[Ceejays88]

Hi all, I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

Back story, I bought my 2012 328i 2 years ago with 58K on it, it was an ex lease car and had regular services and was looked after.

After I bought it I took it to a local BMW specialist who checked it over and said it was in great condition, didnt need anything doing to it.

Fast forward 12 months I got the timing chain checked out to be safe and it had no issues, 2 weeks later and my timing chain plastic tensioners crumbled causing my timing chain to come off and twisted my (crank or cam, can't remember which one they said) shaft

This was all replaced at a £1200 cost and has been great!

2months ago I got a drivetrain malfuntion error which went away after a restart of the car, came back a week later, so I got it checked out and they said it was the valvetronic motor playing up and they ordered the part for me, I was told it was safe to drive whilst waiting for the part, the day I was taking it in the car got lumpy and pretty much ground to a halt, they came and collected it and checked it over and Fuel injectors 1&3 were clogged and had failed, this has apparently put more load on the valvetronic motor and caused it to completely fail. so they swapped them all out, encoded the fuel injectors, the VT motor and replaced the wiring loom and also retrained the DME (wiping my map unfortunately)

Another £1200 spent, I picked the car up and drove home, but it isnt building boost at all and I get a DTM error when at around 2.5/3k rpm, they have taken it back, checked over all their work and said the error messages are just saying its underboosting and could be 1 of 4 things

stuck turbo wastegate.
Faulty Turbocharger unit
Vacum leak
Blocked catalyst

They want to charge me another £600 to investigate what the cause is as they have to take the CAT off and take Turbo apart to check it all.

I have read around and have heard valvetronic motors have a habit of taking out sensors with it, could this be true and what do people recommend ?

when I start the car I get the usual rattle noise and it seems like I have boost at first, but then the rattle stops and I have none, and when slowing down I used to hear the rattle come back but it doesnt, could it being held open?

I am at a loss, any help would be appreciated guys (and girls)

Thanks

[Ceejays88]

No one? Damn

[jtalweezy]

is it like a metallic rattle?

[pierreye]

Originally Posted by Ceejays88

Hi all, I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

Back story, I bought my 2012 328i 2 years ago with 58K on it, it was an ex lease car and had regular services and was looked after.

After I bought it I took it to a local BMW specialist who checked it over and said it was in great condition, didnt need anything doing to it.

Fast forward 12 months I got the timing chain checked out to be safe and it had no issues, 2 weeks later and my timing chain plastic tensioners crumbled causing my timing chain to come off and twisted my (crank or cam, can't remember which one they said) shaft

This was all replaced at a £1200 cost and has been great!

2months ago I got a drivetrain malfuntion error which went away after a restart of the car, came back a week later, so I got it checked out and they said it was the valvetronic motor playing up and they ordered the part for me, I was told it was safe to drive whilst waiting for the part, the day I was taking it in the car got lumpy and pretty much ground to a halt, they came and collected it and checked it over and Fuel injectors 1&3 were clogged and had failed, this has apparently put more load on the valvetronic motor and caused it to completely fail. so they swapped them all out, encoded the fuel injectors, the VT motor and replaced the wiring loom and also retrained the DME (wiping my map unfortunately)

Another £1200 spent, I picked the car up and drove home, but it isnt building boost at all and I get a DTM error when at around 2.5/3k rpm, they have taken it back, checked over all their work and said the error messages are just saying its underboosting and could be 1 of 4 things

stuck turbo wastegate.
Faulty Turbocharger unit
Vacum leak
Blocked catalyst

They want to charge me another £600 to investigate what the cause is as they have to take the CAT off and take Turbo apart to check it all.

I have read around and have heard valvetronic motors have a habit of taking out sensors with it, could this be true and what do people recommend ?

when I start the car I get the usual rattle noise and it seems like I have boost at first, but then the rattle stops and I have none, and when slowing down I used to hear the rattle come back but it doesnt, could it being held open?

I am at a loss, any help would be appreciated guys (and girls)

Thanks

I encountered something similar. The vacuum pump leak engine oil and clog up the vacuum line. To check, take out 2 hoses connected to the engine cover. Oil is dripping out from the connection point. If you clear the box, it should work fine until it clog again.

Check out this video.

[Ceejays88]

Will give that a go!

Thanks

Also got myself a BT reader and bimmerlink and I've got these codes

[jtalweezy]

It would appear with those codes, your boost is off because the exhaust side vanos solenoid is stuck.

That should be easy to get at and replace. You could try removing and cleaning it then re-installing. I would make sure to grab some extra vanos o-ring gaskets. That, or you could just replace the solenoid.

[Ceejays88]

So I checked it again today and it seems to have gotten rid of the 2 bottom ones.
So just 201101 and 120308 left now

[Ceejays88]

Originally Posted by pierreye

I encountered something similar. The vacuum pump leak engine oil and clog up the vacuum line. To check, take out 2 hoses connected to the engine cover. Oil is dripping out from the connection point. If you clear the box, it should work fine until it clog again.

Check out this video.

I checked this out and mine has nothing in the box, so unlikely to be this but thanks for the video

[pierreye]

Originally Posted by Ceejays88

I checked this out and mine has nothing in the box, so unlikely to be this but thanks for the video

This will narrow down to either vacuum boost solenoid or the turbo wastegate. You might want to do a vacuum test to check.

[Ceejays88]

Originally Posted by pierreye

This will narrow down to either vacuum boost solenoid or the turbo wastegate. You might want to do a vacuum test to check.

How do I do that? And I'll give it a go.

Thanks for your help so far

[pierreye]

Here's how to test the boost solenoid.

As for the wastegate, you can search the forum on how to check.

[Ceejays88]

Thanks, waiting for vacuum to arrive.

Strangely enough my boost seems to be hit and miss at the moment.

Can't boost in 3rd upwards unless I've hammered boost in 2nd.

My mind is boggled.

[pierreye]

Here's another video on how to make sure the pneumatic wastegate is closed properly to build up boost.

[Ceejays88]

Update:
Boost solenoid is good
Vanos solenoid is good
Vacuum pump has no oil in it.

Next is pneumatic wastegate check, but that worries me a little, I'm an IT guy, not a mechanic 😂

Going to have to research more before taking that apart.