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Thread: VANOS rebuild gone wrong

  1. #1
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    VANOS rebuild gone wrong

    Hi guys - 99 528i wagon with 120,000 miles. Prior to rebuild, engine would not maintain a cold idle. Every 10 seconds, the idle solenoid would click a bit and the engine would stall and die of not feeding it some throttle.

    Rebuilt vanos with replacement seals yesterday. Upon startup, I had a stable cold idle but I didn't notice much difference when driving. At cold idle after rebuild, I also noticed the VANOS solenoids making a lot more noise. A lot of clicking and almost a grating noise. But it ran better.

    Then this morning, I'm getting cold.idle issues again. Now, I get a stall / drop in idle every 2 seconds.

    The problem disappears when warmed up.

    Checked intake solenoid and got 11.2 ohms. Haven't checked the exhaust.

    Any ideas what's going on? No CEL and no codes stored with my generic OBD-II scanner.

    Any ideas what this could be?

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  2. #2
    JimLev's Avatar
    JimLev is offline Artifically Aspirated Moderator
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    How's your idle air control valve?
    Ever clean it?

  3. #3
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    Ya know - when I had the manifold off replacing the CCV and the coolant pipes for the heater core, I sort of checked it. It freely moves and clicks when rotating it back and forth quickly. It didn't appear dirty or gummed up BUT, I've thought it was odd that when engine is cold it never idles over about 900rpm. Also when turning accessories on, the idle speed drops with a load placed on it.

    I've questioned if it's working.

    I may just get one and replace. They're only $30 or so on Amazon.

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  4. #4
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    Did you replace the vacuum lines back behind the intake, that go to the secondary air valve to the left of the engine? There are a couple of other vac lines back there along with 2 vacuum caps that block off two vacuum ports. I always looked into those areas when problems like yours came around.
    Last edited by Poolman; 03-23-2019 at 08:17 PM.

  5. #5
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    I replaced all the vacuum lines. They literally fell apart and disintegrated into dust when I removed the manifold.

    I have 8-10% fuel trims, which to me seems a bit high. Bank 2 is the 10% and bank 1 the 8%. The brake booster looses vacuum really soon after turning the engine off and I hear a hissing noise for about 5 seconds after I turn the engine off. It all wreaks of a vacuum leak. Good idea....

    Just curious why I'm getting the grating noise from the VANOS solenoid when cold. Once warmed up, it runs 100% normally..

  6. #6
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    Check DISA


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  7. #7
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    Not sure what you mean by check DISA. As in - check the seal or leaks? When I removed the manifold, I replaced the manifold gasket, but the DIS and throttle body gaskets (o-rings) looked to be in excellent shape.

    If you mean checking that it's working - when I unplug the electric connector, it releases the valve and when plugging back in, it activates. I.e., I can see the pushrod move in and out. Applying voltage is actuating the valve.

  8. #8
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    Just some random comments here, might not help.

    Did you use the Beisan replacement seals and follow their write-up? That's what I did with my '99 just a few months into ownership. My double-vanos solenoids have never made any noise either before/after so your mention of clicking and grating sounds ominous to me. Oil starvation?

    The two small allen-head reverse-threaded screws that attach to the centers of the pistons... They are quite small and will not take much torque .... the spec is around 7 ft.lb I think. I'm wondering if one has perhaps decapitated itself in there .... The spin direction of the vanos pistons should prevent those screws from ever loosening; the danger is over-torquing them on re-install.

    If your touring is a manual trans car, you might not notice any huge gains but you should notice a bit better/smoother running overall. I'm told the cars with auto boxes see a noticeable improvement. I recall Beisan seals having a break-in period that requires keeping the rpms below a certain level for xxx miles.

    Did you also replace all the valve-cover gasket/plug seals/VC bolt grommets when you did this? One issue that can crop up is a vacuum leak from the new gasket if it hasn't properly seated or sealed, but I would expect to see a code or two from an O2 sensor if that happened.






    Quote Originally Posted by AccordULEV View Post
    Hi guys - 99 528i wagon with 120,000 miles. Prior to rebuild, engine would not maintain a cold idle. Every 10 seconds, the idle solenoid would click a bit and the engine would stall and die of not feeding it some throttle.

