Thanks Buddy - makes sense. I'll have to go back to square one it seems

 

UPDATE

Ended up taking it to the local dealer, they are super nice there.
They tested the pressure and even removed the oil pan to look up and into the area where the seals are located. They were able to visually confirm that I have the problem everyone else is having in this thread. Low pressure as well.

Quoted me $1100 total to repair, lower than i've seen here so not complaining. Should be good as new tomorrow afternoon, if not he said possibly monday.

thanks all

 

Well, of course that is both good and bad news at the same time.

I agree their quote is extraordinarily reasonable. I would really like to see a copy of the repair invoice after they are through to see what parts they used in the repair. Any chance you could post it?

With a price that low, it seems like they aren't replacing the entire rear timing cover, nor the cam covers. I'm not suggesting that that would be bad or anything, in fact that is the way I would do it if I had to pay it out of pocket. By simply replacing the 2 gaskets alone, as well as the 3 seals on each of the cam covers, the problem gets solved, the parts costs go way down, as well as the labor costs to do all the extra work that would have been needed to remove the whole rear timing cover. In the past, most dealerships have only been willing to do the job strictly by the factory specified procedure (which is actually quite wasteful). Perhaps this means they are learning this and have modified the process accordingly. Good luck willdogs, and happy returns to full oil pressure!

 

Yeah will definitely post up once all is done.

Side note, just for the hell of it I decided to swap out the plugs and clean my TB's just to see if it made a difference, it actually made it worse! No clue how! My idle went from being weird once in a while, to being weird 100% of the time.
I'm confident that the TB cleaning wasn't the cause cause I was SUPER careful to follow instructions to a T on here to avoid issues. I never opened any flaps, made sure the battery was disconnected and discharged prior to cleaning, and only lightly sprayed and wiped the TB's carefully. I even got new TB Robber gaskets to ensure a good seal since the original red ones are over 9 years old at this point.

Oh well, long story short, I wasted my time but I was hopeful it would help, lesson learned. Needed new plugs and a TB cleaning anyway so maybe it wasn't such a waste of time?

On the price, he said "We have to replace the cover around your timing chain and it's about 4 hours labor to do it". So based off that, it seems they are replacing the whole cover, but perhaps the tech doing it is pretty quick about it? I've seen 8-12 hour labor quoted in this thread.

I did explain to him to please keep costs down if he can since I have a baby on the way (true) so maybe he really is trying to keep it low for me to help out??

Who knows.

EDIT: I got a 2016 QX60 as a loaner, the wife is in love with it, so am I. Way past what we can afford though I found one thing interesting, my 2007 G35x has almost all of the same tech that this 2016 model has. Except for the heated steering and 360 camera it's nearly the same. I'd argue that with my MFS headlights and auto cruise control that I may have the edge with my 9 year old car LOL. Made me realize that maybe my car isn't so "Old" after all.

 

Will, did you perform the idle relearn procedure (successfully)? If you didn't, that's most likely what's wrong. I don't see how the plugs could be causing it, unless the gaps were way off. If there was a film buildup in the TBs, the ecu had adjusted itself incrementally over time to accommodate the added restriction. When you clean it off, suddenly the restriction isn't there anymore and thus the calibration is off. Of course the other possibility is a small vacuum leak.

If the dealership is replacing the whole rear timing cover, then they are doing you a solid by giving you that pricing on the labor. It could be that they are ignoring the book rate and just charging actual time. Maybe because they have done SO MANY of them, they have gotten extremely efficient at it. That's still awfully quick though; there a LOT of stuff that has to come off, plus all the cleanup of the old sealant for the cover.

 

I performed the Idle re-learn about 107 times lol. Or close to it. It is burned into my brain!

As far as the plugs, I have slight OCD and checked the gap on each plug about 5 times to make sure all 6 were exactly at 0.44

Anyhoo - I just want my car back and it's not over. I need to get 4 new tires before the snow gets here as well as other small things to replace. Oh yea left CV joint is blown open, have a replacement rebuilt one waiting to go in, but not doing that at the dealer. Doing it at a local shop to save some $$.

I just keep repeating in my head that these costs outweigh getting a new car with a new Loan over and over Having a paid off car ROCKS (until shyt starts breaking)

 

Am I reading this correctly?

http://www.infinitipartsdeal.com/par...agram=135_B001

Looks like parts wise they are replaceing everything in diagram # 13035+A Part# 13500-JK20B ?

