X won't idel after replacing valve stem seals - receiving misfire codes.

[X5only]

Having recently successfully done valve stem seals on the same model and year vehicle (2005 X5 4.4), I'm doubly curious what could have gone wrong My vehicle fired right up on the very first start after the work was done, and has been great since. I'm trying to iterate through the variables in my head of a possible culprit, but nothing comes to mind. You've simply covered all the possibilities I could think of. My DIY experience shows that typically such daunting issues turn out to have really simple and stupid fixes. By the way, did you ever find that keeper that got lost?

[Purplefade]

I know, I am definitely no pro but I’m pretty handy and I’m stumped.

I’m with you, he’s going to call me and tell me it was the simplest thing (and I hope it is) and I’ll feel like an idiot for a few minutes and then just be happy to have it back

On that keeper, I never did find it but I did watch it roll off the frame rail into the engine compartment abyss... I looked everywhere and never did put my hands on it but I’m 99.999%... sure it didn’t make the depths of the engine. (I thought really hard about that too, or anything else that may have dropped - even rain over and counted the oil drain plugs to make sure I had all 5 )

I know I was totally disappointed when it didn’t start and run... granted this is my first VSS job on a VVT engine but it’s not my first VSS job and it really wasn’t all that different... with the exception of feeling like I was working through the birth canal on the center two intake valves... wow!

[SlickGT1]

Still. What could you have possibly done to mess timing up? Like seriously, what did you unbolt to mess it up?

Does one even have to check timing when doing VSS? Is that a required step?

I’m just curious how a tighter than shit bolt let a cam move. Did you have timing problems before?

[Purplefade]

I keep asking myself that very question. Using the tool you don't ever directly touch the timing nor do you remove anything that would cause an issue to the timing. You are all over the intake cam and eccentric shaft while you're doing the job, but neither of them ever move so again shouldn't be an impact to timing...


What did I unbolt to mess it up? - I wish I knew... aside from the obvious items required to do the VSS, I didn't touch or unbolt a thing, I am stumped. (I did reset a handful of the eccentric levers that slipped down but that is to be expected and shouldn't\wouldn't affect the timing.)



With regard to checking timing after doing a VSS job, if you ask me, it is an absolute requirement - I checked mine twice before I put it back together the first time and three times before I put it back together the second time... and it still didn't run...


No timing problems before, car ran beautifully, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes today I would still be arguing that there is no way that car is out of time, I checked it myself... 5 times!


The only thing I can think of is that MAYBE the cam lock on that intake cam is failing and when I checked the timing last time I thought I had the cam locked and somehow it moved a micro amount when I first started the car (but I never touched the cam bolt, timing was spot on when I put it back together the first time.) but then reality sets in and I ask myself how\why that would happen now when the car goes trough numerous start stop cycles a day.


Chalk it up to gremlins I guess for now. I'm so curious as to what my indy finds you can't imagine, it's just sitting in the garage driving me crazy for now until Monday!

[X5M-ISH]

Originally Posted by Purplefade

I am sad to report that upon reassembly it dropped in to limp mode and threw the same 2A89 dme exhaust vanos 2 code...

NOOOOOOOOooooooooo! I am so bummed for you and I know that feel. I was convinced this morning you had it in the bag finding that 1/8” discrepancy. What an emotional ride you’ve been on with this. While you didn’t nail it like you wanted (and we hoped) it’s also ok to know you tried everything you possibly could and to concede when appropriate. Great work man. You did a good job.

[Purplefade]

Thanks brother!!


I was convinced too, I was (honestly) so excited when that intake cam plate didn't seat this morning that I openly did a little dance beside the car! I thought "Hot damn, I found you!"


It was a tough pill to swallow but as much enjoyment as I got out of the initial project, and I say that honestly, I went in to it with happy thoughts of some garage time and a solid project to dig in to and knock out, the last few weeks of diagnostic work have quickly tarnished that...


It is now with relief that I hand it off to my Indy to let him call me when he knows what's wrong with it.

[Purplefade]

Indy just called me - she’s alive and running extremely well he said!

Exactly what I had hoped, something so amazingly simple that I was completely blind to it... the vanos plugs on bank 2 were swapped... DOH!

So there’s a $141 (which isn’t bad at all) learning lesson there that I will never repeat again, that’s for sure!

Long story short.. label and take more pictures than I obviously did or you too could spend 2 weeks in the garage trying to break fix what wasn’t broke...

Now.., I don’t know if it was an ironic coincidence that I found the intake cam timing as far off as I did or if the two issues in tandem were just more than I could diagnose... but, for the moment... I don’t care

[andrewwynn]

I will walk away with this lesson and silver lining: without the wiring goof you'd not have found the timing error. It's well worth $140 to have the cam timed correctly. Win win.

Fantastic and that is the best case scenario of what could have come from that!

You should have sent pics a good chance one of us would have caught that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Purplefade]

Originally Posted by andrewwynn

I will walk away with this lesson and silver lining: without the wiring goof you'd not have found the timing error. It's well worth $140 to have the cam timed correctly. Win win.

Fantastic and that is the best case scenario of what could have come from that!

You should have sent pics a good chance one of us would have caught that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I agree 100%

And yes, without the wiring issue pushing me to go back through my work that bill could have been much higher - had that call been “we need to time it”.

Sadly, I have messed with the Vanos solenoids on this thing so many times that area didn’t get pics... I thought to myself short pigtail to “Vanos 1” and long pigtail to “Vanos 2”... and that’s what I get for thinking vs just taking a pic of it

[Overboost]

That mistake will surely be made by our members in the future so this thread will be a lifesaver for reference. Glad you're up and running again.