DIY: S65 Throttle Actuator

[javarithms]

Originally Posted by aussiem3

You need to be patient. The most important thing with mod is, you need to do as soon as you get the error code. If you keep clearing the codes and wait for your sweet time, you will burn the unit, and even after the mod you will get error codes.

I suggest doing the mod as a preventative or as soon as you get codes. Good luck!

lol...I'm not sure how you construed my previous comment as being impatient?? I only have 16K miles so no codes yet but I wanted to know if the ebay gears are quality parts and if they are I'll replace mine now as a preventative measure.

[Shredicus]

Originally Posted by javarithms

lol...I'm not sure how you construed my previous comment as being impatient?? I only have 16K miles so no codes yet but I wanted to know if the ebay gears are quality parts and if they are I'll replace mine now as a preventative measure.

Lol I'm not sure either, maybe replied to the wrong post? I'm doing this preventively as well, as I have not thrown any codes from either bank @ 72k miles, but I do not want to press my luck as I perceive a little bit of resistance under certain throttle angles.

I'll post back as soon as I've got these installed. Doing the ICV and fuel purge valve preemptively as well while I'm in there, and lastly cleaning/lubing the ITB linkages and cleaning the throttle plates. I'm liking the fact that this set comes with the half gear premolded to the shaft instead of a harrowing drill/pin ordeal with the odometergears set; should make installation significantly simpler. Doing some research on the company producing these it seems to be a haven of automotive odds and ends custom made for niche failure points/applications. Seems to be a subsidiary of a surgical equipment manufacturer, so here's hoping the parts are as high-quality as they looks in the pics.

editL Looks like the odometergears set is getting cheaper too through vendors. Here's one for $110:
https://www.carpartsdiscount.com/new...ml?3593=556050

[javarithms]

Originally Posted by Shredicus

Lol I'm not sure either, maybe replied to the wrong post? I'm doing this preventively as well, as I have not thrown any codes from either bank @ 72k miles, but I do not want to press my luck as I perceive a little bit of resistance under certain throttle angles.

I'll post back as soon as I've got these installed. Doing the ICV and fuel purge valve preemptively as well while I'm in there, and lastly cleaning/lubing the ITB linkages and cleaning the throttle plates. I'm liking the fact that this set comes with the half gear premolded to the shaft instead of a harrowing drill/pin ordeal with the odometergears set; should make installation significantly simpler. Doing some research on the company producing these it seems to be a haven of automotive odds and ends custom made for niche failure points/applications. Seems to be a subsidiary of a surgical equipment manufacturer, so here's hoping the parts are as high-quality as they looks in the pics.

editL Looks like the odometergears set is getting cheaper too through vendors. Here's one for $110:
https://www.carpartsdiscount.com/new...ml?3593=556050

Great thanks I agree the odometergears look too complicated, for me at least.

[Shredicus]

Aaand I stumbled across another very detailed writeup for this DIY:
http://bmwbox.uk/forum/viewtopic.php...7c4955534aa872

[JonM]

Originally Posted by javarithms

Great thanks I agree the odometergears look too complicated, for me at least.

The Odometer Gears solution is not difficult; the drilling and the spring pin installation is the simple part of the install. Getting the shaft in and out of the assembly, common to all solutions, is the trickier part. But both of those jobs are easy compared to the tedious work of getting the actuators out of the car.

[Shredicus]

They're here. Quality seems good, they are very heavy/sturdy feeling and they fit together precisely. Trying to get these in by the end of the day:


Edit:
Here's some pics.
1
2
Significant wear on both banks, especially the half gear.


Surprising I hadn't thrown any codes yet.

New gears in:


Started raining, so I'll get them in the car tomorrow.

Notes: Hardest part by far was pressing the press-fit washer on to the new half gear's shaft. I used a method similar to the bmwbox article I linked above, but with a large C-clamp since I dont have a vice. This made it much trickier to line everything up, but I eventually got them on. I'd recommend using a little lube on the shaft /washer before trying to press the washer on, due to the fact that the new shaft hasn't had a washer fitted to it, and may be slightly thicker

Damn that sounds dirty

**BIG UPDATE:**

Well, installed these and the car was pissed. Mind you I had no error codes before; doing this retroactively. Threw misfire code on all cylinders, actuator codes, extremely rough idle and limp mode. Went back through several times and reinstalled everything making sure I didn't miss a connector, and everything looks as it should. So my guess is these gears are junk. Ordered a set of odometergears from the above link for a little under $110 shipped and I'm going to give those a shot and if that fixes this fiasco obviously it will be a case of these gears being faulty. Will post back with updates...

