[335er]

Originally Posted by DrewKo

Man, I read these posts and can't believe I've had no problems with the engine of my car....nov. 2006 build auto 335i.

I miss the days when I could say that.

I have an October 2006 build manual 335 e90.

[thealbert]

Originally Posted by 335er

So much for knocking on wood. At the end of my commute home today, my engine malfunction/reduced power warning popped up again. Ugh. I'm hoping for a service appointment tomorrow.

Just when you're think you're out, they pull you back in huh? Sorry to hear the bad news. From what I hear, my friend's car is still also at the dealer getting sorted out. Sounds like its exactly the same problem as well. He said they've filed a PUMA case as well, similar to what jmonier did. But they're still working on it. I'll keep you guys updated on how his car goes. This seriously worries me about my car though. I've been reading more and more of this problem online. I wonder if BMW will do a recall for this. This reminds me of the bearing problem on the E46 M3 before.

335er - Let us know what the dealer says this time.

jmonier - I read your posts on the other thread. The fix seems so far from what the cause really may be!! Any idea as to why its a bolt thats causing the problem? I'm really lost on that one honestly. Doesn't make much sense to me. But heck, if thats really the cause, at least BMW know how to fix it. Hopefully that'll be the end of everyone's problem on this issue once the bolt's replaced. Your car's still going strong over there?

First fuel pump issue, now this? Good luck to us all! hahah

[thealbert]

Just curious, anyone out there have this same problem? Is it a common problem or just one of those needle in a hay stack kinda problems?

[jmonier]

Originally Posted by thealbert

jmonier - I read your posts on the other thread. The fix seems so far from what the cause really may be!! Any idea as to why its a bolt thats causing the problem? I'm really lost on that one honestly. Doesn't make much sense to me. But heck, if thats really the cause, at least BMW know how to fix it. Hopefully that'll be the end of everyone's problem on this issue once the bolt's replaced. Your car's still going strong over there?

My only guess is that it may be related to the crankshaft position sensor. My SA mentioned that once although there was nothing about it on the invoice. They also replaced the oil pump friction rings and that's even harder to understand. But, it seems to be fixed - 1500 miles and still going strong! I've attached a copy of my repair invoice so everyone can have as much information as i have.

[thealbert]

Originally Posted by jmonier

My only guess is that it may be related to the crankshaft position sensor. My SA mentioned that once although there was nothing about it on the invoice. They also replaced the oil pump friction rings and that's even harder to understand. But, it seems to be fixed - 1500 miles and still going strong! I've attached a copy of my repair invoice so everyone can have as much information as i have.

Oil pump friction rings?? Whoa.. this just gets better and better! hahah I wonder how that would help. Probably helps the oil flow better or something through the engine. I'm guessing its this part number? 11417527092. Ran a search on realoem.com.

I'm curious though, what made your dealer think that they had to replace that on your car? I'm still trying to mentally connect the dots on how the bolt and oil pump friction rings are related to the problem here. They all seem to be different components from different locations of the engine. Surely it can't be all those items together causing the problem! Anyway, I just got word from my friend, the puma case said that they need to replace the cylinder head seals. He said he'll email me the part numbers for me to post in bit. But funny thing is, just from the sound of it, it doesn't seem to go with what they did on your car! hahah I told him about the bolt fix, he said he'll show it to his dealer. Lets see what he says tomorrow.

[BM E92]

check out this meet and join if you like...

http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...t=95439&page=5

[jmonier]

Originally Posted by thealbert

Oil pump friction rings?? Whoa.. this just gets better and better! hahah I wonder how that would help. Probably helps the oil flow better or something through the engine. I'm guessing its this part number? 11417527092. Ran a search on realoem.com.

I'm curious though, what made your dealer think that they had to replace that on your car? I'm still trying to mentally connect the dots on how the bolt and oil pump friction rings are related to the problem here. They all seem to be different components from different locations of the engine. Surely it can't be all those items together causing the problem! Anyway, I just got word from my friend, the puma case said that they need to replace the cylinder head seals. He said he'll email me the part numbers for me to post in bit. But funny thing is, just from the sound of it, it doesn't seem to go with what they did on your car! hahah I told him about the bolt fix, he said he'll show it to his dealer. Lets see what he says tomorrow.

As I understand it, everything they did came from BMW Tech Support via the PUMA case. Except for that, I'm as mystified as you are. If it wasn't that the problem is obviously fixed I'd say they didn't have any idea what they were doing. One key point is that whatever the root cause of the problem was, it was causing the VANOS solenoid to fail. Since the VANOS solenoid failed three times within a few hundred miles it was an effect rather than a cause.

