Rough idle and stalling e39 m5
Rough idle and stalling e39 m5
Author
Discussion

Mjsykes

Original Poster:

18 posts

160 months

Monday 25th February 2013
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Can any one help? The EML came on and plugged in code reader. Bank 2 intake and exhaust camshaft sensors faulty so replaced them immediately and reset the light. Started up fine and checked out fine. Next day warmed up fine and went out for ten minutes and parked up. Whilst stationary the rev counter started to dip up and down and eventually stalled and relighting the EML. Code reader says fault 72 vanos exhaust. Can anyone expand on this ?

M5Dave

829 posts

235 months

Tuesday 26th February 2013
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When mine behaved similarly to what you're describing (engine management light on and a rough idle which smoothed out when you brought the revs up)it was the vanos solenoid board that was faulty.

Not a cheap fix, but not the end of the world either. You can get a reconditioned board from Mr Vanos for a couple of hundred quid or thereabouts (new one from BMW is about £800), and a decent indy will take about 4 hours to fit it.

Mjsykes

Original Poster:

18 posts

160 months

Tuesday 26th February 2013
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Thanks for the reply. Forgot to mention in the original post that the car is now hard to fire up cold and even when warm. It's ticking over but not igniting, is this still vanos solenoid problem?

M5Dave

829 posts

235 months

Wednesday 27th February 2013
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I didn't have any starting problems with mine, it would fire up first time, hot or cold, run okay for a few mins then the rough idle would start.

Mine didn't cut out either, although the rough idle was getting worse all the time, so it probably would have eventually started doing that and having starting problems as well.

The problem with these cars is that when it comes to this sort of stuff there are so many different problems with similar symptoms.

The only way to solve it without spending money replacing things on a trial and error basis, is to get it looked at by someone who knows them and can interperate the fault codes properly.

EssexIan

135 posts

309 months

Wednesday 27th February 2013
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Phil Crouch at CPC ngineering is a bit of a genius with E39 M5 and also Vanos, if it has a Vanos problem he can generally repair rather than replace the whole unit at a cost of thousands.

He is in Marlow, Buckinghamshire so not far from you in Hampshire, he can be found at http://www.cpcpe.com

Good Luck
Ian