Inspection Service DIY

[Fishy Dave]

Over the last couple of days I've completed the inspection 1 service on the M. First time for me and what a pleasure of a job (honestly), even working outside in the cold wasn't so bad with enough layers on. This guide was excellent btw: http://www.z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=34&p=1371875#p1371875

It took me hours longer than it needed to, partly as I'm methodical (some might say slow) and partly the laptop file corrupted when it ran out of battery meaning I had to start again. A visual check of the cams and followers revealed nothing unusual and the Vanos tabs looked fine too.

I bought the Wiseco shim kit from the states via ebay with 3 of each shim, but if I were doing it again I would probably just order shims in a narrower range , particularly 2.20 and 2.24mm. I ran out of both these sizes but amazingly my local dealer (Dick Lovett, Bath, formerly Wellsway) had them in stock! I used two different feeler gauges, one bent, one straight (that I bent myself) to reassure myself the measurements were spot on. The BMW magnet tool is excellent and well worth buying, I didn't have any shim escapees. Total consumables cost including import taxes was less than £300 and the shims can be re-used in the future.

I bought all of these things:

Valve cover gasket (1): 11 12 7 832 034
Rubber seal / grommet (13): 11 12 7 830 972
Rubber seal / grommet (2) 11 12 1 437 395
Cap nut assembly (extra stud/washer/grommet for valve cover in case lost): 11 12 7 838 078
Cap nut assembly (extra nut/washer/grommet for valve cover in case lost): 11 12 7 838 075
Profile (spark plug) gasket (6): 11 12 7 831 271
Gasket ring / copper washers: (3, gives 1 spare): 07 11 9 963 129
All above from local BMW dealer with BMWCC discount £130ish
BMW shim installation tool (1): 83 30 0 493 743 (Amazon $40, looks like it is cheaper now!) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00LM056N8/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Spark plugs [NGK DCPR8EKP] (6): 12 12 0 022 902 (Ebay £53, not needed for insp. 1 but I changed them anyway)
Wiseco shim kit (Amazon $60) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006573A6I/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Bent feeler gauges (Amazon $10) I would suggest buying another set to give different thickness at the smaller end of the range
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0009OR94M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
3 x extra 2.24mm and 3 x extra 2.20mm shims from BMW dealer (£16)
Castrol 10w60 Oil and filter £65ish
Liquid gasket for the half moon and Vanos areas when putting the cover back on (already had some)
Micrometer/Vernier (already owned, cheap ebay job but very accurate)

Some of the clearances were spot on in the middle of the range but most were slightly too tight going by this range:

Inlet .18-.23 and Exhaust .28 - .33

Only one required more than the next smallest shim to bring it to the middle of the range thankfully. The helpful parts guy said that the guidelines they have on their system said that all of mine were within range after all: have BMW relaxed the above measurements? If so then I can only assume that at the last inspection 2 they were checked and possibly left alone? The rubber gaskets were nice and flexible suggesting that these have been changed at some stage.
Any guesses why some of the clearances were a bit tight? Slight valve seat regression? Laziness/hasty measuring at previous inspection services?

For anyone wondering whether to do this yourself, I'd say go for it. If you can change discs and pads and general service work then you can do this.

 

[goon]

Yes valve and valve seat wear is the reason for the gaps closing up, will be doing this myself shortly before the MOT.

 

[mr wilks]

I do appreciate there are mechanically gifted individuals on the forum capable of such tasks & whilst i applaud your enthusiasm & skills unless you never plan to sell the car i don't think its a great move for the cars history :?
Jmo of course but i would be wary of a car that had been "diy"d on valve clearances

 

[Ducklakeview]

Being methodical, and careful is always best. The fact that you could literally, trash your engine is the reason, I think that a lot of people won't do this. As you pointed out, it's just basic, but accurate measurement and maths, the rest is pretty simple dis & re-assembly.

