AlexB

Hi All, Time for my annual post with an annoying issue. A Friend of mine recently made a purchase of (against my strongest recommendation) An E89 Z4 with the infamous N54 power plant. Along with this came reliability issues as one could imagine. Being the mechanic/BMW guy of the friend group I have been left with the task of repairing said issues. First the roof gave up and that only took 18hrs and 2x boxes of beer to fix. Then along came a coolant leak, wondering if any N54 / E89 gurus on here could lend some advice. The car drops almost all of its coolant after a good thrash, it leaks from the passenger side under the radiator right where the drain is. Being a tight engine bay its almost impossible to see anything down there or get a hand down to check for loose pipes/ connections while hot, let alone the 3rd degree burns you'd get. I've had the car in at my workshop on a hoist and pressure tested the system up to 20psi (a little over operating pressure) hot and cold, no leaks. Once returning from a long/hard drive turning the car off, the car starts leaking, sounds as though the electric water pump stays on which I can imagine it should to try cool the turbos, although it sounds like its under a lot of load. It drops almost all of the coolant and once its all leaked out, pump stops. Assuming the radiator drain was the issue I replaced it today as it did have worn o-rings, hoping to rid this issue and return it to the owner. But once I got home in it this afternoon it decided to F**k my Friday night again... I immediately got it on the scan tool to see live values of pumps and thermostat etc. but by the time it loaded it had finished its leak cycle. I tried to force activate the pump and electric fans however nothing happened. At this point i'm very lost in the diagnosis as it doesn't seem to be pressure related issue, in fact I can remove the coolant tank cap completely while its leaking and it doesn't stop. Very lost on this one, any help is massively appreciated before, out of confusion and anguish I sell her a whole new cooling system...

Cant say I know what turtle sex sounds like, but that's certainly what I imagine. We are probably going to go down the route of bearing failure because it sounds closer to that region. maybe give it a few "accidental" Scandinavian flicks to see how it likes a bit of action before finding special tools for the job etc. after all, the previous owners both had it as a weekend car and they were both of age so I imagine its had an easy life.

We tried a quick spray of some basic CRC type oil (5-56 I think) on the CV boot and tried to get some onto the bearing seals, no different.

Tried that, both axels feel the same and no noise or creaking happens at slow speed or turning by hand. Wheel bearing is silent while running. Couldn’t even feel any vibration while the noise is occurring. Cheers

Yea, had it right down to just the arm/bearing housing. Even pulled the heat shield of in case it was interfering somehow, still there!

Certainly gave us a fright while laying under the car with the wheels doing 60!

Hi all, A mate of mine recently purchased a z4, upon the first week or so of driving he noticed an unusual noise coming from rear left corner, Slowly getting worse and worse. Can’t really describe the sound other than someone having a duck in a chokehold 🤣. Only starts at around 60kms wheel speed, then you can kind of drag it down to 45 before it goes away. Very unusual. Trying to see if anyone here has had a similar situation and managed to fix it, before we tear into a wheel bearing replacement, since vid was taken we have stripped the corner right back to just the hub so not brake related. Any help or advice greatly appreciated! Cheers IMG_1009.MOV

Interesting, ill have to find a place that can do the test. upon removing the pistons I found the Teflon seals are all chipped and scratched, I assume its due to dirty oil in the past? They also had no spring to them like most of the seals in my unit. any kind of break in procedure you are aware of for vanos?

No, the S54 kit is just the metal bushings that sit inside the splined shafts. supposed to be relatively simple job with the right tools. haven't looked into the diaphragm spring washers at all, beisan doesn't offer them as an upgrade but ill certainly look into them. luckily no need to remove cams for the whole job!

Unfortunately that’s what I paid for everything I need, got everything for an s54 minus the solenoid pack as mine hasn’t faulted yet, and I figured it’s easy enough to swap over should it fail in future (fingers crossed it doesn’t!) I also checked out DRVanos out of the US as well but they had no stock and a cart with what they did have came to around $4200 nz. Totally out of my price range as I’m already dipping into Christmas savings as it is! Have studied the beisan instructions and seems to go over absolutely everything so hopefully a breezy reinstallation.

Hi all, still quite new to the whole forum thing, not sure if creating a new topic is the normal way to share this. My E46 M3 has been hideously down on power recently and for some reason I thought nothing of it, also noticed a terrible noisy valve train sound whenever I was revving over 3k. Did a bit of listening in the engine bay and realised the vanos was rattling like mad. Long story short after pulling it all apart I noticed all the typical wear points were, well....worn. Being as meticulous as I am with my cars I ordered almost everything S54 related from beisan systems in the US, including all new seals and the exhaust timing chain guide which was on the brink of failure. However I was pleasantly surprised to see my cam sprocket bolts were already replaced with the updated parts. Oil pump disc and exhaust sprocket are both toast with about 1mm of play in their movement, spline shaft bushings are shot also. Hopefully $1750 nz worth of vanos parts should remedy my issue. Would be nice to have it back on the road before Christmas. Any tips or tricks for reassembly is greatly appreciated as a 19yr old 2nd year mechanical apprentice this sure is a daunting job on my baby!

A few more photos after a full exterior detail

yea did a bit of searching around and found the tread when it was SUXGAS, figured I should keep the story of the car going on here.

yes! phoenix yellow, or bile yellow to quote Jeremy Clarkson. I think its definitely one of the best colours these cars could come in, also has kiwi interior which suits well.

cheers. mostly just tidying it up a bit underneath, needs some suspension parts (rack ends, lower control arms etc.) in order to do a proper wheel alignment. other than that its already how id do an M3, would love to do open ITBS but not sure if its worth it. might do ITBS on one of my E30s instead..

Hi all, thought I’d make an account after seeing a bit of talk about my M3 (RASPY). Not usually the type to join forums as I never have the time to be as active as I should but here goes nothing... 😆 just moved to a new phone so don’t have many detailed pics of my car(s) but rest assured I’ll upload some on the next sunny day.