Vanos

[Sajk]

Ok so a while ago my Z needed vanos seals. This was confirmed by the erratic idle when cold and watching the cam position target vs actual in INPA. At that time no rattle at all. Ordered seals from beisan systems and my guy installed them. Idle fixed and better torque. But... now some 6 months later i have rattle between 1.5 and about 3k rpm. Ahhhggggg.

We are going to swap the vanos for a known good unit to make sure it's vanos rattle but I wanted to know if anyone had used a rattle kit from anyone else as the beisan kit does not seem to include all the parts. Gasket, needle bearings etc. There are a couple on Amazon and ebay. Was thinking this one.

Dual Vanos Anti Rattle + O-Ring Seal Repair Kit For 98-06 BMW 330Ci X5 X3 325i | eBay

2001-2006 BMW 330ci. 2001-2005 BMW 325i. 2001-2006 BMW X5. Clutch Kit. 1998-2002 BMW Z3. 1999-2000 BMW 328i. 1998-2000 BMW 528is. 2000-2000 BMW 328Ci.

www.ebay.com

 

[Dakar Z3]

Hello Sajk,

I used an X8R kit, they do all sorts of repair kits.

I also used them for my Disa repair kit. No issues at all

 

[Delk]

I will second the X8R items.

Used their kits for the vanos, disa and one wing mirror.

 

[Sajk]

Thanks for the reply. They only seem to ship using the post and that won't work to South Africa. Since the ANC took over things like the post have fallen apart. My first set of vanos seals from beisan are still showing on the post office web site to be delivered next day July 2021. They had to DHL me a second set. Stuff gets here then vanishes.

 

[Sajk]

Here is an interesting question. I checked on the price of a complete new vanos unit from bmw and it's actually not too bad in comparison with rebuild parts and labour. But... There are 3 units in the country. Do the seals degrade from time? If these things have been on the shelf for 5 years will the seals have gone hard?

 

[Delk]

They should be fine. The o-rings go hard because of heat and normal wear from use in used oil. I wouldn't think sitting on the shelf would hurt them.

The rebuild kits just use better quality material for the O-rings so they will last longer.

 

[NZ00Z3]

I use the X8R kits with the anti rattle rings.

My 2.0L had VANOS rattle even with the anti rattle rings. Never got around to fitting new needle bearings, so do not know if that fixes it or not.

Ended up replacing the spiral cups and the sprocket/parts that drive them. Didn't touch the helical gear on the camshaft end spline, as undoing that single large Allen head bolt, looses your cam timing and it real hard to get it right again. Rattle went away. Seems it was spline wear causing the problem.

 

[miller1098]

View: https://youtu.be/dTQS-NGLCQU

 

[miller1098]

This was before mr vanos did his magic.

View: https://youtu.be/ulh9V51cLMU

 

[Sajk]

On the off chance it would help I replaced the 5w30 in mine with 10w40. It does not get really cold here. Perhaps 0 Celsius on rare occasions. It did hush up the rattle somewhat until the oil warms up.i am going to stop driving it until it gets looked at on the 28th just in case it's something else. It does have Cat Cams in it why required to moving of the helical gears from the factory cams onto the new cams. Just my luck a gear is loose.