WTF? Vanos or something else?

[equ]

My turn to be unlucky...

At 33,600 miles, the s54 suddenly started idling rough. Perhaps there was some power/response loss, that was less pronounced, but idling was very poor. Shaking went away about 2k rpm or higher. About 20 minutes of this and the SES/CEL came on. I had another 50-60 miles to go so I nursed it home and went to nearest Autozone. I was on the hopeful side that there was nothing too deeply wrong and that it would turn out to be plugs/wires/coils. Codes are: P012, P014, P0301 through P0306. Initial googling (but not much research yet) indicates I may indeed be getting a visit from the Vanos fairy. Ugh! I guess I can console myself that this and the rear subframe are the two $$$ weak points of the e46 m3 and now I'm taking care of one. It will surely be bulletproof thereafter. Right? Right ?

[Terri Kennedy]

Originally Posted by equ

Codes are: P012, P014, P0301 through P0306. Initial googling (but not much research yet) indicates I may indeed be getting a visit from the Vanos fairy.

I have an Autoenginuity code reader here which reads the real BMW codes, not the generic OBDII ones. If you want to limp it over here, we can try to pull those codes (I say "try" because they have an incredibly annoying copy protection and it may decide it wants a new authorization code, which won't be available at any of the times we'd be using it).

You still have my email / phone #, right?

[equ]

Hi Terry.. I might take you up on that. The car seems 'stable', as in the idle is bad in exactly the same way after two hours of driving. There are no crunchy mechanical sounds, there is extra gear lash due to the misfires. I'll send you a text message later this evening.

[bren]

I can't help, but I'll definitely be paying attention to what you find....

I discovered yesterday that my car has a noticeable crack forming around one of the subframe mounts, and the bottom of the engine is covered in sludge from an oil leak that seems to have been going on for a while. Yay BMW. :/

[equ]

Did some threads reading. My guess is on the vanos solenoid. Drove the car 20 miles to indie... We shall see.

Strangely enough, the 2011 335i I sold had a vanos solenoid fault. Some things never change.

[Nick M3]

Originally Posted by equ

Did some threads reading. My guess is on the vanos solenoid. Drove the car 20 miles to indie... We shall see.

Strangely enough, the 2011 335i I sold had a vanos solenoid fault. Some things never change.

Beisan has a repaired and reinforced solenoid unit. Hopefully better and definitely cheaper than new.

[equ]

He said he had a beisan solenoid ready to go when I called him (one of the reasons he got my business). Let's hope he doesn't overcharge...

[Nick M3]

Originally Posted by equ

He said he had a beisan solenoid ready to go when I called him (one of the reasons he got my business). Let's hope he doesn't overcharge...

Nice!

[equ]

BAD NEWS.

Shop says both exhaust tabs are broken, needs essentially whole new VANOS exhaust hub. $600 labor and $1100-ish parts (Dr. Vanos kit).

This is especially surprising for a few reasons.

1. Car is at 33k miles. No evidence of hard use prior. In fact, I'm positive owners 1 & 3 were gentle. I am owner #4. Owner 2 only had it for a short while. In any case, I can't blame previous owners because I have already put 6500 miles on it.

2. Valves were adjusted only 4k miles/1year ago. The guy visually confirmed that everything was intact, at least per visible inspection. I called him to give the news, he was quite surprised, he said "both breaking are rare". He was especially surprised as he remembers my low mileage/clean/well-oil changed car.

So I have authorized the repair. The two tabs are missing (hopefully sitting in the oil pan and not floating around the engine). FML.

[Plaz]

Oh, sorry man... that's a serious drag.