[JonM]

One trick I did for reassembly:

I heated the bushing up in boiling water for 20 minutes before pressing the shaft back together. Obviously it makes handling tricky,but the bushing expands a little and the interference fit is less and you can reassemble a lot easier. I didn't want to heat it more than 212 F.

[W///]

Originally Posted by Shredicus

They're here. Quality seems good, they are very heavy/sturdy feeling and they fit together precisely. Trying to get these in by the end of the day:


Edit:
Here's some pics.
1
2
Significant wear on both banks, especially the half gear.


Surprising I hadn't thrown any codes yet.

New gears in:


Started raining, so I'll get them in the car tomorrow.

Notes: Hardest part by far was pressing the press-fit washer on to the new half gear's shaft. I used a method similar to the bmwbox article I linked above, but with a large C-clamp since I dont have a vice. This made it much trickier to line everything up, but I eventually got them on. I'd recommend using a little lube on the shaft /washer before trying to press the washer on, due to the fact that the new shaft hasn't had a washer fitted to it, and may be slightly thicker

Damn that sounds dirty

**BIG UPDATE:**

Well, installed these and the car was pissed. Mind you I had no error codes before; doing this retroactively. Threw misfire code on all cylinders, actuator codes, extremely rough idle and limp mode. Went back through several times and reinstalled everything making sure I didn't miss a connector, and everything looks as it should. So my guess is these gears are junk. Ordered a set of odometergears from the above link for a little under $110 shipped and I'm going to give those a shot and if that fixes this fiasco obviously it will be a case of these gears being faulty. Will post back with updates...

Thanks for doing this!

I don't have a money tree in my backyard, but I'm almost tempted to just buy an entire new unit from BMW and not deal with this hassle. Let us know how it goes!

[svinfinity]

WOW, that really sucks. They looked like good quality.. Any reason why they failed? Will you be returning them?

Originally Posted by Shredicus

They're here. Quality seems good, they are very heavy/sturdy feeling and they fit together precisely. Trying to get these in by the end of the day:


Edit:
Here's some pics.
1
2
Significant wear on both banks, especially the half gear.


Surprising I hadn't thrown any codes yet.

New gears in:


Started raining, so I'll get them in the car tomorrow.

Notes: Hardest part by far was pressing the press-fit washer on to the new half gear's shaft. I used a method similar to the bmwbox article I linked above, but with a large C-clamp since I dont have a vice. This made it much trickier to line everything up, but I eventually got them on. I'd recommend using a little lube on the shaft /washer before trying to press the washer on, due to the fact that the new shaft hasn't had a washer fitted to it, and may be slightly thicker

Damn that sounds dirty

**BIG UPDATE:**

Well, installed these and the car was pissed. Mind you I had no error codes before; doing this retroactively. Threw misfire code on all cylinders, actuator codes, extremely rough idle and limp mode. Went back through several times and reinstalled everything making sure I didn't miss a connector, and everything looks as it should. So my guess is these gears are junk. Ordered a set of odometergears from the above link for a little under $110 shipped and I'm going to give those a shot and if that fixes this fiasco obviously it will be a case of these gears being faulty. Will post back with updates...

[Shredicus]

Originally Posted by JonM

One trick I did for reassembly:

I heated the bushing up in boiling water for 20 minutes before pressing the shaft back together. Obviously it makes handling tricky,but the bushing expands a little and the interference fit is less and you can reassemble a lot easier. I didn't want to heat it more than 212 F.

That is an awesome tip. I'll definitely do that this time around with the odometergears setup.

Originally Posted by W///

Thanks for doing this!

I don't have a money tree in my backyard, but I'm almost tempted to just buy an entire new unit from BMW and not deal with this hassle. Let us know how it goes!