Personally, I would rather do jobs like this myself (in fact I don't let people work on my vehicles unless there is no alternative) because there seems to be a lot of times when it appears that the valves clearances have either been ignored, or incorrectly set by BMW "experts"

Also, isn't valve clearances part of Inspection 2?

Good on you for doing it yourself though. One observation I would make though, is that if I were doing it, I'd use a micrometer rather than vernier calipers for the shim measuring, as a vernier can give you a larger measurement on a worn shim, possibly leading to an undersize replacement shim being fitted. This is because the caliper will measure the thickest parts of a used shim, normally the edges, and a micrometer used in the middle of a worn shim will take into account the wear.

Mike

 

[Ducklakeview]

I do appreciate there are mechanically gifted individuals on the forum capable of such tasks & whilst i applaud your enthusiasm & skills unless you never plan to sell the car i don't think its a great move for the cars history :?
Jmo of course but i would be wary of a car that had been "diy"d on valve clearances

I think it depends on the owner, usually it's pretty easy to tell if someone actually knows what they are talking about, especially when it comes to "enthusiast owned" models. Personally, if I ever bought an ///M, then I'd be checking the clearances myself immediately. Not, that I'll be buying one, as I love my auto's

Mike

 

[TomK]

I do appreciate there are mechanically gifted individuals on the forum capable of such tasks & whilst i applaud your enthusiasm & skills unless you never plan to sell the car i don't think its a great move for the cars history :?
Jmo of course but i would be wary of a car that had been "diy"d on valve clearances

At least you know they've been done though, which is not necessarily the case with some bmw dealers and indys.
Good photographic evidence of the work would be more than enough for me as a potential purchaser.

 

[Fishy Dave]

I do appreciate there are mechanically gifted individuals on the forum capable of such tasks & whilst i applaud your enthusiasm & skills unless you never plan to sell the car i don't think its a great move for the cars history :?
Jmo of course but i would be wary of a car that had been "diy"d on valve clearances

I can totally see and respect your point of view.

I have nothing against dealer servicing but quite honestly I wouldn't have been able to afford to run the cars I've owned over the years if I had to pay for others to work on them (the Caterham especially). Some may say then I probably shouldn't be owning sports cars if I can't justify main dealer servicing, but I do spend money on my cars, over service them and am confident in my abilities; worst case advice is always at the end of a phone or on a laptop.
There are many mechanics/technicians out there considerably more skilled and experienced than me, BUT they have time constraints and pressures, therefore are more likely to skip or rush jobs, whilst I am happy to take a couple of days on this, triple checking everything.

I draw the line at gearbox or full engine rebuilds and don't go near bodywork/rust but anything else I'm happy to tackle.

So far I've never had a problem re-selling any cars I've worked on, in fact on a couple of occasions I can think of the new owners have commented that it's been a bonus and they've asked/paid me to do work whilst they've watched or lent a hand. Not having full dealer history may narrow my re-sale market slightly, but these are enthusiasts cars and as they got older I suspect more and more will end up being worked on by their owners.
I've read enough cases on here of problems at main dealers and even specialists to draw into questions the reliability of their valve clearance checking, hence giving it a go myself. Definitely not having a go Mr Wilks, just explaining my reasoning for DIY.

 

[mr wilks]

I don't disagree that home done may at times be better than a so called "technician" who is under time constraints or simply not overly conscientious about his work but the provenance for these vehicles is all about the right history at the right time .
My concerns would not necessarily be for you selling or to the person you sell to as he may well approve & most likely be a forum buyer but fast forward a couple of owners looking back through the history & it soon becomes word of mouth or a list of part receipts
At this point (if not before ) the car soon becomes saddled with "incomplete " or "poor" history , its just my own thoughts & am not for a minute suggesting the work isn't being done correctly although the law of averages would say that if enough owners did the valve clearances themselves then chances are there would be fails of some description as with all respect there is a massive difference between a trained mechanic & a enthusiastic DIYer

 

[Fishy Dave]