    Rebuilt vanos with replacement seals yesterday. Upon startup, I had a stable cold idle but I didn't notice much difference when driving. At cold idle after rebuild, I also noticed the VANOS solenoids making a lot more noise. A lot of clicking and almost a grating noise. But it ran better.

    Then this morning, I'm getting cold.idle issues again. Now, I get a stall / drop in idle every 2 seconds.

    The problem disappears when warmed up.

    Checked intake solenoid and got 11.2 ohms. Haven't checked the exhaust.

    Any ideas what's going on? No CEL and no codes stored with my generic OBD-II scanner.

    Any ideas what this could be?

    Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by AccordULEV View Post
    Not sure what you mean by check DISA. .

    That is the Differentiated Intake System Actuator, it's mounted on the intake manifold.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by pleiades View Post
    Just some random comments here, might not help.

    Did you use the Beisan replacement seals and follow their write-up? That's what I did with my '99 just a few months into ownership. My double-vanos solenoids have never made any noise either before/after so your mention of clicking and grating sounds ominous to me. Oil starvation?

    The two small allen-head reverse-threaded screws that attach to the centers of the pistons... They are quite small and will not take much torque .... the spec is around 7 ft.lb I think. I'm wondering if one has perhaps decapitated itself in there .... The spin direction of the vanos pistons should prevent those screws from ever loosening; the danger is over-torquing them on re-install.

    If your touring is a manual trans car, you might not notice any huge gains but you should notice a bit better/smoother running overall. I'm told the cars with auto boxes see a noticeable improvement. I recall Beisan seals having a break-in period that requires keeping the rpms below a certain level for xxx miles.

    Did you also replace all the valve-cover gasket/plug seals/VC bolt grommets when you did this? One issue that can crop up is a vacuum leak from the new gasket if it hasn't properly seated or sealed, but I would expect to see a code or two from an O2 sensor if that happened.
    Very much appreciate your reply. Ya know - this issue has actually evolved somewhat over the past couple days for whatever reason. When I start the car cold, it had a normal stable idle of about 900rpm for a couple minutes. Once the temp needle just starts to come up through the blue on the dash gauge, the idle gets a little rough. Its like it can't decide on an idle speed and there's a lot of adjustment in idle rpm. Up and down by 50-75rpm increments. That's when I start hearing a little bit of the grating noise from the intake VANOS solenoid (dunno about the exhaust...didn't pay attention). Even that has calmed down some...not as much of the solenoid noise.

    It continues this for about 2 or 3 minutes and then gradually stops as the engine approaches operating temp. After that, no more noises and it runs very normally. I have to say I do have a lot more mid-range power. I didn't immediately notice it but more than that, the throttle is WAY more responsive off the line and when tooling around town. I have to be careful how far I press the accelerator now because I got used to it with dead VANOS and terrible throttle response.

    I didn't use the Beisan seals or follow the how-to. I watched several YouTube videos on disassembly and reassembly and the kit came from Amazon - LiMiCar brand. As far as the reverse threaded camshaft bolts - I'd almost guarantee that I torqued them more than 7 ft.-lbs, but it wasn't by much if I did. I was pretty gentle when retightening as I recall because I could tell they weren't torqued tightly when removing them. And yes, I replaced valve cover and spark plugs and tube gaskets along with all the bolt grommets. I've been monitoring long and short-term fuel trims and there's been no change since before the fix. System is running a little bit lean as evidenced by a pretty consistent +7-9% on bank 1 and 2 fuel trims. Bank 2 is always adding about 2% more than bank 1. I've been suspecting a vacuum leak, possibly the brake booster, which doesn't hold a vacuum charge for more than a couple minutes.

    And this oil starvation thing you mention is a little scary. I'm assuming this would be due to a worn oil pump and/or bad bearing causing low oil pressure? Because if that's the case then I'm not so sure the engine is worth putting much more time into - that scenario sounds like a ticking time bomb, even if repairs are made.

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    Last edited by AccordULEV; 03-25-2019 at 01:07 PM.

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by johnd15 View Post
    That is the Differentiated Intake System Actuator, it's mounted on the intake manifold.
    The DISA valve is working normally.

    Kind of an interesting intake design.

    I guess it opens and closes at specified rpms to best take advantage of the Hemholtz effect?

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