E46 M3 Vanos Failure (Car Broke Down Again)
Discussion
For those who where following my thread on M-torque (Car Broke Down Again), well yesterday I had just filled up my car with fuel and was about to head off on a 200km trip when I started the car at the service station and the engine light came on. It was exactly the same as before, the car seemed to run right but then got progressively worse and hunted at idle. So I went back to my garage where my GT1 was and plugged it in to find the vanos had, as I suspected thrown the fault.
This is the third time that the vanos has put the light on in the last couple of months and when it was last in at the dealers they pulled the solenoids down but really couldn't find anything other than a bit of carbon on them. I had been testing the vanos with the GT1 over the last few weeks and a fault was being lodged in the DME but not causing the car to throw the light on or run rough, so I kept on clearing it. Just before my trip yesterday I did a full vanos test and it passed fine, but then failed not 10 kilometres later.
I reset my vanos adaptions and but took my GT1 with me and headed off on my trip. So it looks as though I have no option but to buy a new vanos. I have priced a new one and it is very expensive but I can't see much of an option. I suspect that it is the solenoids that are failing otherwise if it was the gears it would be a hard reoccuring fault. However the solenoid pack is still expensive but about half the price of a new vanos, but the thing is if I buy a new solenoid pack and it fails again you can't just buy the other half of the vanos unit, only the complete item, so you'd end up with a spare solenoid pack.
My car is running fine at the moment but it is only a matter of time before it fails again, so this week I'll have to bite the bullet and buy a new one. Reading the US forums it appears as though it is not uncommon. Has anyone else suffered the same problem on here? MY car is a 2003 model with 82,000kms (51,000 miles) with full BMW service history and was an AUC.
This is the third time that the vanos has put the light on in the last couple of months and when it was last in at the dealers they pulled the solenoids down but really couldn't find anything other than a bit of carbon on them. I had been testing the vanos with the GT1 over the last few weeks and a fault was being lodged in the DME but not causing the car to throw the light on or run rough, so I kept on clearing it. Just before my trip yesterday I did a full vanos test and it passed fine, but then failed not 10 kilometres later.
I reset my vanos adaptions and but took my GT1 with me and headed off on my trip. So it looks as though I have no option but to buy a new vanos. I have priced a new one and it is very expensive but I can't see much of an option. I suspect that it is the solenoids that are failing otherwise if it was the gears it would be a hard reoccuring fault. However the solenoid pack is still expensive but about half the price of a new vanos, but the thing is if I buy a new solenoid pack and it fails again you can't just buy the other half of the vanos unit, only the complete item, so you'd end up with a spare solenoid pack.
My car is running fine at the moment but it is only a matter of time before it fails again, so this week I'll have to bite the bullet and buy a new one. Reading the US forums it appears as though it is not uncommon. Has anyone else suffered the same problem on here? MY car is a 2003 model with 82,000kms (51,000 miles) with full BMW service history and was an AUC.
Any links to the us threads?
My car is over 100k and still on original vanos i think and runs like the day it left the factory.
I don't think these are prone to failure like the earlier models and would try and explore other/cheaper options first.
Like said above, if ECU is saying vanos it could be anything that sends/recieves a signal i.e other sensors/bad wiring.
My car is over 100k and still on original vanos i think and runs like the day it left the factory.
I don't think these are prone to failure like the earlier models and would try and explore other/cheaper options first.
Like said above, if ECU is saying vanos it could be anything that sends/recieves a signal i.e other sensors/bad wiring.
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