Metal VANOS Cover Failure - MUST READ!

[Ajolives]

My SLON covers are still good too from what I can tell.

[VR1]

I'm interested to know what the manufacturer was of the defective covers

[kolosy]

Originally Posted by VR1

I'm interested to know what the manufacturer was of the defective covers

i think we all are.

i'd also love confirmation from more SLON users that theirs are good. i had them on my e92, was going to put them on the e90 but will wait now that this has popped up...

[DrFerry]

Metals have different thermal expansion rates, fatigue life, and crack propagation rates. Aluminum and steel expand at different rates and have different fatigue lifes. Perhaps the different vanos spring cover makers are using different metals for their parts? Moreover, over time with hundreds of thermal cycles, I speculate dimensional degradation occurs due to the thermal cycling and then the spring clips come loose. Probably one at first, then more and more of them as the hooked tip rubs and vibrates on the spring mechanism just as Redd mentioned. Interestingly, Steve Dinan and Carbahn solved the issue with steel spring cover end plates - without any clips - which attached as "end caps" using the central am bolts. The Dinan vanos covers are $100 for the kit which contains 4. However, I recall reading somewhere that when using the Dinan vanos cover kit the motor has to be retimed (cam timing) but I could be wrong on this particular aspect.

From the Website:
CarBahn VANOS Spring Plate Kit for E90/E92/E93 M3 S65 Engine.

The BMW S65 Engine can suffer VANOS Mechanism failure due to the plastic spring plate holding the VANOS Gear Mechanism becoming brittle over time and failing. This failure can lead to an engine failure and a very expensive engine rebuild. These VANOS Spring Plates are designed to address and fix the Plastic Spring plate issue by replacing it with a steel spring plate.

Contains 4x CarBahn VANOS Spring Plate
https://carbahn.com/product/cbs65-60...or-s65-e9x-m3/
.

.

[Ajolives]

Originally Posted by DrFerry

Metals have different thermal expansion rates, fatigue life, and crack propagation rates. Aluminum and steel expand at different rates and have different fatigue lifes. Perhaps the different vanos spring cover makers are using different metals for their parts? Moreover, over time with hundreds of thermal cycles, I speculate dimensional degradation occurs due to the thermal cycling and then the spring clips come loose. Probably one at first, then more and more of them as the hooked tip rubs and vibrates on the spring mechanism just as Redd mentioned. Interestingly, Steve Dinan and Carbahn solved the issue with steel spring cover end plates - without any clips - which attached as "end caps" using the central am bolts. The Dinan vanos covers are $100 for the kit which contains 4. However, I recall reading somewhere that when using the Dinan vanos cover kit the motor has to be retimed (cam timing) but I could be wrong on this particular aspect.

From the Website:
CarBahn VANOS Spring Plate Kit for E90/E92/E93 M3 S65 Engine.

The BMW S65 Engine can suffer VANOS Mechanism failure due to the plastic spring plate holding the VANOS Gear Mechanism becoming brittle over time and failing. This failure can lead to an engine failure and a very expensive engine rebuild. These VANOS Spring Plates are designed to address and fix the Plastic Spring plate issue by replacing it with a steel spring plate.

[B]Contains 4x CarBahn VANOS Spring [...]

I bought a set of Carbhan plates and hardware at the same time the Slonik came out. Glad I kept them around, although I’ve got faith in the Slonik covers.

The fitment was perfectly tight; I struggled to get some clips engaged because of the precise fitment. That being said, I did check every month or so for a while, was afraid this was always a real possibility.

[Abdul]

Originally Posted by Redd

The purpose of this post is not to point fingers at any particular brand/seller. But because this involved a critical engine component that can - and has - caused engine damage, I feel that it needs to be shared with everyone.

Recently, there has been a failure of a metal VANOS cover in one of the Malaysia member's E92 M3. Below are the facts:

1. The owner heard a loud whining sound from the engine. Upon investigation, it was determined that the aftermarket metal VANOS covers in Bank 2 (left hand side) had completely disappeared.

2. Somehow, the metal VANOS covers had ground down to a fine metal dust and which was caught by the oil filter. There were no large pieces left. How this is possible I do not know. What I can guess is that the covers had fallen off, been ground down by the timing chain and the resulting dust trapped by the oil filter. There was damage to the oil pump and metal swarf all over the engine. The engine is being rebuilt as we speak (luckily no crank damage).

