[mrtn]

Hello all,

I'm having a very strange issue with my car that seems to be related to the eccentric shaft sensor and possibly the valvetronic motor. I drive a bmw with the N46 engine (318i - identical setup to the e87 118i).

For the past few days I've been reading up on pretty much every thread related to these parts and systems and am pretty sure of my diagnosis. (Threads such as http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=483883, I have all read).

So here's my diagnosis:
- Recently I had to add oil to my car after ca. 14k km, so nothing unusual. When pouring in oil, I spilled a bit over the side in the direction of the eccentric shaft sensor
- A few days later after going on an 80km drive, turning the car off and restarting it shortly after, I got the limp mode: engine fault, reduced power.
- At that point I hooked up my laptop and read the fault codes with INPA (fault report below). Codes that were thrown were 2A67 and 2A6B - related to the VVT.
- So I started reading up on the threads and found out about oil leaking in the sensor. So I peeked into the sensor and indeed: oil was inside. Cleaned the sensor out and as soon as I did that, the engine ran smoother than it has ever run since I've got it (1.5 years).
- About 2 weeks later, after the same drive (and some other drives in-between, ca. 100-150 km), I once again got the same fault codes after turning the car off and restarting it shortly after. Again hooked up my laptop and got 2A67 and 2A6B again.
- Peeked in the sensor again and there was a little bit of oil in there, but not that much
- Cleaned it out again and the car ran fine again.
- 1.5 weeks later: I drove approximately 100km in total over that time, and after a 35 km drive, again: same problems. This time however, there was like 1 drip of oil in there but not anything touching the connectors of the sensor, so not enough to cause a problem. So the error stayed. I unplugged and replugged the connector to the eccentric shaft sensor a couple of times and the errors disappeared, so I could drive home without limp mode. At this point I did notice a clear loss of power, especially below 2.5k revs (above that it felt fine but didn't pass 3.5k revs for safety reasons).

To me this sounds like my eccentric shaft sensor went bad due to oil and is slowly dying and probably very close to complete failure.

However, when looking at the error codes thrown by the car I'm starting to slightly doubt this conclusion, because the VVT direction and refence sensor degrees practically add up to 180 degrees. 180 degrees is the number that the sensor adding up are supposed to give because these 2 sensors calculate the angles in opposite directions to verify the position. If the VVT sensors give the right values: how can my sensor be bad? This makes it sound like it's a valvetronic motor issue, while the sensor going bad would be logical considering the oil.

On some other threads I've also read stuff related to vanos solenoids, but this seems a bit illogical to me considering the codes I get.

I'm hoping anyone here could help me shed some light on this problem!

Thanks in advance for your help.

Kind regards,

Martijn


ERROR MEMORY:

2A67 CDKDVEST - VVT-activation
P1050 VVT-Control Circuit (Bank 1)
Error counter: 2
Logistic counter: 40
1. Umweltsatz
Mileage 106640 km
Supply voltage (ub) 11.02 V
based on byte storage for B_vvt in FF- Array (bitcnv_vvt) 1.00
Status Error Overload VVT1 (stdvovrld) 8.00
Voltage Diagnostic-Port VVT- Control (uvvtdia) 1.62 V
2. Umweltsatz
Mileage 106640 km
Supply voltage (ub) 11.12 V
based on byte storage for B_vvt in FF- Array (bitcnv_vvt) 1.00
Status Error Overload VVT1 (stdvovrld) 8.00
Voltage Diagnostic-Port VVT- Control (uvvtdia) 1.62 V
Actuation error general
Test conditions fulfilled
Error present now and already stored
Error would cause a warning lamp to light up
Diagnostic active
Cycle flag set
MIL on
Error code: 2A 67 E8 15 10 50 02 28 34 12 75 01 08 53 34 12
76 01 08 53 FF FF FF FF FF FF
-------------------------------------------------------------
2A6B CDKDVPMN - Power supply limit VVT-emergency
P1062 VVT-Limp Home Request Full Stroke Position not Reached (Bank 1)
Error counter: 1
Logistic counter: 40
Mileage 106640 km
Air mass flow (ml) 20.00 kg/h
Status Error Overload VVT1 (stdvovrld) 8.00
VVT- direction sensor raw value (exwnkfsr_u) 139.92 °
VVT- Reference sensor raw value (exwnkrsr_u) 42.89 °
Valve doesn't open (angle detection), total throw is not reached
Test conditions fulfilled
Error present now and already stored
Error would cause a warning lamp to light up
Diagnostic active
MIL on
Error code: 2A 6B E2 11 10 62 01 28 34 12 05 08 C7 3D FF FF
FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF FF

[Soul_Glo]

If oil got into the sensor I would start by replacing that. The sensor is what tells the vvt system what position to be in. So I agree that is the logical answer.

Try driving with the vavletronic unplugged and see if you get the same codes. The vavletronic only starts to work at a certain engine temperature but it self tests on start up.

You could also try checking it with a multi meter and should see 50 ohms across the two pins on the valvetronic.

In inpa there is a test function for the vvt. You cant do it if the fault codes are present for the vvt but if it is working intermittently and you can use that function to move the motor up and down as you wish to test.

[mrtn]

Thanks a lot for the tips. I'm definitely gonna check it out! I'll report back once my problems are solved so others can benefit.

cheers, martijn

[mrtn]

Well I'm here to report back.

I had the eccentric shaft sensor and the valvetronic motor replaced. While I'm not 100% sure the valvetronic motor was faulty, the added costs of replacing the valvetronic motor at the same time were marginal compared to the costs if I had to replace the valvetronic motor later (I only had to pay for the part, no additional labour costs).

The car now runs smoother than I can remember so I'm happy :-)

Cheers, Martijn

[Zochienw@gmail.com]

had this exact issue and all i did was purchase an actuator motor, replaced it and boom worked like a charm. The only issue now is and i was about to query through this post is before the issue came to light the check engine lights came on, and the car went into limp mode. The part was change and the system was reset with a scanner. Check engine light went off, drove for about 3km and the lights returned. The car works perfect but the lights remain on...can someone share some light in this regards.....thanks much

[Stretch238]

Zochienw@gmail.com I was wondering if you ever got to the solution to your problem as my 320i has done the the exact same thing