Anyone else ever heard of this happening? Vibration Dampener Issue

[danewilson77]

One of my operators purchased a beautiful Silbergrau a couple of months ago. Car had 119k miles. Manual. Vert.

Anyway...piece 1 (vibration dampener) in the below pic failed, resulting in the engine being ruined. I'm trying to get more specific details but it had to do with the rubber, that is integral to the unit failing. Seems like a fluke to me.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/enUS/showparts?id=EV53-USA-02-2004-E46-BMW-330i&diagId=11_2877

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/06/22/22f3936260e9164b04c1c21d01a59b76.jpg

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[Hornung418]

Super common occurrence in these older engines. That's part of the 100k inspection. If you see the rubber it should be replaced. This is responsible for the harmonic dampening. Inherent in the 3.0L

[az3579]

First I've ever heard of this piece even needing an inspection, letalone a failure of said part...

[Hornung418]

First I've ever heard of this piece even needing an inspection, letalone a failure of said part...
In any performance thread on e46 and the spec builds the ATI superdamper has been the solution. The harmonics affect the vibration in the engine and in turn lead to oil starvation because of OPN backing out or shearing off.

Was this car starved of oil, Dane? Spun crank bearings?

[danewilson77]

Don't know yet. I'll get the details from him when he comes back on shift.

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[az3579]

In any performance thread on e46 and the spec builds the ATI superdamper has been the solution. The harmonics affect the vibration in the engine and in turn lead to oil starvation because of OPN backing out or shearing off.

Was this car starved of oil, Dane? Spun crank bearings?

I didn't realize there was a fix for it; always thought it was a "just the way it is" sort of thing. :dunno
$799 though... holy shit.

Probably not going to replace this part. If the engine blows (unlikely), then I guess that'll just be an excuse to get an S54 or something. I don't foresee having an issue with the nut backing out since this doesn't happen often enough to warrant any expensive parts to be installed. The car only sees the track 2, maybe 3 times a year.

[Hornung418]

I didn't realize there was a fix for it; always thought it was a "just the way it is" sort of thing. :dunno
$799 though... holy shit.

Probably not going to replace this part. If the engine blows, then I guess that'll just be an excuse to get an S54 or something.
That's the best solution. The easy fix is to buy the OEM damper and replace it. Which requires a special tool to hold the crank while you loosen the three bolts.

[danewilson77]

Thanks for the info Justin.

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[az3579]

Thanks for the info Justin.

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This. +1

[Taliben]

Here's the thread on e46f if anyone wanted to read up on it. http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=758308
I was gonna go ahead and buy an S54 secondary timing chain tensioner just to smooth things out a bit. If boost ever happens then ATI will be getting my money.