fredo
07-31-2018, 08:09 AM
Hope others can benefit from this info. This failure is common on the N51, N52K and N52T engines.
I took the wife's 2011 X3 (86k miles) to my Indy for oil change and alignment. They called me later and said the oil change was done, but the alignment could not be completed due to : "vehicle running very poorly, lots of vanos/misfires/cam timing faults. Found TSB (technical service bulletin) for vanos adjusters that applies to this vehicle. Suspect issue with vanos adjusters, recommend towing to dealer."
Needless to say, the X3 was running fine when I drove to the Indy earlier the same day. They printed this TSB for me:
SI B01 10 14 = Engine camshaft (vanos) adjustment units: limited warranty extension to 10 years without mileage limitation.
The car was towed the next day. The dealer said the valve cover needed to be removed to troubleshoot ($569 estimate). However if the issue was the one described in the TSB then I didn't need to pay anything. What they found was: "broken bolts on vanos unit please order and per SI B11 07 14."
It was a $3,100 repair which the dealer covered. I only bought the valve cover ($570 OTD) per my Indy's recommendation. We're very lucky this didn't happen while driving the X3 during our summer vacation. The situation was stressful while we waited to find out if it would be covered under the warranty. On the positive side, we enjoyed a loaner for 10 days.
Thanks for reading.
I took the wife's 2011 X3 (86k miles) to my Indy for oil change and alignment. They called me later and said the oil change was done, but the alignment could not be completed due to : "vehicle running very poorly, lots of vanos/misfires/cam timing faults. Found TSB (technical service bulletin) for vanos adjusters that applies to this vehicle. Suspect issue with vanos adjusters, recommend towing to dealer."
Needless to say, the X3 was running fine when I drove to the Indy earlier the same day. They printed this TSB for me:
SI B01 10 14 = Engine camshaft (vanos) adjustment units: limited warranty extension to 10 years without mileage limitation.
The car was towed the next day. The dealer said the valve cover needed to be removed to troubleshoot ($569 estimate). However if the issue was the one described in the TSB then I didn't need to pay anything. What they found was: "broken bolts on vanos unit please order and per SI B11 07 14."
It was a $3,100 repair which the dealer covered. I only bought the valve cover ($570 OTD) per my Indy's recommendation. We're very lucky this didn't happen while driving the X3 during our summer vacation. The situation was stressful while we waited to find out if it would be covered under the warranty. On the positive side, we enjoyed a loaner for 10 days.
Thanks for reading.