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M135i camshaft/eccentric major faults.

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9.6K views 54 replies 12 participants last post by  Tuska20000  
M
#1 ·
Hi all,

I am new to this forum and forums in general, used them for info in the past as they are a great source of information but never really posted on them until now. I will give a bit of back ground into me and the whole story about the car below. Thanks in advance for taking the time to read and give advice.

Long story short, I am 28 and have always been into cars/motorbikes. I had spent most of my 20s with fast motorbikes rather than fast cars but always had semi fast cars, Saab 9-3 aero and e46 330i to name a couple. I am also fairly mechanically minded and enjoy doing work on my own vehicles and would tackle most jobs.

So onto the story!

In early July of 2018 I was in a very fortunate position to be able to afford my dream car an M135i. I had been keeping an eye on prices and searching for my ideal spec for about a year prior to this. After selling my bike I needed something to scratch the itch for speed that it had left me with and my old 330i with 140+K miles just didn't do it. The car was advertised with the John Clark group (Motorchoice Edinburgh) who are a reasonable sized dealer here in Scotland, with having franchised dealerships from BMW, Audi and JLR group. Motorchoice was the outlet they had to sell good used trade-ins that they couldn't put on the forecourt of the main dealers, they had some very nice stock of used cars. The car was a 2013 63reg, registered in late November of that year. It had 34k miles on it and was in my perfect spec with ZF8, Estoril blue paint and cream leather on the inside. Condition of the car overall was very good, a few age related marks but well above average for its age. The service history was all main dealer and the car seemed to have been well cared for, the tyres had even been changed with Michelin PSS and were all matching. I made the deal and the car was mine, managed to haggle in a years warranty but that was it!!

The collection, all went smoothly and the car was great. A couple day later I noticed a slight clattering noice as if a pump was priming itself as it only occurred when unlocking the car. I had the codes checked and nothing logged so put it down to a pump on its way out. The car drove perfectly, I test drove several when on the hunt for one and they all felt the same which is a good sign to me :) . Fast forward to May of 2019 and I got the car serviced at Klasse series automotive near Livingston who are BMW and Mercedes specialists. There service was great and the diagnosed the problem to be the valvetronic motor for the eccentric shaft. The independent Warrenty was still on the car so I booked it in with a garage more local to me who were also meant to be a BMW specialist to carry out the work. They replaced the motor no problem at all but were unable to programme it in, I ended up falling out with them over this because they were insistent that there was software issue on the car which I did not believe. I suspect they didn't have the correct diagnostic equipment or upto date equipment to do it, a bold claim as I have no proof of that. I tried to compromise with them saying I would take time away from work to take the car to BMW who were quoting £165 to do the job and I would cover half the cost if they would pay the other £82.50. I thought this was the best way out for everyone but not according to them so I gave up and stomached the cost.

The car was taken to Peter Vardy in Edinburgh to have it coded in. I was in and out within an hour so can't imagine it was a software issue! Upon leaving the dealer the minute I started the car there was a slight hydraulic lifter tap present so I went back in and one of the head technicians came out for a listen. He said it did sound like a lifter but to give it a good run to see if it will repressure itself, as the eccentric shaft hadn't been working properly for sometime. I did this and kept running the car for a while and it got ever so slightly louder but not that much. I should clarify now that the car is a weekend toy and only gets used occasionally as I have a van for work and most other things. I proceeded to get a quote from BMW to carry out the work as after my fall out with a supposed specialist I didn't really trust anyone else with it. They quoted £2150 to replace all the intake lifters. This was quoted in November of last year so saved up the pennies and avoided using the car too much. The car was booked in on the 27th of February this year to have the work done, I dropped the car off and prayed there was nothing else! Of course there was and it now gets juicy! After some phone calls on the 27th I decided to go and have a look at the valve train on the top of the engine myself on the 28th. I also took my father along to look as he is very mechanically minded. What greeted us when arriving was to me very worrying for a car that had just turned 6 years old with only 46k miles on it with a full service history. Time for the photos now. As you can see below the intake cam has signs of corrosion which did wipe away, as can be seem in some photos. The worst part was how heavily worn the camshaft lobs were, the rocker arms also showing signs of wear. Add to that the eccentric shaft was toast it pretty much needed everything replaced on the intake side along with a new timing chain and vanos pulleys cleaned up or possibly replaced. To me a catastrophic list of items on a car that probably had these issue when I purchased it at 4.5 years old. I think it was masked then because the valvetronic motor didn't work. I requested that they went to BMW for a good will warranty gesture with me saying I was willing to spend £2.5k of whatever the bill was myself. No luck with BMW UK and the dealers initial price of £7200 was eye watering. They eventually came down to £5229.26 with a huge amount of help for Peter Vardy which to be frank was still eye watering! After looking at all options, trading it in against something else, punting it to trade or just risking it a little longer. I decided to just fix it and swallow the cost. A massive kick in the teeth all in. Due to the lockdown situation I don't actually have the car back yet but do have a nice 335d touring as a courtesy car, silver lining and all :lol2: .

