E90 328 got towed in,,,crank no start issue,,,check fuel pressure ok,,,notice while cranking engine,,,,motor was spinning over to easy,,,,like no compression ,,,,opened oil cap,,,looked inside engine while some else cranked engine,,,,,noticed intake camshaft not turning,,,,,ok remove valve cover,,,,found intake vanos bolts broken off,,,,you can see that in the second pic,,,,the third pic is the exhaust vanos unit and the bolts are still there,,,the fourth pic is what the insides of the vanos unit looks like,,,,,we replaced both vanos units,,,,,we also removed the oil pan and removed all the broken bolts from the oil pan.
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bmwtechnician 
i have same issue did you fix problem?
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Yes,,that fixed the problem
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what was it
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The vanos units were the problem
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Is it not an interference engine?didn’t do any damage to the valves?
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No damage to the valves,,,,not a interference motor.
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Thanks for the reply.
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Hey do you know why they say it’s necessary to replace vamos unit if a bolt is loose or snapped? Wouldn’t if there are some tight bolts be bolted in position still, requiring only updated bolts?
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They recommend replacing the vans unit when bolts are loose or snapped off because the internal parts of the vanos unit are coming apart which caused the bolts to loosen or snap off,,,,so if you do replace the bolts probably in the near future they will not advance or retard the camshafts properly and you will have to do the job again,,,I recommend do both at the same time and be done.
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Really , thx for the info so if my exhaust cam unit bolts are all tight I should just replace with updated bolts ?
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Yes,,,you could if you want,,,that’s what we did when they first failed in early days,,,,BMW actually had a recall to update the bolts
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Is it possible to replace only the VANOS sprocket bolts without taking apart the timing system?
Is there enough clearance? And are the four broken bolts on the back-side facing the cam and motor, or are they behind the plate that’s bolted to the front of the cam via the single center bolt? I’m trying to understand the system by the limited photos.
Thank you for the awesome blog, btw.
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Yes you can replace the vanos sprocket bolts on some years,,,,and yes the bolts are facing the cam and motor,,,,it’s a tight fit but it can be done one bolt at a time,,,,because you have to rotate the engine to gain access to one bolt at a time.
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