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Came back from holiday in summer and the car wouldn't run right, no power, miss firing etc. In the end, narrowed it down to the two Vanos so removed them, cleaned the gunk off with carb cleaner and refitted. Problem solved.
Time for an oil change, so did that today and figured I'd just have a look at the Vanos again to see if they were still clear. Now I'm wondering what all the copper looking bits are. Didn't notice anything in the main oil that drained.
BMW?, Could be main bearing shell residue, remove your oil filter and cut open on a clean bench then examine it.
Yes, BMW. Will grab it out the bin and cut it open then.
Ouch, This is gonna be very expensive - needs a complete strip down of engine and all oil related components. (mates a BMW tech and this is a well known issue)
Thanks (I think) Soma.
Nothing showing up in the old oil filter. Will run it down to the BMW specialist and show them the pics this week.
Ouch, This is gonna be very expensive – needs a complete strip down of engine and all oil related components. (mates a BMW tech and this is a well known issue)
Phew, lucky you didn't wait for it to break down, then you'd have needed a complete strip down of engine and all oil related components.
That's goosed. Metal in there is only going to be bearings. As said above, it'll need a complete strip and new bearings, hopefully it wont have progressed to scoring the crank/cams, in which case it'll likely be scrap.
dooosukFree Member<br />Thanks (I think) Soma.
Nothing showing up in the old oil filter. Will run it down to the BMW specialist and show them the pics this week.
If there was no rod knock/top end noise then you "may" have caught it just in time before major expense but get your independent BMW specialist to check - at the very least it'll prob involve dropping the big end caps off to check/replace the bearings - take your old oil filter down for them to check for bearing particles.
How old is the car?
If it was my car (I guess an m-car?) then id be asking the garage to pick it up as it may spin a bearing, I wouldn't be driving it as that is quite a significant amount of bearing material in your vanos units.
It's a 2012 320i, so nothing special.
M539 Restorations is an informative youtuber, you'll find several VANOS and bottom end problems in his content, sparkly oil, etc.