[maajka]

My daughters car, 2011 BMW 328xi seems to have the classic vanos issue symptoms, rough idle leading to not starting, cranks but does not start. I initially scanned the car with a generic scanner and saw misfires on all 6 cylinders as well as camshaft position sensor codes.

P052B- Camshaft positioning timing over-retarded Bank 1
P13B4- ‘A’ Camshaft Reference Error Bank 1
Rest of codes were all misfire related

After some research I realized that the P codes may not be the most reliable, I purchased a Schwaben by foxwell scanner from ecs tuning. The codes I got from that are,

2A80- DME intake VANOS activation
2A85- DME exhaust VANOS activation

I tried cleaning the vanos with not luck, replaced vanos with new ones from fcp euro although not OEM. While reading through the forums I did come across the vanos bolts issues and recalls. I’ve owned a 335i since 2011 and still own it so am somewhat familiar with it and have gone through the recall but when I looked up my daughters car I realized the recall was not done on hers. How can I tell if it’s actually the bolts causing the issue and not vanos or camshaft sensors. The car cranks but does not start. I have also read up on the SULEV warranty but am hesitant to take the car to the dealer just to get charged a ton for diagnostics and not have anything covered. We purchased the car 7 months ago and have not received any recall letters. I would not be opposed to pulling the valve cover to replace the bolts and I guess fish out the bad bolts from the oil pan.
I guess I’m looking for advice confirming if it’s the bolts, how to go about making sure the dealer doesn’t screw me over if I go that route.

Thanks for any advice

[NZE90]

You will have to remove the valve cover to check the bolts, but if you are considering taking it to the dealer to be rectified then that's probably not ideal as they may refuse to do it if you have messed with it. You could try inspecting the bolts with a cheap borescope camera inserted through the oil filler cap.

[2010_328i]

Hi Maajka. Check this thread out. May be very useful and possibly provide a solution to the crank but no start issue with your daughter's car:.

https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2090667

[maajka]

Thank you for the info. Been a busy few days. Purchased a camara on Amazon and looked inside engine. Definitely looks like a bolt is missing. Called local BMW dealer to set up a service appointment related to the recall and explained my issues and asked about SULEV coverage and recall coverage. They of course were not much help and just told me to take it up with BMW. Looks like it will be a bunch of back and forth between me, bmw and the dealer. My advice on navigating that would be appreciated. Will try to upload pic I took of the one missing bolt.


Thanks