New Eccentric Shaft Sensor Installed Today

I admit to reading posts that relate to this topic, but I want to share my satisfaction with the Dealership and the performance of my engine.

The sensor went bad and was leaking oil through the seal in and around the sensor. My car is 10K past the warranty (60K miles). The dealership performed the repair under a "goodwill" exception. The SA told me that the repair is normally $1800. They a lot the technician 8.5 hours of labor for this repair.

Not only was the repair free, I also have a car that runs much better at low rpm's. Now I will get to see if mpg improves. I should knock on wood. Hopefully I won't have a costly service need in the near future. My anticipation is something like brakes (my brakes are Original) or suspension will get me. I replaced a crack rear spring on my 2002 325xi.

Isn't is refreshing to hear about a positive service experience coming out of the dealership?

Can someone fill me in. What/where is the eccentric shaft sensor?

Originally Posted by DSXMachina

Can someone fill me in. What/where is the eccentric shaft sensor?

Total guess without looking at the Bentley book, but doesn't this have to do with the Valvetronic motor?

It is at the end of the Valvetronic ecentric shaft
-it is located under the valve cover
-it tells the ECU what position the shaft is in, barely rotated for idle, fully rotated for full power

If the valvetronic mechanism controls the 'throttling' of the engine just as a throttle body and butterfly would, then the eccentric shaft sensor is the equivalent to the throttle position sensor.

This sensor tells the computer how much the eccentric shaft has rotated, it gives feedback to the computer as to how much 'valve lift/throttling' the engine gets.

The valve cover is removed and the VCG is replaced when re-attaching the valve cover.

I figured it might be cam related, but how the heck do they get 8 1/2 hours replacing that? You could swap a cylinder head in that time! And the dealer comp'ed this job? Interesting.

The repair estimate of $1800 was based on 8 1/2 hrs labor I believe. The SA was willing to cut me a break and offered a repair quote of $1300 before he went and lobbied for "goodwill" repair.

The angle of my approach was to convince the dealership that this malfunction was emissions related. The emissions system has an 8yr/80,000 mile warranty. Valvetronic is not considered to be within the scope of the emissions system.

You have to agree that this seems like a rare failure.

Originally Posted by jertronic

The repair estimate of $1800 was based on 8 1/2 hrs labor I believe. The SA was willing to cut me a break and offered a repair quote of $1300 before he went and lobbied for "goodwill" repair.

The angle of my approach was to convince the dealership that this malfunction was emissions related. The emissions system has an 8yr/80,000 mile warranty. Valvetronic is not considered to be within the scope of the emissions system.

You have to agree that this seems like a rare failure.

I got hosed on goodwill assistance for this same repair. I told them your story too and was on the phone with them for the past week. Guess it varies per customer.

Originally Posted by barkles

I got hosed on goodwill assistance for this same repair. I told them your story too and was on the phone with them for the past week. Guess it varies per customer.

He bought the car brand new. Not the same.

Originally Posted by DSXMachina

I figured it might be cam related, but how the heck do they get 8 1/2 hours replacing that? You could swap a cylinder head in that time! And the dealer comp'ed this job? Interesting.

DSX, here is a good illustrated DIY

Originally Posted by CALWATERBOY

DSX, here is a good illustrated DIY

LOL, Cal, this thread is going on two years old and I've done three of these jobs now. No way in heck it takes what the OP was quoted. I think this is going to be a very common failure based on my smaller shop seeing three in a short time. Fortunately it can be done relatively easily by anyone who can pay attention to detail.
The critical thing is to correctly interpret codes and then do a proper diagnostic. Don't want to successfully change the wrong part.

Originally Posted by DSXMachina

LOL, Cal, this thread is going on two years old and I've done three of these jobs now. No way in heck it takes what the OP was quoted. I think this is going to be a very common failure based on my smaller shop seeing three in a short time. Fortunately it can be done relatively easily by anyone who can pay attention to detail.
The critical thing is to correctly interpret codes and then do a proper diagnostic. Don't want to successfully change the wrong part.

Sandbagged!

There I was, rubbin' my head, wondering as just how DSX of all people didn't know all about that job....

But noooooooooooo, blindsided by an over-active imagination and mysterious compulsion to post, I did the dirty.

I gotta read more books.

Originally Posted by jertronic

I admit to reading posts that relate to this topic, but I want to share my satisfaction with the Dealership and the performance of my engine.

The sensor went bad and was leaking oil through the seal in and around the sensor. My car is 10K past the warranty (60K miles). The dealership performed the repair under a "goodwill" exception. The SA told me that the repair is normally $1800. They a lot the technician 8.5 hours of labor for this repair.

Not only was the repair free, I also have a car that runs much better at low rpm's. Now I will get to see if mpg improves. I should knock on wood. Hopefully I won't have a costly service need in the near future. My anticipation is something like brakes (my brakes are Original) or suspension will get me. I replaced a crack rear spring on my 2002 325xi.

Isn't is refreshing to hear about a positive service experience coming out of the dealership?

What symptoms did you have? Was it just an SES light or was the engine running weird?
Let us know how the repair effects performance and fuel mileage. My engine has been behaving strangely of late and the dealer's software update did nothing.

I just had this done at the dealer- I didnt know this was the issue nor did I have any error codes. I had brought my car into the dealer for my battery cable replacement and a vehicle check- I told them I had an issue with the Car at stop lights from time to time kinda jerking on me while I held the brake pedal... So out of that statement and their own test drive they did this repair and stated in the report report that the sensor did in fact have Oil in it... My car is 2 years old with 30,000 miles on it- I wonder how often I will need to have this done...

Kudos to your dealership for being so lean forward. How often will this fail? Who knows but seeing more and more of these happening. I never knew until 6 months ago what that sensor was and how great a design to bury this requiring hours of labor.
Like the mechatronic sleeve BMW will improve this and the sensor.