3. This car had been using the metal VANOS covers for less than 5k kms (3k miles) and had attended two trackdays.

4. At Bank 1, the VANOS covers were still there but had come loose. A few of the clips had loosen sufficiently that the 'hook' was no longer clipped behind the VANOS gear but were sitting on top of the gear. (Pic below is from another car and provided as illustration only)


5. After dismantling the Bank 1 VANOS covers, it was noticed that the hooks from Bank 1 were worn down considerably from a brand new metal VANOS cover from the same seller and batch.


6. This is what a good lock should look like, with the hook fully clipped in behind the VANOS gear.


7. There are quite a large number of E9x M3 in Malaysia using these VANOS covers. News spread quickly about this incident and many owners went to check their cars. Many saw loose clips just by looking through the oil fill hole.



8. One owner opened up his valve covers and saw the below looseness on the VANOS cover clips:
https://youtube.com/shorts/y6KMMuAqZIM

9. [CONJECTURE] I have no proof but the way I see it, the loose clip allowed the aluminum VANOS cover to vibrate/rub against the steel VANOS gear. This wears down the aluminum hook, which makes the VANOS cover even more loose, and rub more. Until eventually the VANOS cover falls off entirely and gets broken/ground up, causing engine damage.

10. Some of these owners reached out to the resellers they bought the covers from and were informed that 1 loose clip is normal and acceptable.

11. Quite a few owners have checked their covers via the oil fill hole and about half of them have seen loose clips.

12. So far there is no correlation on mileage or driving style which may cause the VANOS covers to loosen. Two heavily tracked M3s showed loose covers, as did some very seldom driven, and never driven hard, cars.

13. Myself personally, I am using Slon covers and mine looked ok via the fill hole. As far as I am aware, I am the only one using Slon in my country.



What Should You Do?
Open up your oil fill hole and check that the clips of your metal VANOS covers are fully hooked in. You may need to start and stop the engine several times to see as many clips as possible. (Please remember to put back the oil cap before starting the car).

While this method only allows you to view the Bank 1 VANOS covers it is better than nothing. If you see loose clips then you know you might have them in Bank 2 as well.

To really be sure, you should open up the front timing covers on both banks to inspect the VANOS covers properly.

Again, this post is not meant to fingerpoint to any seller/manufacturer of these metal VANOS covers. The cars in Malaysia use various suppliers of these covers, from both China and the US, and none are immune to this loose clip issue. Half the cars checked have loose clips, half don't.

Another Malaysia owner has tried to share this info in the E9x V8 FB group and was threatened to the point he had to take down the post. Please don't shoot the messenger. We are just trying to share the facts so that other people do not blow up their engines.

I will not be naming names, nor will I be entertaining any PMs on this matter. If you have any questions please ask in this thread and I will answer out in the open for the benefit of all.

Redd thank you for calling this out. Here’s what I can decipher from what I see so far. It is clear from your pictures and the initial on FB that is now deleted (Luckily I took a screenshot of it and it is attached here), these covers are NOT from Euro Power Motorsports. I know this sounds disappointing to a few of you here but, unfortunately, this is the FACT. You can clearly see that the ones posted have a ribbed design versus our ones being completely flat with no branding/engraving on them.

This design is only found on the “Original SLON” covers. The cover with the ribbed design in the pictures looks like a knockoff that is being manufactured and sold overseas. A brief research will show a seller in Singapore selling these ones without the SLON name on it. There might be a few others out there that we do not know about, but it is safe to say, we need to be super careful now and buy from trusted vendors only.

[Abdul]

Originally Posted by drwankel

While I would really love to know what brand is failing (I saw the FB post), I think one thing I can deduce from the information out there so far, is it is not Slon.

Having Slon caps on my car, this is a sigh of relief. I had always been skeptical of some of the clones out there.

drwankel It looks like the ones that failed are a knockoff that is being manufactured and sold overseas. It has the same ribbed design as the SLON ones but I’m fairly positive, they are not the original SLON ones. I’ve seen a recent “no-name” brand selling them in Singapore.

https://www.carousell.sg/p/e92-m3-me...rs-1203251533/

[Abdul]

Originally Posted by DukeofAlexandria

I appreciate what you are trying to do Redd , but fuck em….name the company.