I don't disagree that home done may at times be better than a so called "technician" who is under time constraints or simply not overly conscientious about his work but the provenance for these vehicles is all about the right history at the right time .
My concerns would not necessarily be for you selling or to the person you sell to as he may well approve & most likely be a forum buyer but fast forward a couple of owners looking back through the history & it soon becomes word of mouth or a list of part receipts
At this point (if not before ) the car soon becomes saddled with "incomplete " or "poor" history , its just my own thoughts & am not for a minute suggesting the work isn't being done correctly although the law of averages would say that if enough owners did the valve clearances themselves then chances are there would be fails of some description as with all respect there is a massive difference between a trained mechanic & a enthusiastic DIYer

I would say that there is not always that much gap between a good enthusiast that knows his/her specific model and an indifferent, but trained mechanic that works on all cars though (I do agree that there can be a big gap between a novice and a very good technician).

I agree with Tom and make sure I take photos (put on a disc when the car is sold), keep all receipts and write in the service book. This makes a difference come resale time IMO.

When I bought the Elise I experienced the opposite and although I trusted the seller I had a 6 year hole with no receipts or evidence of any work carried out very annoying and I therefore priced the car accordingly to his disappointment. I had to assume that nothing had been done and started again with service work.

Happy New Year to you all, off to drive the M to my sisters house in Wales now. Hopefully you won't see a post tomorrow with a tale of woe about where to send my engine for a rebuild. :?

 

[exdos]

Any guesses why some of the clearances were a bit tight? Slight valve seat regression? Laziness/hasty measuring at previous inspection services?

Simple. Because you've been doing the job in the cold ambient conditions.

 

[TomK]

Any guesses why some of the clearances were a bit tight? Slight valve seat regression? Laziness/hasty measuring at previous inspection services?

Simple. Because you've been doing the job in the cold ambient conditions.

This has crossed my mind, how much further contraction of the metal occurs from carrying out the job at say 0 degrees in the winter and a 'cold' engine in the summer of perhaps 10 degrees?

Does tis specify ambient temperature?

 

[MrPT]

Nice job. Gives confidence to those of us that might also start doing this at some point.

Fair point by mr wilks too. Ultimately, this is just going to come down to individual discretion and the circumstances of purchase/sale.

 

[GuidoK]

Does tis specify ambient temperature?

Should be done at room temperature, valve clearances are usually given by 20degC (TIS specifies a max coolant temp of 35degC)
There used to be a time that everybody did this to their car every 20k miles or so. On all old cars the valve clearance had to be set. I even had at one point a fiesta from the mid 90's that still had pushrods (I think they carried that engine well into this millenium).
If you do it in the freezing cold (so 20degc offset from room temp) the clearance is off by about: 20 x 0,1 x 11= 22µm or about 0,02mm
(My estimated length of the valve stem is about 10cm)
This is about half of the acceptable tolerance, so it does make a difference.

 

[TomK]

Thanks Guido, it makes sense.
How have you calculated that? I assume the metal in question makes a difference? I.e. Ali or iron

 

[srhutch]

Good on you for doing it yourself though. One observation I would make though, is that if I were doing it, I'd use a micrometer rather than vernier calipers for the shim measuring, as a vernier can give you a larger measurement on a worn shim, possibly leading to an undersize replacement shim being fitted. This is because the caliper will measure the thickest parts of a used shim, normally the edges, and a micrometer used in the middle of a worn shim will take into account the wear.

Mike

Whilst a mic is more accurate than a very near, you would always need to check the shims after replacing with feelers anyway. Also the accuracy of the shims isn't that tight so the difference between a mic and very near are not even worth talking about as its only down to 0.01mm

Shims are Inspection 1 and 2.