I am sharing as I would like some feed back on whether this is a common issue and whether people think its a defective camshaft? My personal opinion is that the camshaft has been manufactured incorrectly, whether that be badly moulded to cause the pitting or that the hardening process on the lobs wasn't done correctly. The main shaft between the lobs and journal seems to look fine to me. I have requested that they keep all parts as I would like to examine or get them examined more closely as I would like to try and persue this with BMW UK. The photos are below. Thanks for any suggestions and if anyone has had any luck with BMW UK direct I would like to hear it. Thanks.

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Thanks Matt
 
5
#2 ·
Did the car have full BMW history? If so have you checked that with a BMW dealer! Could it have been clocked from a much higher mileage perhaps?

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M
#4 ·
Yes sorry it did have a full BMW history, all documented in the system. The first MOT at 3 years old showed the milage as correct and corresponded with any paper work I had with the milage.

I am having trouble with the images, saying they are all too large for upload?

It had been serviced at least 3 times prior to me buying it and I thought the servicing was condition based? Approx every 20k or 24 months.
 
M
#10 ·
marco_polo said:
Yes, official guidelines are as you say. Most of us ignore those though.

If you can resize the most important pictures to about 25%, then post them up for us.

Definitely not a known issue.
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I have had the car about 18 months and I have been doing it every year as my milage is about 7k a year max.

The photo have been resized and hope the quality if okay!

I had read that the eccentric shafts can cause issue but not massively common. It was just a shock to see the top of the engine in such a state on what wasn't that old a car and with fairly sensible miles on it. The BMW dealer the car is at did try to blame incorrect oil at first or oil contamination. I did point out to them that the services were with BMW dealers.
 
M
#12 ·
marco_polo said:
Garbage oil? Oil starvation? Abuse (hard use when cold)?
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I asked about the oil starvation and they said it couldn't have been that as the eccentric shaft would have failed long ago, as it's the softest thing in the valve train. With not having owned the car from new its hard to say but I certainly don't hammer a car until it's properly warm. It only had one owner prior to me and from what I could find it was based in Birmingham but that its about all I know.

I did consider all that but a used engine was about £6.5k and trying to find a head and drivetrain was hard and there wasn't a guarantee it was going to be any better. I have committed to the repair route now but just wanted to put it out there and get a few opinions and see if it was a known issue.
 
C
#13 ·
Sorry to sound cynical, but are you sure the engine is original? Does the engine number match the paperwork. I've seen cams on aprilia V4's which are pitted badly (known problem) , and it's caused entirely by poor QC during manufacture, (heat treatment) allied with a very high valve spring rate on this engine, however all of the other components look like brand new, with none of the discolouration in your pics.
Is that really rust I can see, or is it just oily residue? It's not clear on my iPad.
 
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M
#14 ·
Chapscrap said:
Sorry to sound cynical, but are you sure the engine is original? Does the engine number match the paperwork. I've seen cams on aprilia V4's which are pitted badly (known problem) , and it's caused entirely by poor QC during manufacture, (heat treatment) allied with a very high valve spring rate on this engine, however all of the other components look like brand new, with none of the discolouration in your pics.
Is that really rust I can see, or is it just oily residue? It's not clear on my iPad.
Click to expand...
I am sure it is as I did check when I first got the car but would need to check again as I am not 100% on that. I had wondered if it had had an engine under warranty within the first 3 years but no record of that so if it had been changed it was between the 3-4 year old period right before I bought it.

Heard about that issue in the v4 engines (what an engine!) but didn't know it was down to the heat treatment. Its more oily residue as most of it wiped away when I went to see it. The vanos pulleys had a tiny bit of surface rust on it but mostly oily residue again. I had even considered someone putting screen wash in the oil filler as its fairly close to the screen wash filler but if they had and ran the car for a while (which would be strange) I didn't think it would cause the pitting or serious wear on the lobs. The lobs almost looks as if there is a slight dip in the centre of them and the outside edges have been pushed up because of the centres. Thats hard to see in the photos because of the quality.
 
5
#15 ·
I'm only looking at the pics on my phone and they're very low res, though I'm not sure that I'm seeing damage or excessive wear. I'd get a second opinion, pay a trusted mechanic to take a visual look. Is it at a BMW dealer?

EDIT: Just re-read, it does sound like excessive wear.

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C
#16 ·
Yeah, it's a fabulous engine/bike, and worth the associated risks, while it's under warranty anyway lol.
Not sure I understand why there should be any rust, ever, inside the case. The only time I've seen it was back in the day when engines had been stripped, cleaned, and then left in the open for a while without any protective oil film. Rust can start almost overnight in these circumstances.
Hope you get to the bottom of it. Any chance of finding the previous owner/driver?
 
