[Perfectus]

I went in for HPFP/injectors and to have my oil consumption looked at again.

The dealer found codes for failed Vanos solenoids and since I was out of warranty I told them I'd replace them myself.

What kind of freakin me out is the note they put on my paperwork:

Found the engine oil dirty and the vanos solenoids soiled. Performed vehicle test. Checked oil condition. Oil is burnt. With fuel contamination. Performed the test module for vanos adjusting. performed the vanos solenoid purging.

What do the Vanos solenoids do? and if they fail do they lead to these symptoms, burnt oil, fuel contamination in the oil, etc?

I was getting the 1/2 Engine power light and thought it was the HPFP but it ended up being the Vanos'.


They also said they could not find a leak but the consumption could be caused by faulty crankcase vent system/oil separator.

Thanks for the help guys.

[vasillalov]

Ooh boy. How many miles?

[Perfectus]

71K

[Mike@N54Tuning.com]

Vanos issues are not uncommon.

Mike

[Bobble]

Vanos is the system that alters the cam angle in respect to a fixed position gear. It allows the engine to "tune" itself primarily for fuel mileage and emissions. The movement of the camshafts is controlled by the ECU by sending a signal thru the solenoid to trigger the movement. BMW's have had Vanos and Double Vanos for many years, early to mid 90's if memory serves me. All E46 and E9x variations have double vanos which control both intake and exhaust cams and both in advancing the retarding the relative position and timing. Vanos solenoids have failed for years on these cars so it's nothing new in respect to the E9x generations but simply something that fails sometimes. It will trigger an SES light and throw the appropriate codes. Do you have the work order the states the codes read and thrown? As far as oil consumption and quality that should not be affected by the vanos issue. They do require certain tools and if it''s the actual vanos system and not the solenoids. If the solenoids I would ask whoever does the repair what the state of the seals are as well as those fail in very high mileage cars, causes a rattling noise. I currently have an E46 with 164K on the clock and no vanos issues other than a solenoid failure very early in life (like 20K or so) that was a known issue in the M52 motors. Fuel in your oil is found a lot of times in FI motors and with these cars blow by issues it would not surprise me. For what it's worth have you oil analyzed and they'll tell you what's in it etc.. What is your oil change interval and do you often run the car at track type conditions for heat etc.? Is the motor tuned?

[Perfectus]

Thanks for the replies.

I typically change my oil every 7500 miles. I just changed it about 3k miles ago in January.

I've never tracked my car and it has never been tuned.

[Joe@TopGearSolutions]

Those comments are probably a direct correlation to the solenoid failures. Nothing you personally did.

It was probably loading up rich in limp mode. You should replace the solenoids at your earliest convenience.

[whitecord]

just keep in the back of your head it is not always the solenoid. If you only have the fault on one cam you can swap the solenoid to the other side and see if the fault moves. if it dose not the you could have other problems. i know on some of the earlier engines had wear on the cam carrier by a retaining ring on the cam was getting worn causing low oil pressure to the vanos.

but either way vanos has nothing to do with high oil consumption.

[i2iSTUDIOS]

pics of the idrive knob from an M5 in your car?

[Bobble]

Originally Posted by whitecord

i know on some of the earlier engines had wear on the cam carrier by a retaining ring on the cam was getting worn causing low oil pressure to the vanos.

I believe that was only N52 based motors but could be wrong.

To OP how long has this situation been going on IE how many miles have you driven this way? Unless you've driven quite a few miles with this condition I find it hard to swallow that running really rich would foul your oil bad enough to notice. But with that said I've seen plenty of FI boats/jet skis that the oil smells like gas a bit failrly consistently so it's possible the oil and fuel issue is related to vanos and I'd correct that quickly. In those cases (boats/skis) it's blow by issue that does that.

[trickcruiser]

You should pick up a scan tool so that you can look into your codes. If I had to guess, you prob only need to replace your exhaust vanos as that seems to be the most common.

I just replaced my exhaust one last week and the car seem to be running very well.


In case it help:
Both the exhaust and intake vonos use the same part number (11367585425)

Terry gave me a link to these guys and they are priced decent enough.
http://www.trademotion.com/partlocat...&siteid=214672

Here is the DIY that I used. VERY EASY! (took me about 1/2 hr total)
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...ight=vanos+diy

Good luck

[Charleston335]

I have burned a quart to and I had VANOS issues...

[anonemouse]

You may find it cheaper from here: http://www.bmwmercedesparts.com

At least for my 2007 it was cheaper.

Got my eye on buying this part, and doing the DIY too, on 2 occassions over 12 weeks I've had a 2A82 code. Next time it happens I'll replace it.

A.

[Perfectus]

Originally Posted by Bobble

I believe that was only N52 based motors but could be wrong.

To OP how long has this situation been going on IE how many miles have you driven this way? Unless you've driven quite a few miles with this condition I find it hard to swallow that running really rich would foul your oil bad enough to notice. But with that said I've seen plenty of FI boats/jet skis that the oil smells like gas a bit failrly consistently so it's possible the oil and fuel issue is related to vanos and I'd correct that quickly. In those cases (boats/skis) it's blow by issue that does that.

The vanos code popped up about a month ago/~1k miles and I was only able to get it to the dealer last week.

The oil consumption has been since I bought the car 30k miles ago.

[Perfectus]

Originally Posted by anonemouse

You may find it cheaper from here: http://www.bmwmercedesparts.com

At least for my 2007 it was cheaper.

Got my eye on buying this part, and doing the DIY too, on 2 occassions over 12 weeks I've had a 2A82 code. Next time it happens I'll replace it.

A.

Thanks for the link! Those are the cheapest I could find.