If so only $210 in parts? Could have sworn the parts for this job were closer to $1000. If it's only $210 in parts then the labor rate makes sense for $1100 total for the job.

 

They do.
Just add up a years worth of car payment and you'll quickly see that it far exceeds even a couple thousand in repairs. All cars of a certain age go through this stage were the repairs seem to pile up, but unless you have a particular lemon (you don't), then you will quickly get ahead of the maintenance issues, and then the cost average become overwhelmingly in your favor.

The truth often is that, even though the numbers fall in your favor, the annoyance of having to deal with stuff wearing out reaches the point where people start to say "AH, TO HELL WITH IT. I'M SICK OF THIS. I NEED A NEW CAR!" And then the whole cycle starts over.

 

LOL believe me I was close last week!

 

I've got to go make dinner, but I will look up on my old invoice what the parts costs (2 years ago) were afterwards.

EDIT: OK, I'm back. SO... I looked at my repair invoice and it has no pricing on it, since it was done under warranty. It did list the part number that supersedes the part you listed though: 13500-JK24B. It also listed the 2 valve timing (cam) covers 13040-JK22B and 13040-JK28B, but that's just because the factory didn't list the replacement seals (3 each) for them for reassembly (discussed back in posts #191 and #193), so they just swap the whole freakin part (at 400-500 ea.) !!! It is perfectly fine if they don't change them out, but make sure they do replace those 3 seals on each one!

 

UPDATE
Welp I got the car back and $1300 later (Including Oil change and tax) it's good to go.

Unfortunately the issue was NOT what I thought it was, seems my issue was just a faulty sprocket cover and sensor? I'm both happy and sad. I'm glad the car is good again but upset because now I feel like I have a ticking time bomb still with those galley seals still being original.

They assured me my oil pressure is good, but next year who knows?

Anyway I attached some photos below of the part replaced along with that BLUE sensor and a photo of her all buttoned up and engine detailed after I got her back.

Also take a look at the last sheet, looks like they re-flashed my ECU? Why would they re flash? I looked up the part numbers and they come back to G35 ECU but different part numbers after re-flash?

 

Will, sorry for the delayed response on this, it's been a busy weekend (I just bought a new car to replace my G; know anyone who's looking for an '07 6MT ).

Anyway, I agree with your sentiment of good and bad there. I kinda sensed that something was different about the repair work based on that original estimate. It makes sense that it was one of the VTC (cam) covers, since they will totally mess your timing up if they fail. They are what actually varies the cam timing by internally controlling (varying) the hydraulic oil pressure. When an oil gallery gaskets fails, the cam covers will not receive enough oil pressure to function properly (hence the commonality in error codes), but those cam cover can fail all by themselves too, even when provided adequate oil pressure at their input.

What is sad though (besides the whole lingering doubt about the remaining oil gallery gaskets) is that they charged so much labor for them. They must have gone strictly off book rate, as they are not normally a lengthy procedure to replace at all.

Perhaps what happened is that they ran into difficulty and started racking up time doing the whole ecu recalibration/relearn (which is required procedure after that repair), and ultimately needed to upgrade the ECU (yes, a software update alone can change the part number) to get it work properly. There has always been a glitch with the ECUs in these cars in that regard, so maybe the factory has finally developed a whole new set of code to fix that, and which was distinct enough to warrant a new part number instead of just a revision appendage.

All in all, it's good you're back on the road for a less-than-worst-case price tag for curing these error codes. I guess all you can do is just focus on that (positive) and cross your fingers that your car will never be one of the ones to blow those gallery gaskets.

.02

 

No worries on the delay at all! What car did you get?

Yea the labor stinks but expected when going to the dealer I guess. The ECU update sucks only because I feel like the car is not as "peppy" as it was before I took it in. I'm hoping that it just has to learn my driving habits again.

 

Since I'll never own another BMW, I decide to pick up a little "rental car" from down under:


They are 20% off right now, so I couldn't pass it up.

 

This is one of my biggest worries about my 2007 G35S Sedan I just got 2 months ago,what's the mileage of this issue that occurs?And when it happens can you still drive the car(make a home safe without damaging anything) or you just stuck whenever happens?And also can this said plate gasket can be replace just by removing front cover and not remove the timing chains and tensioners?