[sploosher01]

Hi all, I have a late 2011 f20 sport 116i n13 and been on wild goose chase on this for months, doing all the work myself and have now methodically replaced over 1500 quid worth of parts with no luck (
I think and hope its a rather simple fix but I cannot seem to identify the route cause...

The issue is I run the car from cold it will idle pretty much perfectly forever, however when I turn the engine off and leave it a minute and start it up again it will throw a vanos exhaust position not reached after around a couple minutes, it does this every time without fail. I can clear the code and it will come back if the car is warm. after reset and letting it cool down it will do the same every time. The oil and water temp even out at 108 degrees celsius (too high?), vanos values for exhaust are: 6.5 to 7.5 degrees at idle and intake position is 24.5 to 25.5 at idle when everything is fine.

This is the strange bit: after the warm restart I watch the vans values and intake stays the same as before but the exhaust will not fall below 10.5 degrees, it stays around 13.5 degrees until the code comes up a minute later at which point it will drop to 1.9 to 2.3 degrees until I restart at which point it will do the same again.

a few things to mention: I have done many things which could have caused this, and will try to mention all that matters but have done way to much to say EVERYTHING.

When I got the car as a non runner It wouldn't turn over even with a jump start (battery was completely drained), so I assumed it was seized so took it apart before checking :/ (I think the issue was that it overheated with low oil since many things had perished such as scored camshaft and bearing, turbo was seized, low compression on a couple cylinders (probably rings) and a few other bits.

The issue may lie in the parts that I have replaced since they could have also been faulty, or it is something I have done wrong or damaged.

Whenever I re-time the engine and turn it over, the intake seems to be off by about 5mm every time I rotate it, I have tried every procedure and replaced everything I could think of regarding the vanos system.

Possible reasons for issue:

I believe it could be almost anything including turning the engine anticlockwise a couple of times :/ (thinking it wouldn't make a difference if the vanos gear spring is "relaxed" before doing the timing again- probably wrong!).

Another reason could be because reset my vanos and fuel adaptations when the timing could have been slightly off? (the flywheel has about 5 degrees play when locking pin is in place- maybe because live desert my timing so many times without the tool to hold the front of the crankshaft?)).

I am running 10w40 oil and have done the original filter, oil change and flush 5 times now (due to sparkles in oil presumably from the stretched timing chains).
Been through 3 timing chains in less than 50 miles of driving, kept stretching either due to the vacuum pump giving too much resistance or the fuel pump being out of time (as I had a code for the fuel pump which went when I swapped the orientation). vacuum pump was replaced, but now I am maybe thinking the vacuum pump might have a specific position to mate to the exhaust camshaft? (it has no markers unlike the fuel pump mating notch).

Only other codes on the car is that the icm needs initialising, but I don't think that would affect it?

Will update if I discover anything new, but taking a couple days off for now.
Any suggestions/help/advice/ideas would be MUCH appreciated as I did this car purely to make a profit and have now learned that this is going to be my last one!! (I have rebuilt 6 Bmw 1 series over the past couple years- engines fully rebuilt every time even if it didn't need it) and this one is my final straw!!!

[MMKnuwskl]

Hi,

I would swap the camshaft position sensors and check if the fault moves to the intake side.
If not, swap the Vanos solenoids and check if the fault moves.

If the fault does not move move pls report.

Regards, Martin

[sploosher01]

Thanks Martin. I'm back home Tuesday, so will update then.
Regards, Nico.