Rebuilt Vanos - (S54) BMW - E46 M3 | CSL | Z3M | Z4M

The price shown includes nationwide fitting and a 5 year warranty.

The S54 Vanos is known for rattling, and a rebuild is a much cheaper option than new. If you're looking for an inexpensive alternative to a new E46 M3 Vanos from the dealer, our E46 M3 Vanos comes fully rebuilt with a brand new OEM BMW solenoid pack. This package is exactly the same as that sold by an official dealer, but ours is less than half the price.

The timing chain is now showing as a weak point on the S54, we have seen numerous issues with these. It is a major job to replace usually, involving cylinder head removal to gain access to the lower timing cover. We have now developed a method of replacing the chain at the same time as a vanos replacement. The main reason for the chain stretch is due to small plastic guide that breaks and does not allow the main hydraulic tensioner to function correctly. This puts more tension on the chain than it should have and therefore it stretches.

Another well known problem is down to the 12 bolts that hold the cam wheels to the cam. They are working loose and eventually snapping. There are 6 per cam and if they fail then the valvetrain of the engine would be destroyed.

The vanos oil pump drive is known to have issues, the holes from the factory were drilled out to 10.77 mm which is much larger than the size of the drive tabs at 9.65mm. We have spent a lot of time looking at a properly engineered solution. We have come up with a new design for the hole, taking into account the shape of drive itself. We feel this is the best solution on the market and provides a life long fix.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING WITH REGARDS TO HEAD GASKET FAILURE.

The E46 M3 is known for head gasket failure. This only occurs on cars pre 2004. The gasket fails between the cylinder walls and causes pinking noise under acceleration. The noise happens between 2500 and 4000 rpm when the car is under load and can be heard within the car. Vanos failure or symptoms do not cause this noise. There is no coolant or oil loss due to the way the gasket fails, at worst you will notice a misfire lowdown in the rpm and a strange 'off beat' engine note from the exhaust.

Please explain if you have any of the above signs when making a booking. We can only carry out head gasket replacement within our workshop.

All our S54 vanos work comes with 5 years parts warranty.

Common Problems:

2000 - 2006 E46 M3 (S54) Vanos Unit

• Diesel noise / rattling on start-up or when warm
• Oil pump tab failure due
• Vanos Gear ‘Growling’
• Solenoid / Seals Failure
• Snapped Vanos pistons
• Snapped spline gears
• Pinking under load is sign of head gasket failure