 

[srhutch]

I do appreciate there are mechanically gifted individuals on the forum capable of such tasks & whilst i applaud your enthusiasm & skills unless you never plan to sell the car i don't think its a great move for the cars history :?
Jmo of course but i would be wary of a car that had been "diy"d on valve clearances

I think more and more will DIY. And there will come a time where I will. I have two more oil services so will be 2021 until I'm due an Inspection 1. By this time my car will be 16 years old. I would say we will be into real enthusiast territory by then, so I would have though a well documented service history (including pictures and videos) by the owner has to be worth as much as a stamp in a book, which doesn't mean shim's were actually checked.

As above though anything major, like work on the vanos etc I would trust to an indi or specialist, but normal servicing shouldn't be an issue.

As I've also said before, nobody queires work done by the owner such as changing the brakes, and what more critical safety point if there on a car?

 

[VRSteve]

I do appreciate there are mechanically gifted individuals on the forum capable of such tasks & whilst i applaud your enthusiasm & skills unless you never plan to sell the car i don't think its a great move for the cars history :?
Jmo of course but i would be wary of a car that had been "diy"d on valve clearances

I think more and more will DIY. And there will come a time where I will. I have two more oil services so will be 2021 until I'm due an Inspection 1. By this time my car will be 16 years old. I would say we will be into real enthusiast territory by then, so I would have though a well documented service history (including pictures and videos) by the owner has to be worth as much as a stamp in a book, which doesn't mean shim's were actually checked.

As above though anything major, like work on the vanos etc I would trust to an indi or specialist, but normal servicing shouldn't be an issue.

As I've also said before, nobody queires work done by the owner such as changing the brakes, and what more critical safety point if there on a car?

Totally agree with you.

Valve clearances aren't a simple job, but they aren't that difficult either. I should probably add I've not done them on an S54, but I have done them many times on many other engines, and I wouldn't be afraid to have a go on my M.

As far as service history goes, I have a stamped up book for my car, and I have the invoices for every bit of work I've had done, or every part I've bought and fitted myself, and believe me, the collection of parts invoices has grown considerably since I've had the car!! If that's not good enough for the next potential owner then they are welcome not to buy it.

Mr Wilks you are wary of ANY car that has ANYTHING other than a gold plated service history and its a shame that you're so hung up on these things. I have to ask, is the issue that he genuinely believes that the cars should only be touched by someone in a set of overalls who works in a garage (I have two sets of overalls and I work on my car in my garage), or is it because he can't do the work himself and so believes the rest of us aren't able to do it correctly either??? Obviously I'm happy to be given a 3rd/correct reason!!

 

[srhutch]

I do appreciate there are mechanically gifted individuals on the forum capable of such tasks & whilst i applaud your enthusiasm & skills unless you never plan to sell the car i don't think its a great move for the cars history :?
Jmo of course but i would be wary of a car that had been "diy"d on valve clearances

I think more and more will DIY. And there will come a time where I will. I have two more oil services so will be 2021 until I'm due an Inspection 1. By this time my car will be 16 years old. I would say we will be into real enthusiast territory by then, so I would have though a well documented service history (including pictures and videos) by the owner has to be worth as much as a stamp in a book, which doesn't mean shim's were actually checked.

As above though anything major, like work on the vanos etc I would trust to an indi or specialist, but normal servicing shouldn't be an issue.

As I've also said before, nobody queires work done by the owner such as changing the brakes, and what more critical safety point if there on a car?

Totally agree with you.

Valve clearances aren't a simple job, but they aren't that difficult either. I should probably add I've not done them on an S54, but I have done them many times on many other engines, and I wouldn't be afraid to have a go on my M.

As far as service history goes, I have a stamped up book for my car, and I have the invoices for every bit of work I've had done, or every part I've bought and fitted myself, and believe me, the collection of parts invoices has grown considerably since I've had the car!! If that's not good enough for the next potential owner then they are welcome not to buy it.

Mr Wilks you are wary of ANY car that has ANYTHING other than a gold plated service history and its a shame that you're so hung up on these things. I have to ask, is the issue that he genuinely believes that the cars should only be touched by someone in a set of overalls who works in a garage (I have two sets of overalls and I work on my car in my garage), or is it because he can't do the work himself and so believes the rest of us aren't able to do it correctly either??? Obviously I'm happy to be given a 3rd/correct reason!!