Haha yeah I hear you there. Being a guinea pig can definitely backfire. I'll report back when I've got the odometergears set installed and hopefully not give my car a seizure.

Originally Posted by svinfinity

WOW, that really sucks. They looked like good quality.. Any reason why they failed? Will you be returning them?

Yeah, it's a real bummer. After I installed them in the housing I was concerned that there felt like a significant amount of play between the reduction gear and half gear probably just due to the tolerances not being tight enough. I've already contacted the company about the issue and they replied as such:

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear about the trouble you have had with our kit. We really do think you got a very poor set as we've had some pleasant reports from other users.

Under your purchase agreement we can offer the following options:

1. No quibbles return guarantee used or unused, the items just come back to us in Sheffield and we will issue a full refund.
2. We ship a new set out to you, once you are happy you can return the faulty parts back to us.

As your fault is quite serious we really would need the parts you received to come back to us so we can do an inspection into why this problem has arisen in the first place.

Let us know how you wish to proceed and we will do our best to keep you satisfied from here onwards.

So I'm once-bitten twice-shy about things like this and have opted for a refund, but the customer service response was very quick and appropriate. It's entirely possible I just got a defective set, but I'm not going to take the risk of its happening again.

***UPDATE:***


Got the odometergears set installed and they're working great. Very nice snug fit between the new gears when I compared to the other set of gears I just removed. Install was involved, but not particularly difficult especially when heating the press-fit bushings per JonM's advice.

I was also lucky enough to snap off a spark plug in the block that was torqued to spec. Good time to learn how to use an easy out:


Anyway throttle openings feel very fluid now compared to when I had my worn but functional original gears,especially at lower rpms where I felt some stutter/resistance before.

[TWiTCHY]

Shredicus , mind if I give you a call to come over to my place if I run into any trouble while attempting this repair myself? (I'm serious)

[Shredicus]

Originally Posted by TWiTCHY

Shredicus , mind if I give you a call to come over to my place if I run into any trouble while attempting this repair myself? (I'm serious)

Hey not at all! After the issues I ran into I got pretty intimately acquainted with this installation/removal process.

Only trouble I can see is I may be the board's only Eastern WA member so it may take me a little while to get there

[JonM]

Originally Posted by Shredicus

I was also lucky enough to snap off a spark plug in the block that was torqued to spec. Good time to learn how to use an easy out:

Yikes to the spark plug. When I changed my plugs, a dealer had done them last during free maintenance period. They were greased, and not with anti-sieze... A pretty heavy grease. BMW specifies do not grease spark plug threads because the grease will make the torque inconsistent. I was pretty disappointed.

I am pleased with the Odometer Gears product, and their phone support if you need it.

[svinfinity]

Anyone willing to perform the installation of the odometer gears set for a fee?

[Cbozz]

why don't they make those gears metal??? why brittle plastic? that's kinda silly

[nholmes]

Originally Posted by Cbozz

why don't they make those gears metal??? why brittle plastic? that's kinda silly

My guess is cost.

[Flea7]

Originally Posted by nholmes

My guess is cost.

yes...cost.
A titanium alloy gear set would be great! ... I even think aluminum would work

[GregW / Oregon]

Originally Posted by Cbozz

why don't they make those gears metal??? why brittle plastic? that's kinda silly

Not all plastic is brittle, and a big advantage is it typically doesn't need lubrication.

[MikeBlaszczak]

Originally Posted by Cbozz

why don't they make those gears metal??? why brittle plastic? that's kinda silly

It really does. Has there been a class-action lawsuit yet?

[mharris2007]

Props to W for this diy. I'm putting back together the harness after replacing one bad actuator and installing odometer gears into the still functioning actuator. I have one loan wire that I can't find the where it plugs in to! I was hoping someone had a picture of their engine showing where this dang wire goes. Been trying to figure it out for 30 min and it's driving me nuts. I did t find a good picture in this thread to compare. I attached pictures. Thanks!

[mharris2007]

I got it! It's for the plenum! Duh!

[nholmes]

Yep! I was just about to post that to help ya.

Just doing the one actuator? I, too, like to live dangerously.