Vanos Supply Line Failure - Big Oil Leak

[aarsavage]

Had this fail on me yesterday, coated the front of the drivers side of the engine bay with oil.

Luckily it happened as I was pulling into my carpark, so despite the puddle I'm still showing lots of oil on the dipstick.

Has anyone replaced this before? Is it a pita change from the top? Any tips?

Also can anyone tell me the correct torque settings for the banjo bolts?

[youtube]s77pHXMJRWQ[/youtube]

11367837614

 

[AndyBeech]

Had this fail on me yesterday, coated the front of the drivers side of the engine bay with oil.

Luckily it happened as I was pulling into my carpark, so despite the puddle I'm still showing lots of oil on the dipstick.

Has anyone replaced this before? Is it a pita change from the top? Any tips?

Also can anyone tell me the correct torque settings for the banjo bolts?

[youtube]s77pHXMJRWQ[/youtube]

11367837614

Ouch, rare but yeah have heard of it happening. Least it didn't lose too much oil by the sounds of it.

Replace with a braided hose, much cheaper than the OE part and frankly better anyway as it won't crack. Plenty of places do them, think I got mine from Hack.

They also do a useful guide: https://www.hackengineering.co.uk/s54-vanos-oil-line-installation-guide/

Straightforward but might need to remove exhaust heatshield for a bit more space. I got mine done at a garage as it was having other bits done anyway so saved me the job, took them about 10 minutes if that from the top.

 

[aarsavage]

That guide is perfect, thanks!

A friend has sourced the part from BMW for £111, so i'm sticking with oem.

 

[GT Spec]

That guide is perfect, thanks!

A friend has sourced the part from BMW for £111, so i'm sticking with oem.

The OE part is flawed in its design hence why it is a common failure point. I'd have fitted a UK-made HEL Performance one which comes with a lifetime warranty.

 

[Simon 3.2M]

That guide is perfect, thanks!

Any link to the Hel one?

A friend has sourced the part from BMW for £111, so i'm sticking with oem.

The OE part is flawed in its design hence why it is a common failure point. I'd have fitted a UK-made HEL Performance one which comes with a lifetime warranty.

 

[bigwinn]

Ordered a hack one- they look good

Cheers for the tip Andy

 

[GT Spec]

That guide is perfect, thanks!

Any link to the Hel one?

A friend has sourced the part from BMW for £111, so i'm sticking with oem.

The OE part is flawed in its design hence why it is a common failure point. I'd have fitted a UK-made HEL Performance one which comes with a lifetime warranty.

https://auto.helperformance.com/hel-braided-vanos-oil-supply-line-for-bmw-3-series-e46-m3-s54

Hack Engineering are eyewateringly expensive

 

[AndyBeech]

Ordered a hack one- they look good

Cheers for the tip Andy

Hack or Hel, probably doesn't matter in terms of quality, I was ordering some stuff from Hack so made sense to just chuck it in at the same time. Lifetime warranty with Hack, though unlikely to need that I would hope!
I don't like their mark-ups tbh (or postage fee's) but felt I needed to pay something back after a conversation with Ben which saved my VANOS from causing a lot of damage potentially :lol:

 

[aarsavage]

Fitted this yesterday.

Hardest part was fitting the second p-clip bolt as it's pretty tight and you have to do it blind.

The bottom crush washer was stuck to the pressure accumulator so needed something sharp to pry that out.

There's room for a small ratchet for the bottom banjo bolt, but not enough room to swing a 11 inch torque wrench so I had to do it by feel.

Not too worried about the bmw part, 75k miles ain't too bad.