vanos solonoid question

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xantiaman

Member
Hi all
I'm about to strip and replace the seals etc. on my Z4 m54 2.2 vanos unit, I have done this before on a couple of E46 and I want to clean and test the solenoid's while I'm in there, the solenoid's on the E46 where quite long with holes in the body that brake cleaner was squirted into to clean them out, from what I can see from looking at images of the z4 ones they are short stumpy things with no tubes with holes in...before I start farting about removing them how do I clean this type?
 

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Those are just the electrical actuators. A pin comes out the end and pushes on a shuttle valve in the unit. The valve has a spring behind it that returns it when the solenoid is deactivated.
You can put 12v across the pins to be sure it pops out ok.
The valves can stick so worth popping them out and gently cleaning any old oil varnish off them.
 
thanks for the reply enuff_zed I'll be having a go this weekend as well as an oil change, rocker gasket and drive belts.. can I just ask when you say pop out the valve and clean it are you talking about the actuator with the pin in it or the shuttle valve unit that I presume is what the actuators fit into thanks again
 
xantiaman said:
thanks for the reply enuff_zed I'll be having a go this weekend as well as an oil change, rocker gasket and drive belts.. can I just ask when you say pop out the valve and clean it are you talking about the actuator with the pin in it or the shuttle valve unit that I presume is what the actuators fit into thanks again
Click to expand...
I mean the shuttle valve. The bit that the solenoid pushes on.
 
TBH, for the effort you may as well get new ones as they're such a pain to get to (well, on the N52 they are.) I tried cleaning mine up with basic washing through and there was no improvement. I suspect if you rigged up some sort of jig to feed pressurised cleaner through them while operating the valve with an oscillator for a few hours then that may help but even then I don't know if it would shift years if carbonised oil.
 
smorris_12 said:
TBH, for the effort you may as well get new ones as they're such a pain to get to (well, on the N52 they are.) I tried cleaning mine up with basic washing through and there was no improvement. I suspect if you rigged up some sort of jig to feed pressurised cleaner through them while operating the valve with an oscillator for a few hours then that may help but even then I don't know if it would shift years if carbonised oil.
Click to expand...
On the M54 they are accessible in situ, but the OP is going to be removing the Vanos unit anyway, so easily done on the bench.
 
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