The sound occurs for around 2-3 seconds when the door or trunk is opened. Sounds like a plastic gear grinding really loud. I read through your post a couple of times and what your saying makes sense (hypothesis) given the fact that the car was on jack stands (front) for almost 3 weeks before the battery was reconnected.
Last night he went out and removed everything down to the HPFP and put it all back, he just wanted to be sure that it wasn't something he had missed. Reconnected the battery and GRIND ! A sad night .. I woke up this morning and he was outside removing all the aftermarket parts. I know him, he'll work on this until the car is back to stock (battery is disconnected through this process). Sigh ! It's discouraging and we do hope that the dealer focuses on replacing whatever failed per the diag code. As for ISTA, this makes sense and we talked about it as we both have BMW's. I guess it all depends on how the dealership handles this. I'm trying to stay optimistic for the both of us...
Answer: Yes, temps are monitored using the performance steering wheel. Car is rarely driven hard as it's mostly just short drives in town. Every once in a while it's taken on the highway to stretch it's legs. All break in protocols were followed. Even after break-in service was performed the car is rarely driven.
I wish I could hit that appreciate button 100x over.. Thanks for your help and I'll keep updating this thread. Like I said above, not much else going on. Just putting everything carefully back to stock. Comes off faster than it went in ...
Take care and again, thank you !
Quote:
Originally Posted by F87source
No problem, I try my best to help. But oh man that is not a good sound to have. Is it consistent or intermittent?
I used to have this sound the day I brought the car home from the dealership and it only happened a handful of times before it stopped completely and bmw's new ISTEP could have helped, and I have a hypothesis behind it.
- The car would actuate the valvetronic system only if the car was off and has been sitting for a certain period of time to "prime" the valvetronic system for action. This would be triggered by a key press or when the comfort access was used.
- The noise would occur because there was no lubrication when the car was off causing binding on the eccentric shaft, which also cause stress on the actuator.
- Since the issue was so intermittent for me and could have been fully resolved by an ISTEP update from BMW (since it has stopped for almost 2 years now), I think bmw could have disabled the actuation of the valvetronic motor in the new updates fully preventing this noise from occuring when the car is off and there is no oil flow. Or my car just got better over time, maybe any roughness on the eccentric shaft got smoothed out with use. Again I can only speculate.
Ok with that ramble out of the way here are my suggestions for you:
1) If the issues are constant and not intermittent like mine was, then you have some serious troubles with your valvetronic system, especially if the issues persist when the engine is started. If it is that bad I do not recommend driving the car.
2) If you only have apple computers, then download boot camp and get a windows license. Then get ISTA, it is an amazing tool to have if you own a bmw and there are lots of diagnostics for this issue.
3) If you bring the car back to the dealership it better be 100% stock or else you can be in huge trouble.
4) Yes this is a common issue on higher mileages N55 and S55's, but there are reported issues at lower mileage cars. This is indeed unfortunate you are having it at 2k miles, and I believe this is common enough that bmw will cover you. I also wouldn't let it turn you away from this platform.
Question: Do you let the car fully warm up to 90ºC oil temps before driving it hard and did you follow the break in protocols?
Also try disconnecting the battery for awhile then reconnecting it.
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