Help trouble-shooting codes on recently purchased E46.

[cornerbalanced]

I believe I saw the ad for this car when it was being listed. IIRC, it had over 100k miles and a CSL airbox conversion.

Are there any records of the VANOS being serviced from the PO? Usually, you can tell if you open the valve cover and have a look. It is unlikely the upper timing chain guide bolt snapped. If nothing obvious shows up, a replacement solenoid is the easiest thing to try first. There can also be an issue with the tune as weird VANOS codes can pop up from that. Did the PO give any info on who tuned it? Alpha-N or CSL MAP?

VANOS was done by Kaiv/Kevin — no records as he doesn’t provide them but I do have screenshots of the email he sent listing the services completed.

Thanks for reassurance re: upper timing chain guide bolt. I think I’ll end up trying the solenoid first. My car has an OE CSL map on a separate ECU. He also mentioned something about the ECU being sent to Kassel for some conversion.

[eacmen]

VANOS was done by Kaiv/Kevin — no records as he doesn’t provide them but I do have screenshots of the email he sent listing the services completed.

Thanks for reassurance re: upper timing chain guide bolt. I think I’ll end up trying the solenoid first. My car has an OE CSL map on a separate ECU. He also mentioned something about the ECU being sent to Kassel for some conversion.

If you have a CSL airbox with the flap at the bottom then you will need an H bridge soldered onto an ECU for the flap to operate. If there is no flap then an unmolested ECU is fine but will need a MAP sensor tune. Based on the other code you have looks like there might be an issue with the MAP sensor as well?

I don't think the MAP sensor is related to the timing one though.

If you take the solenoid off and measure resistance on the pins with a multimeter it may indicate a failure. You dont need to take the solenoid apart you can measure the pins on the electrical connector. IIRC the two middle ones are ground and the other ones are each wired to a solenoid valve. Should be around 6.8 ohms.

Refs:

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/main-forum/e46-2001-2006/127416-refurbish-your-vanos-solenoid-pack

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/main-forum/e46-2001-2006/178651-hard-cold-start-and-vanos-error-codes

https://nam3forum.com/forums/forum/main-forum/e46-2001-2006/3317-s54-vanos-info-thread

[cornerbalanced]

I believe I saw the ad for this car when it was being listed. IIRC, it had over 100k miles and a CSL airbox conversion.

Are there any records of the VANOS being serviced from the PO? Usually, you can tell if you open the valve cover and have a look. It is unlikely the upper timing chain guide bolt snapped. If nothing obvious shows up, a replacement solenoid is the easiest thing to try first. There can also be an issue with the tune as weird VANOS codes can pop up from that. Did the PO give any info on who tuned it? Alpha-N or CSL MAP?

Was able to confirm with KAIV/Kevin that he redid the VANOS in 2017 using Beisan parts.

As an update:

After further diagnosis, timing for the car is completely normal while driving. As soon as the car idles though, timing slowly, yet progressively falls out of wack. The longer the car idles, the worse the timing is (misfires, car bounces in idle, and eventually stalls after some time of just idling). As soon as you drive the car, timing is fine, and the cycle resets. Will idle fine for a couple seconds, but timing slowly falls out of order.

Going to try camshaft position sensors first, as theoretically this discovery indicates my VANOS unit is fully functional, something is just causing (perhaps) a lapse of oil pressure in the VANOS unit itself at idle?

[Slideways]

Was able to confirm with KAIV/Kevin that he redid the VANOS in 2017 using Beisan parts.

As an update:

After further diagnosis, timing for the car is completely normal while driving. As soon as the car idles though, timing slowly, yet progressively falls out of wack. The longer the car idles, the worse the timing is (misfires, car bounces in idle, and eventually stalls after some time of just idling). As soon as you drive the car, timing is fine, and the cycle resets. Will idle fine for a couple seconds, but timing slowly falls out of order.

Going to try camshaft position sensors first, as theoretically this discovery indicates my VANOS unit is fully functional, something is just causing (perhaps) a lapse of oil pressure in the VANOS unit itself at idle?

Does it pass the VANOS test with DIS?

[cornerbalanced]

Does it pass the VANOS test with DIS?

Apparently cannot run VANOS test with codes present, will continue to try however. Hoping the new CPS will clear the codes then we can dive into the VANOS tests, leakdown test, etc.

[sapote]

Apparently cannot run VANOS test with codes present, will continue to try however. Hoping the new CPS will clear the codes then we can dive into the VANOS tests, leakdown test, etc.

I don't think the issue is a cam sensor. I would open the valve cover to check the VANOS timing. A bad sensor at idle does not fix itself when driving.

[cornerbalanced]

I don't think the issue is a cam sensor. I would open the valve cover to check the VANOS timing. A bad sensor at idle does not fix itself when driving.

I found this: https://www.e46fanatics.com/threads/...#post-16283006

Which describes a nearly identical issue to mine. Appears to be a massive vacuum leak / vent valve, etc. Will also try to crack the valve cover open.

[sapote]

OP, did you solve the problem?

[galin90]

My buddy had a similar issue, turned out to be a wonky VANOS solenoid causing those camshaft position errors.

[cornerbalanced]

OP, did you solve the problem?

I did, turned out to be VANOS related.

[sapote]

I did, turned out to be VANOS related.

Bad vanos timing set, or vanos hydraulic problem?

[cornerbalanced]

Bad vanos timing set, or vanos hydraulic problem?

The pins inside my oil pump disc backed out and were scoring the walls of the VANOS unit itself—I think this led to a lack in VANOS oil pressure which tripped the codes? Unsure. Pictures attached. Ended up purchasing a new NOS VANOS unit…shortly thereafter I suffered from rod bearing failure, I think the amount of time I drove the car with the VANOS fault contributed to this complete engine failure.

For posterity, I will mention, before this failure the VANOS was rebuilt by kaiv (well known mechanic and forum member) using a Beisan oil pump disc. The failure occurred ~10,000 miles afterwards. This was not the fault of a factory, untouched unit but instead a rebuilt one.

[sapote]

The pins inside my oil pump disc backed out and were scoring the walls of the VANOS unit itself—I think this led to a lack in VANOS oil pressure which tripped the codes? .

Beisan new pumps had been known for having sticky pistons (you called pins), leading to low pressure. The pistons riding on the roller bearing and I don’t know why they could damage the bearing and scored the housing.
As about damaged engine due to bad vanos: if the red oil pressure didn’t turn on then the engine had enough pressure for bearings.

[sapote]

Looking at this pic showing the flatted down pison end caused by sliding on the seized roller bearing. It's so rare to have this bearing that seized up. This should cause a weird noise in the vanos and you didn't detect it? That flat-end piston must be seized inside the disk tight and ended up eaten by the bearing inner race. The other 3 pistons slid over the seized bearing with scrored ends but not flatten.

[sapote]

Can you confirm the roller bearing was seized?