Xmas engine glitch?

M

MrPT

Veteran
 Bucks/Oxon
Site Supporter
Headed out into town in the Zed this afternoon and about a minute into the journey the engine started misfiring and was clearly running on less than six cyls. The yellow engine light (MIL) came on and stayed on. It stalled when idling at the next junction and then seemed to come back firing on all six when restarted, but struggled to maintain the idle position; if I kept it above 1k RPM it was fine. After limping home and restarting a couple of times it was running sweetly again.

The error code was 2A98 "Crank shaft - inlet camshaft, correlation", and had cleared by the time RAC man came round (good of them to divert a patrolman, incidentally, even though it technically wasn't a breakdown!). He cleared the code and I went for a quick spin afterwards. Absolutely fine - sounds as glorious as it did the day I bought it, in fact.

What do you think I should do now? Get it properly looked over or see how it goes for a while? It is under dealer warranty but logistically it's going to be quite difficult to get the car seen to over xmas. I'm quite willing to do a bit of DIY myself, e.g. might try swopping the Vanos solenoids over if the error pops up again to see if it also occurs on the outlet side. I immediately thought that it might be a sensor issue, but the car's just had its Inspection 2 and isn't that supposed to cover sensor health checks?

Thanks all - don't be afraid to respond, even if you're hideously pissed. :D
 
Don't meddle in case you void the warranty.

No harm in calling your dealer and logging you've had a problem, such that if it does do it again you have a record
 
Thanks - that's sound advice not to mess with it. I'm pretty eager to have a tinker, but now is obviously not the right time. I'll give the dealer a call and log the event in case the problem reoccurs.

Have picked up a bluetooth OBD2 scanner so at least I can pull the codes myself - felt a bit bad calling the RAC man out when there are obviously some people out there having a seriously sh!tty xmas eve breakdown!
 
Machine monkey said:
Mine is broke if you want to get dirty hands. I don't have any warranty........
Click to expand...

Ah, I read about that while admiring your knobs. No luck so far?
 
Not had chance to do much MrPT it being Christmas and all. And my wife has been busy at work so it's all been down to me!! Fingers crossed tomorrow. But it's at my brothers garage and I will be lolling up the sleeves on the 28th

Got a few jobs todo we think we have found the problem. But can't get the parts till new year.

Thanks or your admiration. Got a few custom jobs to look at to from them.
 
Right, time for a bump. I've had the same glitch a couple of further times since Dec '12 and I'm pretty sure now that it is a result of the Vanos system being very sensitive to oil viscosity and/or condition.

It has happened either very close to, or at the same time as my oil light coming on. I'm pretty sure that my car had no oil change for a very long time prior to me buying it (probably went off the OBD instead of the recommended time/mileage interval), which can't have helped. It's been in for an Inspection 1 recently and the technician confirmed that it is common to find oil nasties building up in the Vanos solenoids, particularly with a low oil level. He didn't seem too keen on removing and cleaning the solenoids or switching oil grade - just religious, annual oil changes with fully synthetic 5w30. Makes sense to me... I do this already (as I know lots of people on here do) but I suspect it has taken a couple of changes to fully flush everything through.

Also notice that MM still has his Zed and it is flying again. :thumbsup:
 
Having just replaced a VANOS solenoid it's not that difficult a job. Regarding warranty, how will they know if the solenoids have been removed and cleaned... I'd suggest doing that and perhaps an oil change. I certainly don't believe the service indicator any more and will be changing my oil at least every 8000 miles from now on.

My solenoid started playing up after an oil change so perhaps they do flush out some gunk. If a clean doesn't solve it then have them replaced.
 
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