Vanos Update - The Unofficial BMW M5 Messageboard (m5board.com)

MAH · 16th March 2007, 15:10

As some of you may remember, I had a rather extensive engine rebuild this time last year. After that was completed, one of my vanos locked up and had to be replaced. Now, one year and 16,000 later the other vanos died.

This is an expensive repair. The vanos part has risen in price from $1945 to almost $2300. Even the cam sensors have gone from $98 to $123 in a little over one year.

There is a repair kit for the vanos unit, but the labor involved is so extensive that this will end up costing morre than just replacing the unit. As if BMW did not know this. The replacement vanos units look the same but appear to use better parts than the originals. This might be because of failure rate issues.

I have now spent almost 13% of the original cost of the car in repair bills in six years of ownership. This a terrible reliabilty record. I do not misuse my car and it is properly if not over maintained. BMW better be looking over its shoulder because I have to believe that other more reliable competition is catching up.

Yes it is nice that we can pull 400HP out of a 5 liter engine. It takes GM around 6.1 liters to get the same output, but I have to wonder if GM would not actually be more reliable in this case. I never thought I would be saying that.

I would have to strongly advise anyone buying a used M5 with over 70,000 miles to take a hard look at that decision. Buyer beware.

Mark

tranck · 16th March 2007, 15:25

I would agree - I don't WANT to know how much $ I have spent on this car in maintenance and repair bills and, I've NEVER had a vanos issue at 129,000 miles.

Just a matter of time I suppose.

bimmerpwr · 16th March 2007, 18:22

what's the typical symptom for vanos failure? Can that happen without triggering any SES? My car still performs as it should at 70k now, but thread like this worries me.

verhagke · 16th March 2007, 18:24

do you have any more information on the repair kit? Do you know the Service Bulletin # (SIB) on this?

100%Cocoa · 16th March 2007, 19:33

Mark, I'm curious what symptoms you had that constituted your VANOS 'Locking up'?

My beast's done 104K now and I have the noisiest VANOS of anybody at any meet I've ever been to. It worries me a bit, but the car runs brilliantly, and with a big Tubi Rumore on the back, you can't hear it above idle anyway.

My reason for asking is that my 'guru' who looks after my M5 for me says that I shouldn't worry and it's just wear on the spline shafts causing the rattle. I know lots of people who've had their VANOS units changed because they didn't like this noise, or BMW agreed to do it under warranty, but I've never heard anyone actually describe the symptoms of a failure before. Presumably the engine would just stop dead in its tracks with no valve functionality on one bank of cylinders?

What happened in your case?

Cheers,
Barney.

MAH · 18th March 2007, 16:24

Both failed vanos units kicked out codes (SES light). This last vanos bank that failed actually caused the car to run so rough that you could feel it in the body of the car and about a 25% loss of power was experienced. In other words the car was going into "limp home" mode.

I do not believe noise from the vanos means it is not working properly. As far as the vanos repair kit is concerned, I do not have an order number for it. You could contact Joel at www.bavhypersports.com to get the proper part number. 281-477-9944

Hope this helps,

Mark

wilsodh · 18th March 2007, 17:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by 100%Cocoa

My beast's done 104K now and I have the noisiest VANOS of anybody at any meet I've ever been to. It worries me a bit, but the car runs brilliantly, and with a big Tubi Rumore on the back, you can't hear it above idle anyway.
.

Barney, do you have the vanos oil acculmulator? iirc, it was an upgrade offered to early MYs that addressed the rattle.

Dave

100%Cocoa · 19th March 2007, 13:41

Cheers guys.

I do have what I understand to be the VANOS oil pressure maintaining modification. (The braided pipe thingy at the front of the engine right in the middle at the top). It is meant to retain high oil pressure in the top of the system so it's not dry at start up if I've understood correctly.

I wasn't aware of any mod that stops the rattle other than to have new VANOS fitted?

I'm still curious as to exactly 'what' fails. Is it part of the mechanism breaking or just a sensing part of it? I read a very good thread on how VANOS worked recently & it sounds ridiculously complicated! It always strikes me as something of a miracle that it works in the first place!

Barney.

StevenZ · 20th March 2007, 01:55

Mark,

Has all of your work been done through BMW? If so then your miserable experience with your car has been documented. I would contact BMWNA and ask them to buy your car back at current market value as if everything worked perfectly and it was for sale on a dealer lot (don't fix anything). If they won't give you cash you should at least get a credit to use at any BMW dealership in the US for whatever car you want (just like cash). Your car is just not right and BMWNA should recognize this.

Many people have had good luck with these cars; unfortunately you are not one of them.

Good luck.

Steve Z.

MAH · 21st March 2007, 00:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by StevenZ

Mark,

Has all of your work been done through BMW? If so then your miserable experience with your car has been documented. I would contact BMWNA and ask them to buy your car back at current market value as if everything worked perfectly and it was for sale on a dealer lot (don't fix anything). If they won't give you cash you should at least get a credit to use at any BMW dealership in the US for whatever car you want (just like cash). Your car is just not right and BMWNA should recognize this.

Many people have had good luck with these cars; unfortunately you are not one of them.

Good luck.

Steve Z.

Steve,

While you make a good point, I do not believe BMWNA would have anything to do with this plan. They would only pay for 45% of the intial engine rebuild! I am willing to wager that they would never purchase the car from me at any price other than as a trade in and I am certainly not putting any more money into BMW's hands at this point in time.

Mark

DavidS · 27th March 2007, 13:35

Hello MAH,

Sorry to read about the Vanos problems.

Do you think the engine problem could have spread debris into the oil channels and then into the Vanos units causing this?

First an engine problem, then a broken vanos and then another broken Vanos seems more than a coincidence to me.

(I assume the BMW dealership service check that this was indeed a mechanical Vanos failur, and not just the much more inexpensive vanos valve control unit electronics.)

David

DavidS · 27th March 2007, 13:37

There is a thread about the vanos noise, and how to fix it.

Link is under the "Some useful threads" link found in my signature.

David