I don’t care who you are, but if you make cheap or shitty designed/engineered products with an apparent mass failure rate like this then people need to know.

A certain plenum with see through plexiglass that keeps failing comes to mind lol…

We’ve been through this time and time again on this forum with shitty vendors. If they are producing a crap product then people need to know which brand at the minimum and let the company sort out the details.

-Duke

DukeofAlexandria Hundred percent. Whoever is making these should be identified so everyone is warned. The picture Redd posted here and also the post from the original thread on Facebook shows a ribbed design on the covers with no name on it. Here is a link to one that is based in Singapore with no name or brand to it but still with the ribbed design. It’s safe to assume that the failed VANOS cover is from this company or the manufacturer that made this cover.

https://www.carousell.sg/p/e92-m3-me...rs-1203251533/

The Euro Power Motorsports VANOS covers are flat with no engraving or branding on them, nor do they have a ribbed design.

[Abdul]

Originally Posted by MaximusB

This.

I mean it is pretty easy to guess which vendor these knock off covers are from. Only so many vendors on this forum that sells reps... I mean, "designed, engineered and made in USA - but really copied from Russia and made in China"

MaximusB I’m still proud to say that our VANOS Covers are designed and made in the USA. What’s the big deal in having fair competition? We have five or six different vendors making the exact same Aluminum Undertray for our cars. Nobody is calling any of them out. Why does it matter who came up with the design first? The more options we have, the better it is for the consumer. This was evident in the pricing structure for the SLON ones. Many people bought them for $900.00+ until we got in the game. As soon as we launched ours, they lowered their price by more than 50%. Now Evolve has their own version and we welcome anyone else that can do it. This is not a monopoly.

[drwankel]

Hang on just a second here. To massively clear something up

This link:

https://www.carousell.sg/p/e92-m3-me...rs-1203251533/

Which shows this picture:



Is absolutely SLON. How do I know? Because that's MY picture of MY engine bay.

Here's the original for good measure.



Which came from this post:

https://www.m3post.com/forums/showpo...&postcount=199

[CTMike]

Maybe my procrastination is finally paying off…

[drwankel]

Well....... things are going to get a little spicier here.

This encouraged me to check my covers. I've checked them at every oil change since install, which was done in 11/2021. I have the original batch SLON covers. AND THEY ARE FAILING. There is a pretty substantial size difference between the clip that is still on, and the one that has failed.

[Redd]

This is not how I wanted this thread to turn out. The intention was to share info so E9x M3 owners can be aware and check their vanos covers. Instead it has degraded into a blame fest with certain parties trying to slander Malaysian members to protect themselves.

Abdul, as much as anything I was trying to protect MPower's name in this but what Matt has done on FB is unacceptable.

Below are the brands of VANOS covers that we know of in Malaysia and how many have been affected.

1. China knockoff (sourced through BOOF-M3) - 10 sets installed, 5 sets showed loose clips
2. MPower/Euroco***x - 2 sets installed, 1 set showed loose clips (Romzan's)
3. Slon - 1 set installed (mine), no loose clips

These are the facts. Here's another fact - at no time has Romzan sourced for or sold VANOS covers or any other parts to anyone in the Malaysia M3 community. Please tell Matt to stop slandering Romz just because you all don't want to ask your buyers to check their covers. Be responsible, do the right thing.

[drwankel]

I was able to get a flat head screwdriver in there and was able to push pry the clip back into position.

It is entirely possible this is a natural failure, or its also possible that the thing was installed wrong from the start, and just wore down the tab.

Anyway, at this point I guess I need to stop driving the car, and look at changing to a washer style solution. My piggy bank is not going to be happy...

[spammysammich]

I don’t know anybody locally that is comfortable doing the timing on this engine. The dealership near me is too new for me to have confidence in them. This is a disappointing development for sure.

[Abdul]

Originally Posted by drwankel

Hang on just a second here. To massively clear something up

This link:

https://www.carousell.sg/p/e92-m3-me...rs-1203251533/

Which shows this picture:



Is absolutely SLON. How do I know? Because that's MY picture of MY engine bay.

