The vanos changes where the camshafts are in rotation compared to the crankshaft.
IE advancing or retarding X degrees.
It does not lift the valves open or control how far the valves lift. That came later with what I think is called valvetronic?

So the vanos would have to be allowing enough movement the camshaft to rotate somthing like 70-90 degrees? For the intake valves still to be open at tdc and causing the leakage you measured.
From what I just read, it looked like the vanos should only have 40 degrees of adjustment available. (Was typing while amacman posted, could be 20 degrees, I dunno)

All that said I don't know enough about the M62 or M62tu to say if they are right or wrong. But your leak down test had air coming out the oil cap not the throttle body... Did you open the throttle for better listening?

But, the time seems ok to me, I wouldn't do it for 9.5 hours. Alldata says you have to pull the upper and lower timing covers. But, they may be able to sneak it out with just the upper off.

My main thing is to make sure I don't pay all of this money to have them replace the vanos but the misfire issue remains.

I've read many post on vanos issues and many posts on misfire issues but I haven't found a single post where someone talked about their vanos causing misfires. I would feel more comfortable throwing that much cash at the vanos if I knew this was definitely the issue and not the Indy shop doing a "best guess" approach.

Now I have read where the vanos could cause misfire but I haven't read where someone has actually experienced it.

If its the vanos, I'm assuming it's only out of wack at idle because the issue goes away when you increase the RPM's by only 200 rpms.

Is there a chance that they are going for the big job when in reality the vanos could only need to be adjusted or the solenoid only need to be replaced or something smaller relating to the vanos should be tried before replacing the entire vanos?

I have to agree with Amacman on this. Vanos controls camshaft timing, but not whether valves open and close, or how much. Just when they open and close. This statement throws the entire diagnosis of this Indy into doubt. You may need to get another opinion.

If you're still getting the misfire on #6, swap the coil pack with another cylinder and see if the misfire moves. What's really needed here is one of those wands that detects COP firing.
Like this:
YA76562, Probe, Coil-On-Plug (COP), Ignition


As far as the fuel injector code, did reconnecting #4 help???

yeah, when Amacman posted that info it really made me doubt what they were saying.

I did the coil swap way back in the begiining of this adventure....multiple times and replaced the #6 one with a new one. The entire bank 2 (driver side) still pulls misfire codes. After I changed the intake and valve cover gaskets, I was only pulling the #6 misfire code but after a few days, the other misfire codes returned. The engine shakes (very little) but it doesnt make that classic 'poot' misifre noise that you here from the exhaust. #6 used to make that 'poot' sound but after I moved the ground wire from the #6 ignition coil stud to another stud the 'poot' on #6 stopped.
Also the misfire is only at idle.


There was a loose wire inside of the connector plug that goes to the #4 injector. All I did was wiggle it a bit and that issue went away. Most likely I failed to connect it poperly after changing the intake and valve cover gaskets.

Have you tried cleaning the injectors? I'm talking about a pressurized cleaner powered by shop air....not one of those aerosol cleaners, or something you dump in your gas tank. I have an OTC one like this and it works extremely well:

OTC 7448 OTC7448 OTC TOOLS 7448 - Fuel Injection Canister Cleaning System

This is the cleaner it uses:

OTC 7000A-1 OTC7000A-1 OTC TOOLS 7000A-1 - Pro Inject-R Kleen , Single Can

Finally, you're also going to need a Fuel Injector Test Kit, (preferably the same brand as the cleaner tank so all the adapters hook together). You will need this kit to hook up the cleaner tank:

OTC 6550PRO OTC6550PRO OTC TOOLS 6550PRO - Professional Master Fuel Injection Service Kit OTC

Even if cleaning the injectors does not solve the problem, it will make MOST higher mileage cars run noticably better.

As a final thought, and another "free" check you could do. Have you tried swapping the two crankshaft speed sensors to see if that moves the problem to the other bank? (Make sure you have the two new o-rings on hand before you try this. Those are part no: 12141748398) These things do not always fail outright...sometimes they cause intermittent problems on the way out.

Thanks for the info Skyline.

I just rec'd a call from the indy shop with their final tally:

$1600 total
- $550 for new bank 2 vanos unit
- the rest for labor, oil change, gaskets and adding suggested additives to the oil.

He said the vanos was bad causing the valves not to close all the way.
he said both valve covers would have to come off including the top front timing chain cover.
The bottom timing chain cover is recommended to come off but he said given the high cost already that its not a must.

Could you ask him what he did to determine that this was the problem?

I'll ask him tonight when i pick up the car. I'm definitly not paying that kind of money to repair it.

I found another indy shop to take it to on Wednesday. they charge a flat fee of $68 to do the diagnostic test.

I just picked up my x5 from the Indy shop and these are the fault codes they pulled:

102. 66. Signal, multifunction steering wheel ( I know this one is because I need to replace the clock spring in the steering wheel)

062. 3E. Misfire, several cylinders.

051. 33. Misfire cylinder 5

053. 35. Misfire cylinder 8


054 36 misfire cylinder 6


056. 38. Misfire cylinder 7

005. 05. Oxygen sensor heater, bank 2, before catalytic converter

027 1B. Mixture adaption, bank 2, multiplicative, control limit reached

003. 03. Oxygen sensor before catalytic converter mixed up

023. 17. Oxygen sensor ageing, bank 2, after catalytic converter

115. 73. Air mass flow sensor, signal

I just unplugged the plug to the driver side vanos solenoid and it almost immediately started backfiring making that distinctive poot sound. Then I plugged it back in and the poot backfire sound went away.

It also throw some codes.

This is what I would of assumed would of been the symptoms if the vanos was bad.......am I wrong?

No codes or backfire sounds.