William's 330Ci ZHP Maintenance and Project Thread

[BMWCurves]

I think it's usually a lack of oil that causes the rattle at startup. @Sreten just did a big project to address that on his M5, but our cars shouldn't have that issue.

Are you sure it's the Vanos? Is it tied to a certain rpm or just time?

It's localized, as far as I can tell, to the top front of the engine, right by where the VANOS is.

Can you post a video of the startup?

M5 and M54 have totally different Vanos setup and my rattle was caused by oil draining from the Vanos chamber.
Only time I heard Vanos rattle on M54 is when you hold rpms in 1.5-2-3k range.

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Yeah, I'll try and take a video sometime soon. Would love y'alls input.

[Will]

I'm curious as to the grinding noise you mention that only lasts momentarily upon start up... could it be a pulley/tensioner? Will wait for video.

[BMWM3186]

Tapping for a few seconds as lifters get oil? Mines always done it

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[BMWCurves]

I'm curious as to the grinding noise you mention that only lasts momentarily upon start up... could it be a pulley/tensioner? Will wait for video.

I keep forgetting to take a video, but it is decidedly more pronounced when the front is facing downhill.

Tapping for a few seconds as lifters get oil? Mines always done it

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I wish it were that, this has a much more localized/crunchy sound to it than sticky valves.

FUN UPDATE: I went to Bend this weekend. Made it all the way back to Portland last night without a sign of trouble. I stopped by my folks' place before I headed home for bed. As I was leaving the house and put the car into reverse, it sounded like the center console trim was loose because there was this "clinking" noise. I kept taking it out of reverse and putting it back in to try and isolate the sound, but it sort of went away after I pushed down on the trim so I didn't think too much of it. As I got going, I noticed there was a lot of play in the shifter while in gear, about 1"+. In hindsight I should have pulled over and parked the car where I was, but at the time I thought one of the plastic spacers had cracked and fallen off. When I got to the bottom of the hill and shifted second with traffic, I heard a clink of something metal hitting the road, the shifter just flopped, took a 90 degree turn, and there was a light "wap wap wap" sound coming from the transmission tunnel. The shifter was decidedly not connected to the transmission anymore so I nursed it to the nearest shoulder in front of a motel and parked the car.

After that, I called AAA and had them send a tow truck. I ran out into the road and was lucky enough to find the bolt that connects the shifter to the selector still intact! But I don't know the state of the rest of the shifter parts at the moment. I ended up having the car towed to my local dealership because my father's car is out of commission in the garage where I normally do maintenance, and I need to get back on the road sooner rather than later. New and fun adventures! Mileage is sitting at 69,099 miles.

tl;dr the shifter decided to take a vacation like I did.

Also, a lot of respect for the AAA guy. He was willing to give me a ride back to my apartment for free after dropping my car off at the dealership at 1 AM.

[704sw]

Yikes! That shifter looks like an athlete’s leg after an ankle injury.

[BMWCurves]

Yikes! That shifter looks like an athlete’s leg after an ankle injury.

It's about as floppy!

[ZHPizza]

Gross

[fredo]

Oh, boy. At least this didn't happen in the middle of nowhere. I joined AAA 17 years ago, very happy so far. Hope your car is fixed promptly.

[ZHPizza]

I got a notification that you quoted my post but there's nothing here so you must be practicing witchcraft again

[san]

Could it be because the short shifter you installed was defective?


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