Here's the original for good measure.



Which came from this post:

https://www.m3post.com/forums/showpo...&postcount=199

Sorry. I’m not good at attaching pics.

Pic 1: FB of the person who blew his engine. It has the ribbed design.

Pic 2: OP’s picture. You can clearly see the ribbed design.

The pic that I added was from the product link from the guy selling in Singapore. He stole your pic and is using it. You should probably reach out to him. The internet is crazy. He’s literally using your pic and selling knockoffs.

[CamasM3e93]

I purchased mine from Euro Power and installed them a few weeks ago. Thanks for your input, Abdul I appreciate very much that you chimed in here. I think I’ve had two track days and maybe 400 miles since install.

I did 6 engine restarts and marked the tabs of the closest cover with a sharpie so I could confirm I was seeing fresh area. It took 5-6 starts to see each tab. My first inspection is a Pass. But yeah, ugh. I’m 100% glad I did this job because my plastic covers just crumbled into my hands with almost zero effort when they came off.

[ygoz]

Originally Posted by drwankel

I was able to get a flat head screwdriver in there and was able to push pry the clip back into position.

It is entirely possible this is a natural failure, or its also possible that the thing was installed wrong from the start, and just wore down the tab.

Anyway, at this point I guess I need to stop driving the car, and look at changing to a washer style solution. My piggy bank is not going to be happy...

Lets hope that this is an installation error
Going to check my Slon's and will report back here.
But when Slon's came out - a few members that installed them did report incorrect installations where not all tabs were verified as properly seated.

[ygoz]

Originally Posted by Redd

This is not how I wanted this thread to turn out. The intention was to share info so E9x M3 owners can be aware and check their vanos covers. Instead it has degraded into a blame fest with certain parties trying to slander Malaysian members to protect themselves.

Abdul, as much as anything I was trying to protect MPower's name in this but what Matt has done on FB is unacceptable.

Below are the brands of VANOS covers that we know of in Malaysia and how many have been affected.

1. China knockoff (sourced through BOOF-M3) - 10 sets installed, 5 sets showed loose clips
2. MPower/Euroco***x - 2 sets installed, 1 set showed loose clips (Romzan's)
3. Slon - 1 set installed (mine), no loose clips

These are the facts. Here's another fact - at no time has Romzan sourced for or sold VANOS covers or any other parts to anyone in the Malaysia M3 community. Please tell Matt to stop slandering Romz just because you all don't want to ask your buyers to check their covers. Be responsible, do the right thing.

Thanks for Sharing this - I think its good that we do share which vendors products had issues - Its not a blame fest, but transparency.
A small number of failures doesn't necessarily indicate a bad product or a bad vendor, and vendors are free to chime in and comment as well.
Obviously if we see a trend of Vendor X failing, and 0 accountability and response from the vendor, we can draw our own conclusions...

[drwankel]

Originally Posted by ygoz

Lets hope that this is an installation error
Going to check my Slon's and will report back here.
But when Slon's came out - a few members that installed them did report incorrect installations where not all tabs were verified as properly seated.

I remember those reports, and I checked mine repeatedly, and never saw any issues until now.

[Zark get a spanner]

The replica copied SLON, they may scanned data from SLON, there will be an extra error value. I have ever saw a replica installed, they look loose at 0KM.

[drwankel]

A few updates. Used a flathead screwdriver to push the clip back on.

Started and stopped the car about 20 times, checking the vanos covers between each attempt. Looks ok.

Took it out for a drive. Gave it a number of high RPM blasts.

Pulled back in the garage, checked the vanos covers again. Started and stopped the engine about 10 additional times, checking in between each attempt.

The vanos cover appears to look ok. Seems to be sitting fine, and the offending area seems about as tight as all the other tabs.

At this point there's a number of possible paths this could go.

1. The SLON vanos cover really did fail and its a matter of time before that tab pops off again.

2. There was an install error that went undetected until this moment in time. I have a picture from the install on the passenger side, and everything looks straight, but you can't see every tab in the photo.

At this point, I think I'm going to continue driving it, but carefully monitor this, and check after each drive. Its not a daily driver, so I have some flexibility here.