[StradaRedlands]

Words of wisdom there doit659!

[doit659]

Well, I am not arguing with you. I understand your approach.

I was speculating on why BMW would suggest the procedure is to drop the oil pan, which is their recommended procedure for the recall.

Actually, I have a question for you.

I have watched videos of guys rebuilding BMW engines and they are like surgeons not wanting a piece of lint polluting the engine.

How can some VANOS bolts shear off and drop all the way down to the oil pan and not rip up the engine, especially the cam shafts?

I would think random pieces of bolt heads whipping off the VANOS would damage the engine before they fell into the oil pan.

Also, how possibly could those bolt heads travel from the valve cover down to the oil pan?

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

I'll ask a dumb question. Why does the pan need to come off to find the broken bolt heads? If it was my car I'd get a borescope and look around for them then fish them out with a magnetic tool. The oil sensor hole is plenty big enough to get either tool in the pan to search for and fish the broken parts out.

The Vanos bolts are aluminum so a magnetic tool won’t help... And, there’s deep crevasses in the oil pan that may make a scope tool usage problematic.

[doit659]

Ok, that's all good information which I didn't know.

But why don't these bolts shearing off, even if aluminum, tear up the engine on their way down to the oil pan? Are they just softer metal than the camshaft, manifolds, etc.?

[Leucosticte]

Had a similar scenario when my parents took their diesel X3 in to get the NOX sensors replaced under warranty, in the process they broke the SCR metering valve and refused to cover it and then wanted $1k to fix it when I did it myself for about $200 in parts and about 30 minutes of labor.

The funny thing is that the service advisor was like "the SCR metering valve is nowhere near where we did the work" even though the metering valve is right next to one of the NOX sensors and it's obvious that the tech broke it while he was in the area. No big deal, it's old plastic, shit happens, but I don't know why they refused to cover it and then tried to lie to us about it being their fault. My dad told me that the two service advisors there said that he should just get a new X3 instead of trying to keep this one going even though he's put 40k miles on it (122k now) with nothing but oil changes and brakes and some recall/warranty work with the emissions system.

Anyway, I was derailing the thread, my buddy had a Duralast axle on his 328xi put in by the previous owner and when he tried to remove it when he was replacing his engine he had an absolute bitch of a time doing so. So to me, it's believable that the aftermarket axle is harder to get off than the OEM stuff. However, I think that this is due to the lock ring being different on the aftermarket axle and nothing to do with the splines themselves. After my buddy removed the axle, he popped a used GKN one on there and had 0 issues afterwards, so I think that your diff is fine.

There's also this thread where the OP had issues with aftermarket axles: https://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1770569

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by Mike K

The Vanos bolts are aluminum so a magnetic tool won’t help... And, there’s deep crevasses in the oil pan that may make a scope tool usage problematic.

Ah, thanks, that explains it. I never knew the bolts were aluminum. My 2006 E90 was not part of the recall, so I never looked into cause of the failure. I always thought it was the bolts backed out and the heads sheared off.

[3PedalJake]

The Vanos bolts are steel. I found that out when removing the vanos gears to extract the other broken bolt issue in the vicinity; the aluminum "head" aka rocker cover bolts. The heads on these bolts would leave a bad taste in the engine's mouth if it was to try to chew one. There are the ones I pulled, they are TTY so have to be replaced, but they're steel.

[TGTIW]

Originally Posted by 3PedalJake

The Vanos bolts are steel. I found that out when removing the vanos gears to extract the other broken bolt issue in the vicinity; the aluminum "head" aka rocker cover bolts. The heads on these bolts would leave a bad taste in the engine's mouth if it was to try to chew one. There are the ones I pulled, they are TTY so have to be replaced, but they're steel.

These are not the bolts being replaced in the recall.

[3PedalJake]

Originally Posted by TGTIW

These are not the bolts being replaced in the recall.

Oh, NVM then lol. What bolts are being replaced? I wasn't subject to the recall, these are the bolts that hold on the vanos gears tho.

Edit: I found the service bulletin, I see it's the smaller bolts holding the actuator together. https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/201...4V176-2716.pdf

Thankfully this is one of the defects the early engines didn't suffer from.

[Mike K]

These aluminum bolts are the faulty ones:

[3PedalJake]

Originally Posted by Mike K

These aluminum bolts are the faulty ones:

Thanks Mike. IDK why I had in my head that it was the bolts holding the gear on not having been subject to that recall or otherwise looking it up, but that's how to put the "ass" in assume.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by 3PedalJake

Thanks Mike. IDK why I had in my head that it was the bolts holding the gear on not having been subject to that recall or otherwise looking it up, but that's how to put the "ass" in assume.

And WTF are those bolts aluminum? Is there a magnesium part in the VANOS unit they thread into?

[3PedalJake]

Originally Posted by Efthreeoh

And WTF are those bolts aluminum? Is there a magnesium part in the VANOS unit they thread into?

AFAIK the vanos actuators are steel, but then I've already proven I don't know as much about them as I thought I did. BMW sure lurves them aluminum bolts tho.

[marvinstockman]

If you want to continue with the dealer, ask for a hurry-up meeting with the BMW Zone manager, which I imagine can now be done by Zoom.

[bmwbob89]

Have them reassemble the car. Tow it home if need be. Get a used diff and axle. Put it all in yourself or pay a shop. Then take them to small claims court. You don't even need a lawyer.

[Bims328i]

It's just anyone else touching your car in my opinion. Who knows what they are going to do. I had a friend years ago, his dad owned a brake shop (think he runs it now). I remember after services the kid would test drive the cars and, man, he would be really rough on the car out if the owner left it there. Pull out onto the street like a madman just raking the owner's car out. Disgusting to be honest.

Even the tire shop lied to me trying to sell me brakes on "gouged" rotors even though the rear brake sensor hadn't even gone off and the grinding noise turned out the be the differential. I already had the pads and rotors for the rear. Tech trying to sell me this nonsense service was flabbergasted at my response because I thought at first perhaps that was the source of the grinding noise I had been hearing which again, turned out to be a bad diff. They didn't notice that.

[Efthreeoh]

Originally Posted by 3PedalJake

AFAIK the vanos actuators are steel, but then I've already proven I don't know as much about them as I thought I did. BMW sure lurves them aluminum bolts tho.

Everyone understands the galvanic protection that is necessary to bolt to the magnesium engine block, but using aluminum security-torx bolts on the VANOS actuators doesn't seem to make much sense.

[travman33316]

I recently took my 328i in for the VANOS bolt recall. Agreed to pay for a new valve cover since my car has 150k miles, but they quoted $1,200 for the part... I called a nearby dealer here in Florida and they matched their price of $600 after I complained...