M135i camshaft/eccentric shaft major faults

[Matt4552]

Hi all,

I am new to this forum and forums in general, used them for info in the past as they are a great source of information but never really posted on them until now. I will give a bit of back ground into me and the whole story about the car below. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read and give advice.

Long story short, I am 28 and have always been into cars/motorbikes. I had spent most of my 20s with fast motorbikes rather than fast cars but always had semi fast cars, Saab 9-3 aero and e46 330i to name a couple. I am also fairly mechanically minded and enjoy doing work on my own vehicles and would tackle most jobs.

So onto the story!

In early July of 2018 I was in a very fortunate position to be able to afford my dream car an M135i. I had been keeping an eye on prices and searching for my ideal spec for about a year prior to this. After selling my bike I needed something to scratch the itch for speed that it had left me with and my old 330i with 140+K miles just didn't do it. The car was advertised with the John Clark group (Motorchoice Edinburgh) who are a reasonable sized dealer here in Scotland, with having franchised dealerships from BMW, Audi and JLR group. Motorchoice was the outlet they had to sell good used trade-ins that they couldn't put on the forecourt of the main dealers, they had some very nice stock of used cars. The car was a 2013 63reg, registered in late November of that year. It had 34k miles on it and was in my perfect spec with ZF8, Estoril blue paint and cream leather on the inside. Condition of the car overall was very good, a few age related marks but well above average for its age. The service history was all main dealer and the car seemed to have been well cared for, the tyres had even been changed with Michelin PSS and were all matching. I made the deal and the car was mine, managed to haggle in a years warranty but that was it!!

The collection, all went smoothly and the car was great. A couple day later I noticed a slight clattering noice as if a pump was priming itself as it only occurred when unlocking the car. I had the codes checked and nothing logged so put it down to a pump on its way out. The car drove perfectly, I test drove several when on the hunt for one and they all felt the same which is a good sign to me . Fast forward to May of 2019 and I got the car serviced at Klasse series automotive near Livingston who are BMW and Mercedes specialists. There service was great and the diagnosed the problem to be the valvetronic motor for the eccentric shaft. The independent Warrenty was still on the car so I booked it in with a garage more local to me who were also meant to be a BMW specialist to carry out the work. They replaced the motor no problem at all but were unable to programme it in, I ended up falling out with them over this because they were insistent that there was software issue on the car which I did not believe. I suspect they didn't have the correct diagnostic equipment or upto date equipment to do it, a bold claim as I have no proof of that. I tried to compromise with them saying I would take time away from work to take the car to BMW who were quoting £165 to do the job and I would cover half the cost if they would pay the other £82.50. I thought this was the best way out for everyone but not according to them so I gave up and stomached the cost.

The car was taken to Peter Vardy in Edinburgh to have it coded in. I was in and out within an hour so can't imagine it was a software issue! Upon leaving the dealer the minute I started the car there was a slight hydraulic lifter tap present so I went back in and one of the head technicians came out for a listen. He said it did sound like a lifter but to give it a good run to see if it will repressure itself, as the eccentric shaft hadn't been working properly for sometime. I did this and kept running the car for a while and it got ever so slightly louder but not that much. I should clarify now that the car is a weekend toy and only gets used occasionally as I have a van for work and most other things. I proceeded to get a quote from BMW to carry out the work as after my fall out with a supposed specialist I didn't really trust anyone else with it. They quoted £2150 to replace all the intake lifters. This was quoted in November of last year so saved up the pennies and avoided using the car too much. The car was booked in on the 27th of February this year to have the work done, I dropped the car off and prayed there was nothing else! Of course there was and it now gets juicy! After some phone calls on the 27th I decided to go and have a look at the valve train on the top of the engine myself on the 28th. I also took my father along to look as he is very mechanically minded. What greeted us when arriving was to me very worrying for a car that had just turned 6 years old with only 46k miles on it with a full service history. Time for the photos now. As you can see below the intake cam has signs of corrosion which did wipe away, as can be seem in some photos. The worst part was how heavily worn the camshaft lobs were, the rocker arms also showing signs of wear. Add to that the eccentric shaft was toast it pretty much needed everything replaced on the intake side along with a new timing chain and vanos pulleys cleaned up or possibly replaced. To me a catastrophic list of items on a car that probably had these issue when I purchased it at 4.5 years old. I think it was masked then because the valvetronic motor didn't work. I requested that they went to BMW for a good will warranty gesture with me saying I was willing to spend £2.5k of whatever the bill was myself. No luck with BMW UK and the dealers initial price of £7200 was eye watering. They eventually came down to £5229.26 with a huge amount of help for Peter Vardy which to be frank was still eye watering! After looking at all options, trading it in against something else, punting it to trade or just risking it a little longer. I decided to just fix it and swallow the cost. A massive kick in the teeth all in. Due to the lockdown situation I don't actually have the car back yet but do have a nice 335d touring as a courtesy car, silver lining and all :lol: .

