Rattle candidates.

[Sajk]

So I have an engine rattle which we thought was vanos which had the seals done but not the anti rattle kit. The noise was right where it should have been for vanos rattle and sounded right too.

As I was able to get my hands on a brand new vanos unit for a great price we put that on. Quieter but rattle still there. Changed lower chain tensioner. Rattle still there.

It's most evident when you blip the throttle to about 2.5k and on returning to idle it rattles from about 2k to 1.3k

Any ideas? I have read everything from water pump to lose oil pump nut.

 

[Dino D]

So I have an engine rattle which we thought was vanos which had the seals done but not the anti rattle kit. The noise was right where it should have been for vanos rattle and sounded right too.

As I was able to get my hands on a brand new vanos unit for a great price we put that on. Quieter but rattle still there. Changed lower chain tensioner. Rattle still there.

It's most evident when you blip the throttle to about 2.5k and on returning to idle it rattles from about 2k to 1.3k

Any ideas? I have read everything from water pump to lose oil pump nut.

For me it was water pump.
Sounded like big bearing or something serious.
The aftermarket ones don’t seem to last very long, been through a few in the last 10yrs.
The other weird one was a loose spark plug but obviously not in your case.
Must be blooming annoying after doing all that still to have a rattle!

 

[NZ00Z3]

While the new VANOS unit would be tight, in terms of bearings etc, it would still have the larger original spacer rings. The anti rattle spacer rings are thinner.

Here is what I did to fix a bad VANOS rattle: https://zroadster.org/threads/fixing-bad-vanos-rattle.28777/

 

[Sajk]

For me it was water pump.
Sounded like big bearing or something serious.
The aftermarket ones don’t seem to last very long, been through a few in the last 10yrs.
The other weird one was a loose spark plug but obviously not in your case.
Must be blooming annoying after doing all that still to have a rattle!

It is. Might be water pump. Maybe that next..

 

[Sajk]

While the new VANOS unit would be tight, in terms of bearings etc, it would still have the larger original spacer rings. The anti rattle spacer rings are thinner.

Here is what I did to fix a bad VANOS rattle: https://zroadster.org/threads/fixing-bad-vanos-rattle.28777/

Thanks for the reply. I am pretty sure new from bmw vanos does not rattle. We changed all the stuff above and the big rattle remained