Just wanted to give back after replacing my unknown condition (103,000 mile car) VANOS with a refurb from Dr. Vanos. Car is a 2005 3.0i with the M54.
-I used the "crossmember pry bar" method. This scared my a little bit before I started the repair because really, who wants to be prying against metal supports that aren't really supposed to flex that much. Overall, this was less scary than it seemed at first. I'm also not a mechanic and really, I don't have a ton of history working on cars. I did the whole repair in a driveway with basic tools. This part of the repair was less of an exercise in brute force and more of a puzzle. I tried to just crank on the crossmember with one arm and pull the VANOS out with the other hand but I quickly realized there just wasn't enough space. I spent five minutes really looking at where the VANOS was being caught and then tried again and got it out. Here's a few forum threads on this procedure: https://www.bimmerfest.com/threads/vanos-removal-on-z4.394732/
https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=124631&start=15
-the VANOS piston front covers are on there REALLY ****** TIGHT as in I could flex the cross member fine with a one arm pull but I barely got the exhaust piston cover off. Part of this is because there is SO little room to get any 8mm hex into the exhaust piston cover. I was not able to get the 8mm hex socket plus a 1/4 in drive socket in there. I had to take a 10mm combo wrench and put it just above the socket. Even leaning all 220lbs of my body against the wrench/hex combo didn't unlock it so I had to resort to hitting it with a hammer to break the seize. Also it wasn't like a tap that eventually worked, it took a solid strike that if I missed I probably would have damaged something.
-this was weird but one of the bolts that holds the left most grounding wire for the ignition coils was somehow seized. When I tried to loosed the bolt, the stud spun instead of the bolt so the grounding wires started rotating around the stud in a circle. I couldn't brute force this one off either and was afraid I was doing to break the grounding wire or something else. The solution was to hit the ratchet with a rubber mallet.
I think those were really the big issues I had. Overall, it's not a hard job. I haven't started it up yet since it's still sitting on ramps waiting for me to start a new cooling system overhaul.
-I used the "crossmember pry bar" method. This scared my a little bit before I started the repair because really, who wants to be prying against metal supports that aren't really supposed to flex that much. Overall, this was less scary than it seemed at first. I'm also not a mechanic and really, I don't have a ton of history working on cars. I did the whole repair in a driveway with basic tools. This part of the repair was less of an exercise in brute force and more of a puzzle. I tried to just crank on the crossmember with one arm and pull the VANOS out with the other hand but I quickly realized there just wasn't enough space. I spent five minutes really looking at where the VANOS was being caught and then tried again and got it out. Here's a few forum threads on this procedure: https://www.bimmerfest.com/threads/vanos-removal-on-z4.394732/
https://z4-forum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=124631&start=15
-the VANOS piston front covers are on there REALLY ****** TIGHT as in I could flex the cross member fine with a one arm pull but I barely got the exhaust piston cover off. Part of this is because there is SO little room to get any 8mm hex into the exhaust piston cover. I was not able to get the 8mm hex socket plus a 1/4 in drive socket in there. I had to take a 10mm combo wrench and put it just above the socket. Even leaning all 220lbs of my body against the wrench/hex combo didn't unlock it so I had to resort to hitting it with a hammer to break the seize. Also it wasn't like a tap that eventually worked, it took a solid strike that if I missed I probably would have damaged something.
-this was weird but one of the bolts that holds the left most grounding wire for the ignition coils was somehow seized. When I tried to loosed the bolt, the stud spun instead of the bolt so the grounding wires started rotating around the stud in a circle. I couldn't brute force this one off either and was afraid I was doing to break the grounding wire or something else. The solution was to hit the ratchet with a rubber mallet.
I think those were really the big issues I had. Overall, it's not a hard job. I haven't started it up yet since it's still sitting on ramps waiting for me to start a new cooling system overhaul.