I am sharing as I would like some feed back on whether this is a common issue and whether people think its a defective camshaft? My personal opinion is that the camshaft has been manufactured incorrectly, whether that be badly moulded to cause the pitting or that the hardening process on the lobs wasn't done correctly. The main shaft between the lobs and journal seems to look fine to me. I have requested that they keep all parts as I would like to examine or get them examined more closely as I would like to try and persue this with BMW UK. The photos are below. Thanks for any suggestions and if anyone has had any luck with BMW UK direct I would like to hear it. Thanks.


Thanks Matt

[Matt4552]

[goldieandblackie]

I wonder if it had been clocked, how many previous owners did the car have!

[Matt4552]

from all the check I did there was no sign of it being clocked, the first MOT mileage was what you would have expected and all the services were with BMW so hoping they did tamper with milages!!

To be honest I have no idea how you would be able to clock a car now anyway. I recently have clocks changed on a Suzuki swift due to the back lighting not working properly and even the main dealer couldn't put the correct milage in.

[Court_S]

I don’t think it’s a common issue, nothing like this has cropped up in the likes of BabyBMW. My understanding is that the N55 is generally a pretty solid, reliable engine.

[Matt4552]

Court_S said:

I don’t think it’s a common issue, nothing like this has cropped up in the likes of BabyBMW. My understanding is that the N55 is generally a pretty solid, reliable engine.

I have put the same post on Babybmw out of interest to see what they come back with as well. Didn't think it was a common issue and from all the research I did about the engine prior too buying it all pointed towards a fairly well sorted engine and a step on from the N54.

[Touring442]

The joy of BMW long life servicing. These engines run cold at the top end and suffer from condensation issues, bit like an old Ford CVH. Black death, rust on the cam lobes, eccentric shaft and even the dipstick (not yours obvs). Yours has done a lot of short trips I expect. Some are so bad that the head has to come off to be chemically cleaned.

[Matt4552]

Touring442 said:

The joy of BMW long life servicing. These engines run cold at the top end and suffer from condensation issues, bit like an old Ford CVH. Black death, rust on the cam lobes, eccentric shaft and even the dipstick (not yours obvs). Yours has done a lot of short trips I expect. Some are so bad that the head has to come off to be chemically cleaned.

I hate the service intervals, no idea why they do it. For all the cost of an oil and filter change is every year its doesn't make sense to me!

The only previous owner was Birmingham based so I suspect the start of its life was short ish trips. I knew there would have been condensation build up but massively underestimated how serious the effects of it could be! I have an old e46 330i that's currently off the road and was tempted to take the rocker cover off to have a look at the cams on that, just out of curiosity as it have over 150k miles on it. Just staggered that that much damage could be hiding on what is a fairly new car!

[Matt_E_Mulsion]

Kind of related to your situation...

I own a MK1 Focus ST170 that I've had since brand new, over fifteen years ago. It's low mileage (48,000) and has done mostly short journeys and stood for weeks at a time, often getting used only every other weekend for much of its life.

Anyway we had the cam cover off it the other day whilst changing the timing belt (still on its original that it left the factory with) and to look at the cams and the top of the cylinder head everything looked absolutely pristine. No evidence at all of abuse from short journeys or long lay ups.

The only thing this car has maybe had in its favour are oil changes every 6,000 miles which equates to about once every two years.

Why your BMW cams/valves should be in such a poor state in similar circumstances is anyones guess???

[goldieandblackie]

A lot of cars are bought on PCP these days and its well known that people clock the mileage before the first MOT or before the end of the PCP lease other wise they would have to pay up for excess mileage.
This may or may not have happened to yours, it sounds like you where just unlucky but that's a bill bill to swallow.

[Matt4552]

Matt_E_Mulsion said:

Kind of related to your situation...