To be fair to Mr. W. he has bought cars with out service history I believe. I also understand what he is saying re the service history of an ///M. There will be a number of people who won't want to touch if it hasn't got stamped FSH. We still get fsome on here wanting full BMW FSH which is even harder to find and means nothing in my eyes, except the owner has more money than sense.

Fishy Dave so far seems to be the first on here to go down this route, but I don't think he will be the last. I haven't included beedub in that statement. Although I know he has checked hi shims, his car is far from standard to begin with.

I'm sure a very high %age of all the classic cars running around are maintained by the owners now at no detriment to value and I'm sure these will go the same way.

 

[VRSteve]

I think more and more will DIY. And there will come a time where I will. I have two more oil services so will be 2021 until I'm due an Inspection 1. By this time my car will be 16 years old. I would say we will be into real enthusiast territory by then, so I would have though a well documented service history (including pictures and videos) by the owner has to be worth as much as a stamp in a book, which doesn't mean shim's were actually checked.

As above though anything major, like work on the vanos etc I would trust to an indi or specialist, but normal servicing shouldn't be an issue.

As I've also said before, nobody queires work done by the owner such as changing the brakes, and what more critical safety point if there on a car?

Totally agree with you.

Valve clearances aren't a simple job, but they aren't that difficult either. I should probably add I've not done them on an S54, but I have done them many times on many other engines, and I wouldn't be afraid to have a go on my M.

As far as service history goes, I have a stamped up book for my car, and I have the invoices for every bit of work I've had done, or every part I've bought and fitted myself, and believe me, the collection of parts invoices has grown considerably since I've had the car!! If that's not good enough for the next potential owner then they are welcome not to buy it.

Mr Wilks you are wary of ANY car that has ANYTHING other than a gold plated service history and its a shame that you're so hung up on these things. I have to ask, is the issue that he genuinely believes that the cars should only be touched by someone in a set of overalls who works in a garage (I have two sets of overalls and I work on my car in my garage), or is it because he can't do the work himself and so believes the rest of us aren't able to do it correctly either??? Obviously I'm happy to be given a 3rd/correct reason!!

To be fair to Mr. W. he has bought cars with out service history I believe. I also understand what he is saying re the service history of an ///M. Fishy Dave so far seems to be the first on here to go down this route, but I don't think he will be the last. I haven't included beedub in that statement. Although I know he has checked hi shims, his car is far from standard to begin with.

I do understand what he's saying, but the approach will not only put off keen home mechanics, but new owners looking for cars will see his comments and potentially be put off perfectly good cars. Its not helpful!!

We all know that the S54 is perfectly capable of crapping itself, regardless of how meticulously its been maintained, and so the emphasis Mr Wilks continuously puts on these things isn't as important as he makes out, although I do agree it is important. I wouldn't be buying a car that didn't have some kind of sensible history. A home maintained car, with documentary evidence is nothing to be wary of.

 

[GuidoK]

Thanks Guido, it makes sense.
How have you calculated that? I assume the metal in question makes a difference? I.e. Ali or iron

Simple thermal expansion coefficient.
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coefficient_of_thermal_expansion

For inconel or titanium valves the values are slightly different, as for different steel alloys, but within this small temp range and rounding things off to 1/100mm it doesnt vary that much (just as valve length).
I actually took the expansion coefficient difference between aluminium (head) and steel.

But based on this you cant prognose things like valve seat wear/recession. First of all because that thermal expansion coefficient isnt linear (and temp range is very big) but secondly things like that should always be diagnosed on a hot engine. The way an engine runs cold isnt that important in this matter. The running of the hot engine is what counts (so you measure valve problems with a hot engine and a compression tester/leakdown tester)

The nice thing about having to set valve clearances is that the valve cover gaskets also gets periodically changed :roll: