Have seen a few conflicting reports on the above and was wondering if anyone in the know could clear things up for me.
I've read that a fix by BMW with new bigger bolts sorted the VANOS problem, but also that people have had the problem more than once on their car...?
Also, I've been told that if you do get this problem, your engine will get a bit rattly and be down on power but with no real harm done. However, EVO magazine said that your engine is 'effectively ruined'? Does anyone know the truth about all this?

[Edited by scoobysnacks - 9/15/2003 10:17:58 PM]

It won't ruin your engine, I don't know where they got that from!

The VANOS is responsible for tweaking the valve timing by relatively small amounts, it can't do anything to endanger the engine.

There are 2 modes of failure that I am aware of:-

1) Rattling/Stuck VANOS, sometimes accompanied by loss of top end power
2) Leaking oil seals on the high pressure side of the unit

My VANOS failed by no. 2 (pissing oil out of it), although it still functioned. The only way it could have endangered the engine is if I hadn't noticed and carried on running it until I ran out of oil, and I have never heard of that happening to anyone!

oh yeah... and to answer the original question....

I don't know of any permanent fix unfortunately.... it is a bit of a lottery whether they go or not, however failure is certainly not as common as you think. Scaremongering has blown it out of proportion.

Yes it is a weak point, but that is relative to car that is very reliable in all other aspects, so it seems worse than it is.

If you are thinking of buying and are worried then make sure you have warranty. My VANOS replacement cost £1600 which at the time stung some, but over the years I have saved more than that by not paying for extended warranties as nothing else has gone wrong.

I think CarpetCleaner recently had the VANOS done on his M3, cost a lot (out of warranty) but he reckoned it was a night / day difference in performance & top end.