We still haven't made any progress on this. She is still parked at my dad's shop. I've had some bad luck recently and haven't had time or money to dedicate to getting her fixed.


My questions now are, could accidentally getting the cam sprockets swapped have done permanent damage to them? Could it cause the vanos system to be off? Would it be worthwhile to get a set of new (or maybe known good, used) sprockets and swap them out?

 

Andy; I have the same two faults going on my N18 too. I have changed the Cam and Crank sensors, TIming chain, and solinoids all with no change. One thing I did notice is the vacuum pump has a lot of oil in it(3 table spoons) after 10 min of running. CAn you check your vacuum pump to see if it's full of oil?

 

I'll check as soon as I can and let you know. My car is across town at my dad's shop right now.

 

Never mind, I found out that Oil in there is OK, but you may want to inspect it to make sure it is not seizing up.
I have found one other shop that had these codes, but the customer ended up bring it to a deal to reset vanos adaptations. I use a Autologic, and unfortunatly autologic can not do this function on Mini's.

 

I suspect that I damaged the cam sprockets(the vanos portion) when I stupidly put them on the wrong cams. I'm saving up to either taking it to WMW or get another set of sprockets.

I kinda wish I could find a N18 at a pull-a-part, get the sprockets from it, at least for troubleshooting proposes.

 

Andy;

Today I had the Vanos Adaptations reset using ISTA and so far no faults. Before I would get the p1338 & p1339 in 100 feet. So make sure what ever shop you bring it to has the factory scan tool ISTA. Autologic will not reset Vanos adaptations.

Good luck.

Brad

 

Good to know, I'm glad you got yours going. I'm gonna look to see if there is any BMW/euro car shops around that might be able to do the same for me.

 

I found a place that has the computer to do it, I have an appointment with them tomorrow and they not charging me an arm and a leg. I hope it goes well.

 

No luck. Resetting the vanos adaptations didn't work for my car. From the data the computer was was displaying, the mechanic said it was the cam gears(vanos phasers) that are bad. So that means a major hit to the wallet is coming, but the mechanic didn't charge me so I guess that softens the blow a tiny bit.

There was also another mini there that had a similar issue. The owner replaced the head gasket, put it back together, but vanos was faulting out.

 

I replaced the cam gears and at first, it seemed to have solve the problem... but now I'm get P1338 and p1339 intermittently and not at the same time.

 

I checked on some things, now I'm getting P1338 immediately after starting it up.

This sucks. Looks like my mini will be parked for a long time. I can not afford to throw any more money it's way. I even got a loan from my 401k to try get it fixed, that's all gone now.

 

check the timing again.
clean and swap the Vanos solenoids front with back
check the pins on the camshaft sensor if they're bent or not. also, what happens if you leave it disconnected, do you get other codes?

 

I've cleaned, tested and swapped the vanos solenoids already. Camshaft sensors connections are good, I even swapped them out with another set. When leaving the intake cam sensor disconnect, the car will not crank. I'll check timing tomorrow, if the weather allows. It's not longer at my dad's shop. I was able to drive it across the county before it started acting up. That fact makes me think the either the cam slipped or the cam gear is bad out of the box.
​​

 

The last update:

​​​​​The day after my last post, I reset the timing which was off a bit. Everything seemed to be running smoothly. I drove it around all day with no issues. But then a quarter mile from work that night there was a large Bang from the engine bay and I lost all power. I pushed off the road and Skateboarded the rest of the way to work(yes I'm 35yo and still keep a Skateboard in my vehicle). After work, my dad and I trailered it to the shop, looked it over and determined the engine is blown.
Its gonna be tax season before I can replace it. Good thing I have a backup vehicle.

 

Just wondering if you could elaborate a bit on your comment above that you "looked it over and determined the engine is blown." I'm just wondering what you were able to look at that led you to that conclusion. I am working on the same scenario right now -- driving along, bang from the engine bay, lost all power, towed to shop.

 

We removed the valve cover and found that both exhaust valves for cylinder 1 were bent, and using an endoscope we could see part of one on the piston head. We then dropped the oil pan and found damage to crankshaft. Additionally, we noticed that the crank bolt backed out somehow, which was possibly the root cause but it was tightened to specification.

It is possible that we could rebuild it, assuming there is no damage to block, but for the cost in parts and time would take I just assume replace it. Not to mention the amount of money and blood, sweat, and tears I've already put into only to have die on me. If I didn't still owe on it, I'd part it out.

The plan is to wait until tax season, hopefully find a low mileage or remanned engine, put it in and make sure it's OK. Then trailer it to WayMotorWorks for a tune. The 22lbs of boost I was peaking at probably made things worse.