Oil Light On- Ticking Noise too? HELP!

[PatJags156]

I just got home from work and as I pull in my driveway my Oil Light goes on, the "Yellow" light, which means according to the Users Manual you should add 1 qrt of oil, instead I changed the oil right away and the light went away. However, I thought I would take this opportunity to make a video to hear 2 things- 1.) a metal ticking which BMW said they "fixed" when they changed the exhaust lifters. 2.) A "whine" upon acceleration. It sounds like the car is in overdrive or something odd.

This video shows the car at idle....3,000 rpms steady..then 5,000 rpms..then idle again. Notice the whine and the ticking. Any input would be appreciated!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDYLRmTfenE

[franco209]

Sound scary........Stop driving it and find a tech to take a look. Good luck and let us know.

[thekurgan]

Sounds like the low oil caused some collapsed lifters ... I think the techs use a procedure to bleed the lifters, the rpms are kept at 3k for several minutes, or drive on the freeway in 4th for a while.

[PatJags156]

At the dealership as I type. Let's hope it's nothing significant and it is covered under my CPO. I'll let you know.

[PatJags156]

The issue was a failed vanos?? I will confirm again, but it was a cause of low oil pressure. The fix will only take an hour for the tech which is good news. I'm guessing that means $129 in diagnostic fees/hour.

[thekurgan]

Makes sense, I forgot the non S54/S85 engine vanos uses engine oil pressure, although it didn't sound like the failed vanos units I've heard, that sound like a baby rattle. Yours had a whine to it.

[PatJags156]

Whine would indicate a VANOS failure? If so I need to tell them while I'm here..

[WestCDA]

Being a mechanical failure, it should be covered under the CPO - a 50 dollar 'one time' incident fee. I don't see why you'd need to pay any additional diagnostic, parts or labor charges.

[PatJags156]

They replaced the VANOS solenoids and it was covered under the CPO Warranty. Noise is gone for now but I need to listen later for that "whine". Thanks for everyone's help.

[WestCDA]

What year is the car, and what mileage do you have on it?

[PatJags156]

2006 and 52,000 miles on it. Does that concern you?

[WestCDA]

I've got the same engine, and another year on my CPO - just wondering at what point in it's life yours had the problem come up. I've been keeping an 'ear' on my valve train in case I need to get the work done for excessive valve lifter noise before the CPO expires.

Mine is a 2006si with 30,000 KM (about 18,000+ miles).

[PatJags156]

What would you try to have performed before your CPO expires? What would get rid of the excessive valve lifter noise?

[WestCDA]

It's a known condition on this engine, and BMW has issued service documents about it - some of them have excessive valve train noise due to the way the original cylinder heads were plumbed for oil. After acknowledging there is a noise issue with a particular car, BMW will first attempt to replace the exhaust lifters - sounds like you already had this done from your first post.

If that doesn't work and the noise remains or returns, the next step is to replace the cylinder head with a new casting. Numerous people have had one or both remedies done, (lots to read about if you do a search on it) - and I'd rather pay the 50 dollar CPO charge for it than pay for a cylinder head replacement out of pocket ....

At this point I can occasionally hear a slight ticking when the engine is cold, but it's not too bad. That's why I'm keeping tabs on it to see if it gets worse. Did your engine sound that bad before BMW changed the exhaust lifters when they 'fixed it' the first time? That is LOUD!

[PatJags156]

No, it was never that loud. I feel like changing the exhaust lifters only made it worse over a 3 month period. So I will keep an "ear" on it and maybe have the cylinder head replaced.

[PatJags156]

Heading in tomorrow morning to have the cylinder head replaced hopefully. I will keep you posted.

[WestCDA]

Great to hear that you're having it addressed - look forward to hearing about a successful outcome! Good luck with the repair ...

[santov]

I just had the EXACT same problem(s).

Started with my outside mirrors being foggy at night (documented problem) and they needed 4 days to replicate it. When I got the car back it was ticking REALLY loud (I suspect they let the car idle for long periods to replicate the mirror problem).

I drove it home with all the racket and brought it back the next day. They kept it for another 3 days to replace the lifters.

Engine sounded moaning like your video when cold. And the ticking would come back if I went for a short drive, but would diminish after a long drive. I wrote the SA a nasty email and he asked I bring it in. 4 days later I had an all new head (and valvetrain). They changed the oil as part of replacing the head, then reset the service indicator when I was really supposed to get a Insp 1.

It took another round of emails with the SA to get him to agree to giving me a real Insp 1 in about 1700 miles. Yeesh!



My butt dyno says it's about 3% more HP, but it could just be me.

[PatJags156]

Originally Posted by WestCDA

It's a known condition on this engine, and BMW has issued service documents about it - some of them have excessive valve train noise due to the way the original cylinder heads were plumbed for oil. After acknowledging there is a noise issue with a particular car, BMW will first attempt to replace the exhaust lifters - sounds like you already had this done from your first post.

If that doesn't work and the noise remains or returns, the next step is to replace the cylinder head with a new casting. Numerous people have had one or both remedies done, (lots to read about if you do a search on it) - and I'd rather pay the 50 dollar CPO charge for it than pay for a cylinder head replacement out of pocket ....

At this point I can occasionally hear a slight ticking when the engine is cold, but it's not too bad. That's why I'm keeping tabs on it to see if it gets worse. Did your engine sound that bad before BMW changed the exhaust lifters when they 'fixed it' the first time? That is LOUD!

Does anyone have this bulletin? The service tech didn't find one. Help!

[WestCDA]

Originally Posted by PatJags156

Does anyone have this bulletin? The service tech didn't find one. Help!

I've never seen a service bulletin for the cylinder head replacement - just read of numerous examples on the forums, where people have had that done under warranty if the exhaust valve replacement didn't take care of the noise.

The bulletin on the exhaust valves is SI B 11 09 07 (the one from September 2009 supersedes the one from January 2009). You'll readily find it posted online.