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M
#17 ·
Chapscrap said:
Yeah, it's a fabulous engine/bike, and worth the associated risks, while it's under warranty anyway lol.
Not sure I understand why there should be any rust, ever, inside the case. The only time I've seen it was back in the day when engines had been stripped, cleaned, and then left in the open for a while without any protective oil film. Rust can start almost overnight in these circumstances.
Hope you get to the bottom of it. Any chance of finding the previous owner/driver?
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Never owned one but right at the top of my want list. I don't have an answer for the corrosion side of things at all. The only thing with the corrosion is that it wasn't consistent in the top of the engine ie if the rocker cover had been left off for a period of time, the vanos pulleys were noticeably worse that the camshaft was as it was a film that wiped off. What bugs me the most is that the garage that changed the eccentric shaft motor is local to me and had the car opened up in June last year which means they must have seem the wear and chose not to say anything!! I did ask BMW nicely but due to the GDPR stuff they can't. Once I get the parts back I might try my luck direct with BMW UK not that I think it will lead anywhere but worth a try!
 
M
#19 ·
N
#20 ·
To my non-expert eyes, that looks like water damage. How the hell you got rust and pitting in that area without water in there, I have no idea. There definitely should not be water in there! Looks like it was sat for a year with water in the oil.

Also, if that rust is up the top, have they checked the bottom end?
 
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M
#21 ·
nastypoker said:
To my non-expert eyes, that looks like water damage. How the hell you got rust and pitting in that area without water in there, I have no idea. There definitely should not be water in there! Looks like it was sat for a year with water in the oil.

Also, if that rust is up the top, have they checked the bottom end?
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The pitting could be caused by a faulty casting in the production of the camshaft. If it is water damage I would have expected it to be consistent over the top of the engine and the exhaust cam looks perfect, along with the cover over that cam and everything that side of the engine. Which is strange as that's where water you have first been poured in as that's the oil filler side. They are going to check the bottom end as well but haven't heard back yet. I will also do a few oil analysis when I get the car back to give me an idea of what else is going on. Its all very strange and probably won't ever get to the bottom of it all.
 
N
#22 ·
Matt4552 said:
The pitting could be caused by a faulty casting in the production of the camshaft. If it is water damage I would have expected it to be consistent over the top of the engine and the exhaust cam looks perfect, along with the cover over that cam and everything that side of the engine. Which is strange as that's where water you have first been poured in as that's the oil filler side. They are going to check the bottom end as well but haven't heard back yet. I will also do a few oil analysis when I get the car back to give me an idea of what else is going on. Its all very strange and probably won't ever get to the bottom of it all.
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Seems unlikely to be a casting problem. I think all BMW engines, at least performance ones from the late 00's onwards, used sintered camshaft lobes.

Oil analysis may not be conclusive if it has been changed a couple of times since whatever happened happened.
 
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M
#23 ·
nastypoker said:
Matt4552 said:
The pitting could be caused by a faulty casting in the production of the camshaft. If it is water damage I would have expected it to be consistent over the top of the engine and the exhaust cam looks perfect, along with the cover over that cam and everything that side of the engine. Which is strange as that's where water you have first been poured in as that's the oil filler side. They are going to check the bottom end as well but haven't heard back yet. I will also do a few oil analysis when I get the car back to give me an idea of what else is going on. Its all very strange and probably won't ever get to the bottom of it all.
Click to expand...
Seems unlikely to be a casting problem. I think all BMW engines, at least performance ones from the late 00's onwards, used sintered camshaft lobes.

Oil analysis may not be conclusive if it has been changed a couple of times since whatever happened happened.
Click to expand...
Thanks, didn't know that and good to know.

Thats true but it was more to check if there was any small particles or larger amounts of specific metals in the oil that might point to rod bearings be worn. Its hard without stripping the whole engine. When the lock down is over I will contact the dealers that serviced the car previously and see if they have any other info or if the can send a message to the previous owner asking them to contact me.
 
5
#24 ·
If you Google brown ish red residue in oil there are quite a few references, many applying to BMWs.

I wonder if the car has been hammered consistently, or overheated at sometime, or perhaps the opposite to hammering it, lot's of very short school run type trips where it doesn't warm up; either way from the pics it's unclear whether it is massively excessive wear, and if it is I'd be also worried about the bores and the bottom end.

Was the oil pressure checked before it was dismantled?

I'd not be spending thousands without more of an idea of the cause.

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M
#25 ·
I will have a look at that thanks.

Out of all those options I would have said it was the short runs due to where the car was based and the mileage it had done prior to my ownership.

I am unsure if they did or not and will need to ask.

I agree and I don't want to be spending thousands but had to take the view that I either spend the £5k and fingers crossed or pretty much write the car off and the £17k I paid for it. I don't have the money for a new or low mileage engine to be bought and installed as that's the only way to guarantee a total fix. All in all its just rubbish :lol2: . I did discuss trading it in against an M140i but due to them offering less then £8k on a trade in and not having any cars in an okay spec that I would want, the specs of the ones they had were pretty much all the opposite to what I would want!
 
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