Remove front clip and pull motor?

[TriX5]

At the end of January traveled to Europe thinking it would be a 2 week trip at best and a 4 week trip at the outside......just got back after nearly 7 weeks! The Covid virus was catching up to where we were staying but had not quite reached the area where we were renting a cottage in a small village. Last Monday we finally picked up the paperwork we needed. Also I had located a company to return my x5d to the states. Dropped the car at their terminal last week, so the timing worked but my wife was getting anxious about rejoining our kids states-side.

Yesterday the jet-lag had me up early and I decided to have a better look at the e53. My son drove it a couple of times while I was away and he wants me to get it ready as a DD for him. I removed the stiffening plate so that I could pin the flywheel at TDC and disconnected the wiring so I could lift the fuel rail. Unfortunately I noted three leaks, one of the screen wash pumps leaks (no big issue), there is an intermittant leak on the upper coolant hose (the spider attached to the thermostat, again not a big problem) and I think the front diff leaks from the seal on the driver's side (ugh, don't relish pulling the drive shaft again to replace the seal...).

But first the CEL issue. First removed the valve cover on Bank 1. As expected, on pulling the Vanos CCW, the hole in the reluctor lined up fine with the hole in timing cover.

Then removed Bank 2. Pulling the Vanos CCW I noted it was a little stiffer, I guess since it has not really been regulating the timing, the seal is still tight. Nevertheless, the timing lined up just fine.

After staring at it for a while wondering what else could be wrong, I noticed the lobe of the reluctor, where the hole is for the timing kit, was pushed back and instead of a 1/8 gap with the sensor it was probably more like 3/16 or more. I have no idea how it got bent but on bending it back I noted that the material is very soft. Anything coming in to contact with it while I was prepping the engine/trans for re-installing might have bent it. I straightened it as best I could and put the valve cover back on.

Today I have to put Bank 1 valve cover back and see if that fixed the CEL issue.