Quote:
Originally Posted by aptwave
Those VANOS caps can eventually fall into the engine, seems like because of the age and temperature. You can see results below, photos from my friend's car.
He decided to go without them and removed remaining caps.
Original post here, but in Russian:
https://www.drive2.ru/l/507087342100545575/ |
Quote:
Originally Posted by deansbimmer
Word of advice....DO NOT run the engine without the vanos caps in place. Those caps are the only thing retaining the return springs against the vanos. They WILL eventually come off if there's no cover.
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Dean is absolutely correct about this. 100 miles after I purchased my car it started leaking oil through a pinhole in the valve cover. Turned out that one of the VANOS covers fell apart which allowed the spring to come out and grind a hole in my valve cover and timing chain cover. My oil filter was full of metal from this damage (see pic). Even after the dealer replaced all 4 VANOS units, I still had issues with the oil level reading. The plastic remnants of the cover went into the oil pan and caused my oil level to consistently read low when it really wasn't. They ended up having to pull the oil pan to get the plastic out, same as seen in the pics posted above.
Looking back on it, the previous owner probably knew something was wrong and took the car to a mechanic who likely discovered the damage and removed what was left of the plastic cover. He probably didn't want to pay for the actual VANOS replacement so decided to sell the car without disclosing this to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aptwave
Any bad experience with running VANOS without caps?
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Yes, do NOT run without those caps! See attached pics with the consequences.