[335er]

Originally Posted by thealbert

Just when you're think you're out, they pull you back in huh? Sorry to hear the bad news. From what I hear, my friend's car is still also at the dealer getting sorted out. Sounds like its exactly the same problem as well. He said they've filed a PUMA case as well, similar to what jmonier did. But they're still working on it. I'll keep you guys updated on how his car goes. This seriously worries me about my car though. I've been reading more and more of this problem online. I wonder if BMW will do a recall for this. This reminds me of the bearing problem on the E46 M3 before.

335er - Let us know what the dealer says this time.

Well, I dropped the car off this morning. I spoke with Doug from BMW's Owner's Circle, and he said that he would follow up with my dealer's service department. This morning, the people at VOB were very pleasant and helpful. They said that they'd probably need to keep the car for a few days, and gave me an '07 328xi e90, a big improvement from the usual Enterprise rental cars that they seem to give out (and I've gotten when I've dropped my car off before). I gave the assistant service manager the PUMA code discussed before, and he seemed interested in the information. We'll see what they have to say.

[thealbert]

Originally Posted by 335er

Well, I dropped the car off this morning. I spoke with Doug from BMW's Owner's Circle, and he said that he would follow up with my dealer's service department. This morning, the people at VOB were very pleasant and helpful. They said that they'd probably need to keep the car for a few days, and gave me an '07 328xi e90, a big improvement from the usual Enterprise rental cars that they seem to give out (and I've gotten when I've dropped my car off before). I gave the assistant service manager the PUMA code discussed before, and he seemed interested in the information. We'll see what they have to say.

Keep us updated!

My friend's 335i's still at the shop. They said they're going to do one more update on his car's computer and if that doesn't fix it, they'll be going ahead with the puma case fixes. Will post the info on the puma cases he got once he finally sends them to me. Sorry but my friend's not very tech smart. haha

[335er]

Originally Posted by thealbert

Keep us updated!

My friend's 335i's still at the shop. They said they're going to do one more update on his car's computer and if that doesn't fix it, they'll be going ahead with the puma case fixes. Will post the info on the puma cases he got once he finally sends them to me. Sorry but my friend's not very tech smart. haha

I received an update voicemail from the dealership today. They said that they pulled the default codes from the car, contacted BMW North America, and are ordering seal rings and intake bearing ledgers. They also said that they'd have the car through at least Monday, maybe through Tuesday.

I'm taking this as a good sign; they seem to be looking for the problem, not just the symptom (bad VANOS valve).

In the meantime, I get to sample the 328xi for a few days.

[Phil335i]

My car (with 13,000 miles) started running like a spark plug was fouled on my way home from work yesterday, but no error message was displayed. Today I was driving and got similar symptoms after about 10 minutes on the road but this time got the "engine malfunction" message and eventually the "service engine soon" light came on.

Fortunately, I have an appointment at my dealer on Monday AM, so I'll see what they tell me about the source of the problem. Will let you know what I hear. This is the first significant problem I've had with my 15 month old car.

[Phil335i]

The tech called me and said the problem was a bad high pressure fuel pump. It will take a few days to get the part in. Thought I'd missed that problem ...

[335er]

Originally Posted by Phil335i

The tech called me and said the problem was a bad high pressure fuel pump. It will take a few days to get the part in. Thought I'd missed that problem ...

When I went back to the dealership the second time, they said, "Has the fuel pump been replaced?"

I called up today to check on the status - two of the three parts have come in; they expect the third part to come in tomorrow.

I asked about getting an oil change done early. I have about 3,000 miles left to go before the change, but I figure, hey, the car's there, so why not? And, seeing that they've had it since Friday morning, not to mention that this is the second time in two weeks for them to try to fix the same thing, maybe they'd play ball. (They've also been really nice since I brought the car back.) The service adviser did not seem too keen on the idea.

[GMWNashville]

we are only approved to do oil changes within 500 miles of them being due...says BMW NA...

[thealbert]

The Puma case called to have the inlet bearing strip and the inlet camshaft replaced. inlet camshaft. Part numbers are 11 12 7 550 913 and 11 31 7 584 803 respectively. I'm guessing this is the same fix that 335er's car is undergoing? 335er, do you have the part numbers for the ordering seal rings and intake bearing ledgers?

