Hi all,

Unfortunately while on a short journey yesterday morning my 2002 V8 (110K) started to knock/tap moderately loudly.
My first thought was Vanos but to be honest after hearing some youtube clips it sounds more severe.

Second though was search the internet! The only thing I found (all BMW M62's anyway) is the plastic timing chain guides breaking. I thought this had to be it, EDIT

Taken from RAVE:
"Primary drive
Primary drive is provided by a single roller chain from the crankshaft to the two rubber coated cam gears. The train is
guided by a centrally positioned V-shaped aluminium deflector rail, a straight rail on cylinder bank 5 to 8 and a curved
tensioner rail on cylinder bank 1 to 4."
EDIT RAVE lied! It was the plastic (Yes seriously plastic) chain guides.

Last edited by GBWC on 26th Feb 2013 8:45pm. Edited 2 times in total

Has your car had the drive shaft modification done ?? Or are you sure it is engine related and not drive train ? MY 2010 5.0 SC Galway green and sand interior!!
Have the Faultmate MSV2 Extreme to be tinkering with the settings etc. !!

Hi GBWC

Did you get to the bottom of this? 2002 Vogue Epsom Green with Ivory Leather.
Discover 2 V8
Discovery 2 TD5
Discovery 1 V8
Audi S4 (2005)
Audi S4 (2000)

hi, first post, so here goes, i'm currently in the middle of a m62tu44 timing chain replacement. (was looking for timing chain success stories)
I can tell you for a fact that the timing chain is single duplex, and runs around a plastic covered 'circuit' the right hand rail when viwed from the front of engine is all plastic, and mine had broken into three pieces. the left swinging rail is aluminium, and has a plastic rail attached, that too had shed some battle armour and was missing some plastic, -this ali part is in contact with the timing tensioner. the centre 'U' rail is also aluminium, and also has a plastic giude rail just clipped on. all my centre rail plastic had come off and was in the lower sump. meaning the chain was sliding round against aluminium, and chain was in intermittant contact with front lower timing cover, hence clatttery noise. so, first get under, and drain oil remove lower sump pan. (about 10 inches square,) after removing diff protector, and look in there. if its empty, you are lucky. seek further guidance though. however my car was purchased, with the dreadfull noise, that i diagnosed with the timing chain clattering, but still running. its a sod of a job, its a slow and methodical job, done gently with no windy guns tearing down the engine. Although the three rails come to about £120 you need plenty of other parts too. plus, you would be a fool not to change the vanos seals too. then you need a timing tool setup kit, (£350) and a 'Jesus nut' removal tool, i made that one myself. (that's the cranshaft damper nut) In parts so far i'm about £500 plus the tool kit which i will eventually sell on etc. So, thats rails, chain, tensioner, timing cover upper and lower gaskets, rocker cover gaskets, some o rings, and non return valves. and (included in £500) the £85 for the vanos seals and install tool, from beisan systems in U.S. (1 week delivery) i read that bmw want 45 hrs to do the job, that's because they are slow readers when doing the job from a book. but i guess this could be justified. but the vanos sprockets would be replaced and not just 're-sealed' and they are about £400 each. do some simple sump checks, search web for e53 or e38 vanos proccedure, and pop open a beer!
my car is an 02, with 140k, all main dealer service history, and thick build of dark grease on front of engine, showing no signs of previous open heart surgery. however i was warned that these parts should be fitted to any m62tu44 engine as it approached 100k. plenty of BMW enthusiasts forums detailing this engine's woes. i can post a few pics of the offending parts etc

Paulhh wrote:

Hi GBWC

Did you get to the bottom of this?

just to follow up, i completed the timing chain/guides job and the engine is purring. -so quiet!
i changed all three guides, the chain, the tensioner assembly, oil return valves, vanos solenoid gaskets, timing cover gaskets, front oil seal. sump pan lower gasket, and put a new water pump while i had the chance. i believe the total parts from land rover were around £600 inc vat. (plus aftermarket water pump) and the timing tools set was around £350. plus oil and filter. so a diy job is around a grand, and a couple of long days. do the job slowly and use the online picture by picture intensive guide and you will do a great job and save your car from an early journey to the dismantler. p.s i changed the vanos seals too. -i removed the fuel relay and pre-cranked for 20secs twice, to prime oil, and it went first time.

Hi,

Sorry to bring an old thread back to life but I need some help as my centre timing chain guide has disintegrated and i'm in the middle of a rebuild. By far the biggest problem I am having is actually re-inserting the centre Helical gear into the vanos unit after I've installed the new seals. Can anyone shed any light on this please for me. I've literally spent a full day repeatedly trying to do this but every time I try the Teflon seal pushes off the O-ring. I bought the seals from i6automotive. What am I doing wrong?
Thanks

Have you looked at the how to guide on beisan systems which is where I would have purchased seals from ?

http://www.beisansystems.com/procedures/m62tu_vanos_procedure.htm

Yes, followed besian guide to a tee, but every time I push the centre shaft back in the Teflon seal just comes off the O-ring. I tried so many times yesterday to do this, making sure the o-ring and the Teflon seal are free from oil and also the land free from oil, and just oiling the centre shaft piston and smearing the surface of the seal. I bought the seals from i6automotive as I have rebuilt another vanos for a M54 engine using their seals and didn't have any problems.

The Teflon seal takes quite a bit of force to just put over the centre shaft, so when it is inserted into the groove in the vanos body I think it's impossible for it to stay seated correctly on top of the o-ring.

What is everyone else's experiences with this and where did you buy the seals from?

Anyone tried the i6 seals? Anyone install these seals in the UK?

Cheers

Hi, I did mine a couple of years back, are you saying that as you insert the gear, it squashes the square edge seal out? Or the round o ring ? If so, I wonder if your gear has a nick in its edge, and if it could be checked or the edge sanded. If it has a very harsh edge, maybe this is causing it to happen. I think I struggled a little, but was trying hard to take my time, on a clear bench, with a magnifiying lamp. A couple of goes and I was in. Then I had to twist it a couple of times etc. Then I had to do the lip crushing excersize. The write up is very good, and I think I do remember contacting them, to ask something similar to you etc. As I could not quite grasp what I was trying to do with the seals.

Have you tried contacting i6 as i have spoken to them in the past when considering doing the job?

Last edited by holidaychicken on 8th Feb 2016 9:36pm. Edited 1 time in total

Yes ive spoke to i6, they have sent me out a second set of seals but he feels that the Teflon seal may be from a bad batch and too thick. They said that the rest of them he has in stock are probably the same as they were made in batches. So he has also given me a full refund.

It seems to be that the new Teflon seal is too thick. I have inserted the Viton o-ring and the old Teflon seal and the centre helical shaft fits into the vanos body with no issues.

If it's the same are you going to order on Beisan ?

I bought mine from besian , in USA. 2 years ago.

I was thinking of grinding a taper on the end of Helical gear shaft to aid installation but decided against this as it would likely through it out of balance (of that is actually critical, shaft must be orientated in its original position when reassembling ). The square edge teflon seal just pushes straight off the o-ring. Did you buy from i6 or besian? i6 have now removed their m62 vanos seals off the shelf.