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Valve stems

Discuss problems you have had or are having with your Z4
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tug
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Valve stems

Post by tug » Sun Jul 25, 2021 7:12 am

Mate, in all honesty your worrying over nothing. The fault code is common on the N46. Just get a cheap code reader & clear it. As for the valve stem seals, if i leave mine idling for say 20 mins then rev the engine i also get blue smoke and have done for about 4 years now, it clears quickly and dont get any smoke during normal conditions.

I also have the slightly lumpy idle, its also common on the 4 potter & well documented.

To keep the fault code away you need to thrash it more often so as to "keep it clear" so to speak. After my engine gets up to temperature i always where possible take it up to at least 4000 revs through the gears, especially up to 4th. And rarely get the pesky code. I have had mine for over 6 years now & is my daily with 135,000 on the clock.

It gets serviced regularly and well looked after. These engines are not a patch on the 6 potters but this 4 potter is probably the best car i've ever owned and at my age i've had a few. :lol:

Hope this helps a bit. Cheers, tug. :thumbsup:
E85 N46 2.0i SE BLACK SAPPHIRE
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enuff_zed
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Valve stems

Post by enuff_zed » Sun Jul 25, 2021 9:27 am

tug wrote: Sun Jul 25, 2021 7:12 am Mate, in all honesty your worrying over nothing. The fault code is common on the N46. Just get a cheap code reader & clear it. As for the valve stem seals, if i leave mine idling for say 20 mins then rev the engine i also get blue smoke and have done for about 4 years now, it clears quickly and dont get any smoke during normal conditions.

I also have the slightly lumpy idle, its also common on the 4 potter & well documented.

To keep the fault code away you need to thrash it more often so as to "keep it clear" so to speak. After my engine gets up to temperature i always where possible take it up to at least 4000 revs through the gears, especially up to 4th. And rarely get the pesky code. I have had mine for over 6 years now & is my daily with 135,000 on the clock.

It gets serviced regularly and well looked after. These engines are not a patch on the 6 potters but this 4 potter is probably the best car i've ever owned and at my age i've had a few. :lol:

Hope this helps a bit. Cheers, tug. :thumbsup:
There seem to be a lot less 4-pot owners on here than sixes. The 4-pots get a bad press but I wonder if some of that is cast down from the lofty 'must have a six pot sound' mentality.
I'm pleased the OP has had some sensible feedback from someone who owns and runs one.
Hopefully a reset and the knowledge that 'they all do that' will mean more stress free driving from now on. :thumbsup:
HQ of 'Norfolk Zed Rescue'.
Always happy to help if I can.

If the forum helped you, why not help the forum back. Thats the Z4 way! :thumbsup:
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Jfgoldfish
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Valve stems

Post by Jfgoldfish » Thu Aug 05, 2021 7:30 pm

I'm with Tug on this one; reset the codes and drive it fairly hard regularly. The 2.0 regularly throws emmisions codes if it is babied.

Some folks here have advised that the valve guides are a 2k+ job to replace... They are in the right ball park. However, the guides probably aren't excessively worn. Certainly not at 115k miles.
The seals are the only bit that generally fail prematurely on these engines. There are garages around that will replace the seals for less than 800 quid. The head doesn't need to come off to do them. There is a place in Nuneaton that do it at a fixed rate. I forget the name of the place, could probably dig it up if you were really interested.

Try the forte seal conditioner. It will get you a few more years out of them.
I wouldn't bother replacing them until you're burning more than 1 litre per 1000 miles and I can almost guarantee the oil consumption isn't causing your shakey idle.
2006 Z4 2.0i Ruby Black

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