It says to do that first and if there are still any other problems, it says to replace sprocket (part number 11 31 7 502 180), hub (part number 11 23 7 553 142) and a hexagon screw (part number 11 21 1 439 395). The hex bolt repair is the same as the work that was done to jmonier's car. Looks like the dealers are now working on the same page. Hope this helps others too! Will keep you updated on the progress of my friend's car. Keeping him sane while his car's MIA has been a living nightmare! haha

[335er]

Originally Posted by thealbert

The Puma case called to have the inlet bearing strip and the inlet camshaft replaced. inlet camshaft. Part numbers are 11 12 7 550 913 and 11 31 7 584 803 respectively. I'm guessing this is the same fix that 335er's car is undergoing? 335er, do you have the part numbers for the ordering seal rings and intake bearing ledgers?

It says to do that first and if there are still any other problems, it says to replace sprocket (part number 11 31 7 502 180), hub (part number 11 23 7 553 142) and a hexagon screw (part number 11 21 1 439 395). The hex bolt repair is the same as the work that was done to jmonier's car. Looks like the dealers are now working on the same page. Hope this helps others too! Will keep you updated on the progress of my friend's car. Keeping him sane while his car's MIA has been a living nightmare! haha

I'm not sure of what the part numbers are. I'll write in and let you all know when I get my car back.

[thealbert]

Originally Posted by 335er

I'm not sure of what the part numbers are. I'll write in and let you all know when I get my car back.

Cool! Thanks! Good luck with your car! Looks like you're on week 2 already?

[335er]

Originally Posted by thealbert

Cool! Thanks! Good luck with your car! Looks like you're on week 2 already?

Thanks. I dropped it off (for the second time) on Thursday, so it's the second calendar week, but I guess tomorrow will be the 6th full day or so.

[thealbert]

Ok, here's something funny. Spoke to my friend and he said that before the dealer decided to install the work that the puma case told them to do, they took out the oil cooler to test and see if the faults will come back or not. They did the test and ironically the faults didn't turn up anymore, well, at least for now. They said that before with the oil cooler, they'd just drive for about a mile and the fault would pop out right away and the car would go on limp mode. Now without the oil cooler, they drove for a good 10 miles and no faults yet. 335er, does your car have an oil cooler? Was it a retrofit oil cooler or did your car come with it? My friend's oil cooler is a retrofit cooler and the dealer is saying that there might be a few more things required than a simple plug and play with the oil cooler hence why sometimes it could throw a fault. And since the oil cooler connects to the engine through the top part of the engine where the vanos is, they're thinking it might be messing the flow of the oil and causing faults? They're still running tests on this so I'll keep you guys updated but its the first time I've heard of this!

But its kinda puzzling since trick50, on his first post, he mentioned that he had his oil cooler retrofitted on his car and then it started spitting out the fault code.. umm... related? Surely, without having seen this post, the guy's at the dealer think it might be related so that's really got me thinking!

[335er]

Originally Posted by thealbert

Ok, here's something funny. Spoke to my friend and he said that before the dealer decided to install the work that the puma case told them to do, they took out the oil cooler to test and see if the faults will come back or not. They did the test and ironically the faults didn't turn up anymore, well, at least for now. They said that before with the oil cooler, they'd just drive for about a mile and the fault would pop out right away and the car would go on limp mode. Now without the oil cooler, they drove for a good 10 miles and no faults yet. 335er, does your car have an oil cooler? Was it a retrofit oil cooler or did your car come with it? My friend's oil cooler is a retrofit cooler and the dealer is saying that there might be a few more things required than a simple plug and play with the oil cooler hence why sometimes it could throw a fault. And since the oil cooler connects to the engine through the top part of the engine where the vanos is, they're thinking it might be messing the flow of the oil and causing faults? They're still running tests on this so I'll keep you guys updated but its the first time I've heard of this!

But its kinda puzzling since trick50, on his first post, he mentioned that he had his oil cooler retrofitted on his car and then it started spitting out the fault code.. umm... related? Surely, without having seen this post, the guy's at the dealer think it might be related so that's really got me thinking!

No oil cooler in my car, to my knowledge. It was a September/October 2006 build, and it is a manual transmission. No oil cooler has been retrofitted.

[335er]

Originally Posted by 335er

No oil cooler in my car, to my knowledge. It was a September/October 2006 build, and it is a manual transmission. No oil cooler has been retrofitted.

I just received a call from the dealership to let me know that my car won't be ready until next week, at the earliest. This blows.

[thealbert]

Originally Posted by 335er

No oil cooler in my car, to my knowledge. It was a September/October 2006 build, and it is a manual transmission. No oil cooler has been retrofitted.

umm... so much for that theory. hahaha