2011 n55 335i valvetronic motor

8900120d

Lurker
Apr 5, 2018
22
1
0
Ride
335i
Hi guys, i have an e92 n55 2011 dct, the battery was dead on my car for over a month as i was out of the country.
yesterday i started it up for the first time in a few months, she started on first crank and everything seemed fine!
however today i started it up again but this time it took a long crank, and stalled immediately after starting up, i also noticed a loud clicking sound coming from the engine bay which leads me to believe its the valvetronic motor. i believe my valves may be in the minimum position and the valvetronic motor isnt working which is not allowing the car to start!

is there a way to manually adjust the valves to max position without opening the PCV cover?
do you guys think my valvetronic may need to be calibrated as the battery was flat for so long? but it start up just fine yesterday which is weird.

i dont have any error codes!

Thanks!
 

Bnks334

Lieutenant
Dec 1, 2016
524
340
0
New York
Hi guys, i have an e92 n55 2011 dct, the battery was dead on my car for over a month as i was out of the country.
yesterday i started it up for the first time in a few months, she started on first crank and everything seemed fine!
however today i started it up again but this time it took a long crank, and stalled immediately after starting up, i also noticed a loud clicking sound coming from the engine bay which leads me to believe its the valvetronic motor. i believe my valves may be in the minimum position and the valvetronic motor isn't working which is not allowing the car to start!

is there a way to manually adjust the valves to max position without opening the PCV cover?
do you guys think my valvetronic may need to be calibrated as the battery was flat for so long? but it start up just fine yesterday which is weird.

i don't have any error codes!

Thanks!

When my Valvetronic motor went out it got stuck at minimum lift. Car wouldn't start. On the N55, It's supposed to default to max lift position when the car is off so that the car can be started.

You should really just replace the Valvetronic motor, but, there is a way to set the eccentric shaft to max lift without needing to even take the valve cover off. I uploaded a quick video here:

Read the instructions in the video description. Also, read through TIS so you fully understand what you're doing. This video was something I made quick when troubleshooting with @serhan M who showed me this trick. You need to turn the allen key at least 20x to get to max lift. The 180* resistance was due to the cogs on the gear acting against the worm drive of the actuator. The eccentric shaft was dry enough that it was not kicking back but don't risk that! Hold the allen key firm until you get to max lift.

Oh, and the most important part, do NOT plug the valvetronic motor back in... it will immediately try to tun the eccentric shaft to hit the min/max stops and will get stuck right back down at minimum lift. I think what happens is the electronic motor burns up over time and losses it's ability to rotate the eccentric shaft.

You will basically preforming these steps: https://www.newtis.info/tisv2/a/en/f3... but, you will be doing it without the valve cover needing to come off. 1) remove the actuator plug 2) remove the gasket/bracket 3) very carefully drill a hole on the driver side of the actuator between the actuator and the screw hole for the gasket 4) step the hole up in size until you can fit a 5mm (long) allen key through the hole. 5) Turn the allen key clockwise to manually turn the valvetronic motor. This will in turn rotate the eccentric shaft and position the valves in the max lift position. BE CAREFUL. The eccentric shaft basically just preloads the valve springs, so, at any time the force of the springs can spin the eccentric shaft counterclockwise causing the shaft the slam against the physical stopper for min lift and snap the shaft. Do not let go of the allen key until you have reached max lift! At the point, the shaft should stay "locked" in that resting position. 6) dab some silicone into the hole you drilled to prevent a vacuum leak. 7) start the car 8) prepare funds to go back in and do the job right!
 
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8900120d

Lurker
Apr 5, 2018
22
1
0
Ride
335i
Thanks for your help, i tried drilling a hole method and it worked! my new valvetronic motor has arrived so time to fit it on :)
 

cahme

New Member
Apr 1, 2019
1
0
0
Ride
N55 E90 MT
I'm seriously considering doing this tomorrow.

I had disconnected my battery to work on my car (unrelated) and it failed to start due to the single code 2DCE (vvt no movement detected) when I got it all back together and battery connected.

I'm a bit worried about the plastic shavings that will fall in the oil after drilling. Any thoughts on that, or is it no big deal since the filter should catch them all?