M62 Vanos Continuity Question

'03 540i. Doing the cam/Vanos timing. Continuity on all three pins on the 5-8 side, but only on ONE of three on the 1-4 side. Doesn't seem okay to me; but I can't find any info in any of my searches to confirm.

I DO get continuity when I contact the Vanos "cylinder" and just about any other areas I touch. Just not on two pins.

Second question: Should I hear any sound when turning the Vanos to hard right? I hear the sound of air being pressed out with some oil.

I'm at a dead stop with this project until I can get confirmation about this issue and about whether I'm okay as I am or whether I need to now deal with Vanos seals.

Thoughts?

--Peter

A bit late..........but yeah, sounds odd.

It's unclear if you are replacing the vanos units or just retiming the old ones? It's a pity you didn't try the continuity test on the units before the retime job. Of course you would expect it to be ok anyway.

I only checked on one pin on each unit when I replaced the units on my 2000 E38 740i. Never thought to try the other pins. So, I'd think getting continuity on at least one pin, which shows the unit is at full left stop, should suffice.

The air and oil sound seems right as, don't forget, when the engine is running these units will be full of oil. No engine running = no oil pressure = almost empty vanos units + air.

Although in theory, the one-way oil check valves behind the vanos solenoids, are supposed to keep the vanos units full of oil for the next engine start, to avoid any start up rattle, thus protecting the helical gears within the units...........in theory! Good idea but, after around 100,000 miles on an M62TU V8, I'd like to see what the German engineer/designer has to say for himself!

Further reading if you're interested:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/37971059/M62TU-Engine

The vanos units are the originals, but their seals were replaced with the Beisan test units. The vanos check valves and gaskets were also replaced.

I did ALL standard timing-procedure things, and that includes checking for continuity on all three pins of each vanos unit. No matter how many times I turned the problematic unit right, then back hard left, I couldn't get continuity. So I set it hard left and went with the retime. I don't think that's the issue here.