Well yesterday my wife was driving home from Denver The check engine light came on and had reduced power. She took it to the dealer, they found that the Valvetronic Motor was bad. There not sure when they will have her done.

The wrost thing is they didn't have another mini for us to drive so she has a Honda.

 

Just got off the phone with the dealer and They have the part instock. They want to test drive it over the weekend and we can pick it up Monday.

He said sence the Valvetronic motors cam out in 2007 he has only seen 5 go bad. He was suppriced how soon the one one in Wini went bad so soon. Hope this doesn't leed to more issues.

 

The fact that the dealer stocks the part is probably an indication that they have had to replace a lot more than 5 :-) Maybe he meant 5 '2012's :-) I beleive the same part fits both turbo and non turbo cars all the way from '07 to current, so that's a lot of cars and it's not surprising they stock the part. From what I've seen on the second gen forum, these motors generally last in excess of 100k miles, but now there are quite a few '07 and '08 cars that are getting up there in mileage.

 

the valvetronic has a motor? great, another thing to have to worry about. i figured it worked off oil pressure and rpm's. anyone else having problems with the valvetronic?

 

VANOS (variable cam timing) which this engine also has, does work off of oil pressure I believe. The Valvetronic system has a small electric motor that moves an auxiliary cam that varies valve lift to control air intake. BMW first used this in 2001 so the system should be reliable. There is also a conventional electronic throttle valve that is used at startup/warmup and in case of valvetronic problems. So the engine computer can use either (or both) systems to control air intake in response to accelerator pedal position. If we had a car with only the electronic throttle valve (like most new cars these days), and its electric motor failed, the car would not run at all.

I can see the electronic throttle at work when I start my car by observing intake manifold vacuum & boost (using a Scangauge II). After a few minutes of running the intake manifold vacuum drops significantly, indicating Valvetronic has taken over control of air intake.

 

Lots of manufacturers have started using variable valve timing in the last decade or so, in fact it might be that most 2012 model cars have it now (what do you think DR61?) My understanding is that BMW Vanos systems are now quite reliable. I do know that the 2001 to 2004 Nissan V6 engines that had VVT had problems with the actuators needing replacement every 50 to 80k miles as I had one. There was an actuator on each engine bank, and once the emissons warranty expired, a dealer would charge $250 to $300 each time one needed replacement.

 

Good to hear that there is two systems working the valvetronic so I will not be stranded on the side of the road