I own a MK1 Focus ST170 that I've had since brand new, over fifteen years ago. It's low mileage (48,000) and has done mostly short journeys and stood for weeks at a time, often getting used only every other weekend for much of its life.

Anyway we had the cam cover off it the other day whilst changing the timing belt (still on its original that it left the factory with) and to look at the cams and the top of the cylinder head everything looked absolutely pristine. No evidence at all of abuse from short journeys or long lay ups.

The only thing this car has maybe had in its favour are oil changes every 6,000 miles which equates to about once every two years.

Why your BMW cams/valves should be in such a poor state in similar circumstances is anyones guess???

Interesting to hear that it doesn't seem to have caused yours any issues. My car hasn't been used all that much in my ownership but most journeys have been long ones, up and back to Edinburgh which is an hour each way along with plenty runs up to the west coast of Scotland. The service history on mine is as BMW recommended however I have been servicing every year rather than every 2 years as I thing 2 years or 20k mile intervals are to long. For all the cost of an oil change every year I figure its the safe thing to do.

Considering the history of the car and that its been serviced as recommended it amazes me why they are so bad! I honestly think its been a faulty cam from new but until I get the parts back and get them looked at I can't be sure.

[Matt4552]

goldieandblackie said:

A lot of cars are bought on PCP these days and its well known that people clock the mileage before the first MOT or before the end of the PCP lease other wise they would have to pay up for excess mileage.
This may or may not have happened to yours, it sounds like you where just unlucky but that's a bill bill to swallow.

I do get the theory as to why people would clock them but as I said in the previous post about having other instrument clusters changed and the main dealers can't even programme the mileage in correctly. Plus the service mileages wouldn't look even remotely right if it had been clocked. I also have no idea who would have the know how to do it.

Yup it is a horrible bill to swallow and the worst I have ever had in the 12 years of owning cars! But just hoping that it will be sorted and won't cause any more issues.

[goldieandblackie]

Plenty of companies offering these services so no suprise.
https://www.dw-mileagecorrection.co.uk

[bmwmike]

goldieandblackie said:

Plenty of companies offering these services so no suprise.
https://www.dw-mileagecorrection.co.uk

Yup and pcp increased demand for those services.

[Sir_Dave]

Court_S said:

I don’t think it’s a common issue, nothing like this has cropped up in the likes of BabyBMW. My understanding is that the N55 is generally a pretty solid, reliable engine.

Its a very common issue, but when the valvetronic motor fails, it defaults to throttle body only, so barring the slight/occasional clicking on startup, the normal man in the street wouldnt notice a difference. It doesnt give an EML (but will show a shadow fault code on proper diagnostics), so the only other tell tale is poor mpg, but you already own the car by that point if you havent read the codes.

To put it into perspective, when i was looking at the back end of last year, 5 out of the 7 M135is i looked at had the following code:

Fault Code: 133E10
Fault Explanation: Valvetronic system: disabled to frequent Verstellfehler

Search the US forums and its far more detailed info/fix wise as they are much more mechanically aware, the uk forums, ie babybmw dont show much info on it, bar “take it to bmw”.

Info: http://www.fluidmotorunion.com/bmw-valvetronic-ecc...
More info: https://bmwtechnician.com/2017/03/27/n55-eccentric...
Google search term: https://www.google.com/search?q=n55+valvetronic+is...

If the valvetronic motor fails (usually as the shaft isnt being lubricated properly), the eccentric shaft stops turning, this then causes all manner of issues with the cams, ie scoring, etc if left too long.

All in all, whilst everyone bangs on about the turbos on the n54, the n55 has a few major issues that will begin to raise their head now they are out of warranty - valvetronic, vanos bolts backing out, oh and wastegate rattle on cold start!!!

Edited by Sir_Dave on Monday 13th April 13:46

Edited by Sir_Dave on Monday 13th April 13:55

[dave1409]

Mine (on a 13 plate) has just been diagnosed with a valvetronic motor failure. Luckily I bought it just before it was 4 years old as an AUC and have still got an extended warranty on it. Mine only has 32250 miles on it and I have not used it much at all due to working just down the road and walking to work, then working away from home and using trains, then losing a job this year due to COVID.

I need a loan car so it won't be fixed until 11/12th Jan but they said it was Ok to use until then.

[stevep944]

Interesting. Does this apply to the M140i too?