IrishM3

Hello again Nigel. I have looked at your repair and spoken to Raj at Beisan Systems in the USA. They are developing a seal kit which is not ready for market yet. There are a couple of items of note that are included in a document he has sent to me regarding installation of his seal kit. Have a look below and let me know what you think. 1. The seals that you replaced are not your regular spring garter type shaft seals according to his instructions and images. The seals are " rod" seals designed to accommodate axial (in-out) motion as opposed to rotation of the piston. I am guessing that this is the seal type that you sourced from your local engineering seal supplier? 2. The piston unit that your seal bears upon is actually made in two parts, a piston and a cap. In his instructions, the cap can be removed and a teflon seal pressed out against the internal bore of the vanos is replaced. (I believe this is the part he is working on) This is the seal that acts like a piston ring containing the differential oil pressure either side of the piston, the oil pressure that moves the vanos piston. Did you find that the wider end of the piston was a tight fit into the bore of the vanos? I fear that if I only replace the rod seal on the parallel body of the piston as opposed to the teflon seal with the square section rubber spreader ring inside it, I will be back inside the vanos at some point to do it again. I would love to post Raj's document on the web but seeing as he hasn't, I think I shouldn't :banghead: I can see how your oil pressure would have been non existent with the seal lip in tatters as shown in the picture. Are you happy that this was the only leaky seal in your vanos and are you happy that the teflon "piston ring & rubber spreader ring" were working OK? I only ask you as I have not taken my vanos off the car or stripped it yet and would ideally like to do it all in one go Many thanks for your input above and please do tell... Garry

Great thread Nigel! My car has most if not all of the symptoms of a worn vanos, erratic below 3000rpm, idle is not consistent (though we all know that this could be very many things) and lacking a bit of torque up to 3000 rpm. I am looking at pulling the Vanos from my M3 which I think is the same as yours. Mine is the S50B30 3.0l engine. I have just purchased some Viton O-rings from Iridium Engineering in the UK (well I do live in Ireland!) but these are only the o-rings on the solenoids, front cover and pressure limiting valve. I am pretty confident that the vanos does need a full re-build but am not sure what seals to buy or what part number to look for. I have access to the full BMW ETK in work but seals such as the one you changed in the picture above don't seem to be detailed or numbered? Can you give me a bit of guidance on this one please? I would be very appreciative of any help! Thanks in advance IrishM3

An Irish M3 owner here, mine is a 1995 3.0 Coupe (S50B30), Daytona Violet. I came across your forum looking for info on how to service my Vanos and thought it would be plain rude not to say hello Have a look at some of the jobs I have carried out on mine, I am called Huggie on Octane.ie (Don't laugh, some bright spark gave me that name very late one night on a Nurburgring trip! It sort of stuck with me!). I am hoping to sort out much of the erratic low rpm gremlins that come with a worn vanos unit and also a bit of timing chain noise. I have just done a good bit to the car over the last month or so having taken it off the road for a little while and want to get it all sorted over the next few weeks. I will browse around if you don't mind and might even contribute if I feel I have useful info. Nice to meet you all IrishM3