leaking past the electrical plug pins. Nothing is changed electrically.

They never gave me any codes related to them. But the issue here is oil running up the electrical harness from this? I wish I knew the anatomy of these and how they work to understand why oil is running out of them. (Also the inside make up and why they're so expensive)

ECS claims its common for these to fail but the guy sounded more like he just wanted a sale rather than knowing what exactly the vanos solenoid is and how it works.

Just wanna be a little more sure before I drop $270 for new ones. This project is getting so expensive! Lol

[JimLev]

I changed the vanos solenoid gaskets on my car at 125K and on a friends 540 at 170K, neither of us had oil in the connectors. It just runs down the timing covers.
I'd clean the oil off and see if it comes back. You can always change the solenoids at a later date if they are leaking.

[Ry328is]

This is a very timely thread. I have this EXACT issue and have had it for awhile. I finally had enough and decided to fix it this Sunday.

The oil comes through the back of the solenoid and actually pushes itself ALL the way into the electrical box above the coils AND into the electrical connection for each coil in cylinders 1-4. I would bet any money that if you go and remove your 1-4 coils, you will have oil in there. You will probably also have oil around the spark plugs. Yes, yes...I know oil around the spark plugs means you need a new valve cover gasket and associated seals. I did them all and the oil still came back. It took some time to find that it was ultimately coming from this solenoid. I used electrical contact cleaner to clean all of the oil out of all of the electrical connections and off the wires. It wicks it's way every where over time. It's not a gushing leak.

[YotaMike]

I'm glad I'm not the only person experiencing this.
I bought new solenoids from ECS tuning for $134 each. Ouch! But oh well.
I will definitely check for oil wicking. That's the last thing I wanna deal with on my car, EVER!

[rf900rkw]

Sorry, missed that question above. While it doesn't have cut-aways of the solenoid itself, this does have a good map of how the system works.

http://www.e38.org/m62tu.pdf

[jwcrawfo]

I'm dealing with this as I type. Oil has wicked all the way to the DME causing random Engine Fail Safe Mode episodes. Clean the DME connector and I'm good for about a week and it starts again. This weekend I will be finding the source of the oil. I'm currently thinking it will be one or maybe both Vanos Solenoids as they are the originals with 190k miles. It's way past time.

[rf900rkw]

Check the connection on the thermostat. It's common for it to leak and wick antifreeze all the way to the DME.

[mxchris727]

This is a very timely thread. I have this EXACT issue and have had it for awhile. I finally had enough and decided to fix it this Sunday.

The oil comes through the back of the solenoid and actually pushes itself ALL the way into the electrical box above the coils AND into the electrical connection for each coil in cylinders 1-4. I would bet any money that if you go and remove your 1-4 coils, you will have oil in there. You will probably also have oil around the spark plugs. Yes, yes...I know oil around the spark plugs means you need a new valve cover gasket and associated seals. I did them all and the oil still came back. It took some time to find that it was ultimately coming from this solenoid. I used electrical contact cleaner to clean all of the oil out of all of the electrical connections and off the wires. It wicks it's way every where over time. It's not a gushing leak.

I have this same exact issue. Are you sure that the oil is coming out of the VANOS solenoid? Also, why only am I finding oil in the bank 1 coils and not bank 2?
Luckily my DME wires are dry, I will address this issue in the spring.

[YotaMike]

Glad I got new ones instead of hoping it wouldn't wick it's way to anything bad

[mxchris727]

So, I wanted to bump this old thread and share a picture of my DME connector. I was getting an intermittent "ENGINE FAILSAFE" mode and throttle position codes out of nowhere. Remembering that My VANOS solenoids were leaking at the connector, I decided to open up the DME to check for oil intrusion. Sure enough, below is I found!

I find it very absurd that oil can "wick" its way upwards though many feet of conduit to the DME. However, this is proof that it can! Oil poured out of one of my coils too... I just ordered $1,500 worth of timing and cooling parts; will be replacing all of the VANOS seals as well. Has anyone else run into this?

[JimLev]

No pics.
I've seen pics of the coolant wicking up from the t-stat to the DME and corroding the pins.
At least the oil should do any permanent damage.
You may want to open up the DME to make sure there isn't any oil inside.

[mxchris727]

No pics.
I've seen pics of the coolant wicking up from the t-stat to the DME and corroding the pins.
At least the oil should do any permanent damage.
You may want to open up the DME to make sure there isn't any oil inside.

I just re-attached the images; should work now. Luckily, oil is non-corrosive so there was no damage at all after using some electrical cleaner to de-grease the connector. There was no intrusion into the computer board. It's odd that the oil caused my failsafe mode as it is non-conductive. I guess that the throttle sensors are very sensitive to changes in resistance.

[JimLev]

Dirty oil is somewhat conductive.
Good to hear there was no damage.

[msvphoto]

Could be capacitance from the oil messes with sensitive analog circuits. (There are oil filled capacitors.)

Very odd and a great catch! As was said, the good news is it can be cleaned easily enough and doesn't cause corrosion damage like coolant. It is almost like the DME is sucking on straws.

[geargrinder]

Right. Capacitance or contaminated oil being slightly conductive, either of those easily could be true, don't rule out connection interference tho... maybe an oil soaked pin connection became highly resistive and skewed a sensor reading or voltage supply...

Agreed thanks for the pix - you know theres another car I've heard of with the bad oil contamination - now that I think about it its Dave "capebmw" I think? I think his 540 had a super oil soaked DME connector too? At the time I thought "sure coolant but no never seen oil like that.." but clearly its also possible.

[purplecty]

I have a friend with an 03 540 sport and his DME connectors were covered in engine oil as well and the inside of the DME was covered also. This was the first time I have ever seen engine oil in the DME. He cleaned it up with electrical connector cleaner and replaced the vanos solenoids based off of this thread... He is still intermittently getting throttle errors and engine failsafe and may have DUDMD virginize a spare ME7.2 DME he has laying around...

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[Clarkbar]

I have a 2001 740il with an M62tu out of a 2003 540 fairly low miles 60K. I have replaced both vanos solenoids and still getting oil coming thru the new pair of solenoids and up to the DME. Has anyone solved this puzzling issue?