would say yes they are, the new oil seals on camshaft journals I only fit genuine bmw ones, new ones are made of a nylon material and have no gaps in them, bmw call them a retang ring, ,
below [pic of broken old type metal ones,

below pic of new type of ring and oil soaking them ,, when fitting must lag in oil i also use some engine builder grease mixed,, and when you install them must not over stretch them, ie get one end of ring in its slot then spread out and push from thayt point , fairly hard, then the last bit a plastic filler car is useful just to gentle push the rest of the ring on the camshaft,,, the inner ring you can put the ring on a angle and step past the outer slot,,, next part is important when do end caps up must lagin clean oil and engine grease i use, when first start car do not rev it until it warms up as the heat will help reshape and seal rings ,, I notice on all the ones i have done and i do every refresh gets new ones , the vanos timing will start off out of time slightly and has warms up they get better

 

Thank you very much Mike for the reply. I'll replace the Rectangrings with BMW/Mini brand. I did not notice any wear on the bearing caps where these rings ride. Polished but a fingernail would not catch on the area. I hope this will solve the issue.

John

 

bmw stopped using metal ones after they had so many head destroyed by them and started using nylon type rings ,, heat will make them contract a bit so when heats up on first start up you must not rev it just let it get hot let fan cut on and out takes a good hour plus to get it that hot , when i do them i can see on live data when they are not sealed and when they are sealed by the cr readings on vanos sprockets , like beow screen shot,

above screen shots of vanos positions prescribed and actual this was on a n14 turbo engine so single vanos, non turbo and n18 engines have exhaust vanos as well ,

 

Thanks Mike. I use a Thinktool ProS tablet or ISTA+ and unfortunately neither of these tools show me any data related to IN/EX cam specified vs actual cam positions for the N18 engine. The tools do show it for other BMW engines. The tools also don't let me perform a vanos adaptation sequence like I've seen on Youtube for N14. It only lets me clear vanos adaptations or all adaptations. It's a big pain in the *** to not see the cam specified vs actual positions in troubleshooting this. The ISTA+ does have a vanos test menu where it will set target values for the IN/EX cam and then raise RPM and adjust the solenoids to make the cams match those targets. That test in ISTA+ passes every time for my observed problem. It's driving on the highway when you take your foot off the gas pedal that the IN cam actual can't keep up with specified.

 

The ISTA+ does have a vanos test menu where it will set target values for the IN/EX cam and then raise RPM and adjust the solenoids to make the cams match those targets. That test in ISTA+ passes every time for my observed problem. It's driving on the highway when you take your foot off the gas pedal that the IN cam actual can't keep up with specified.

For the condition that causes the 2DA0 fault (coasting down highway with foot off the gas pedal) I've done this while looking at the IN/EX vanos solenoid control waveforms. I see the control signal duty cycle go full 95% (wide open) and it's not enough for the oil to move the cam to target fast enough. The spec is something like the cam angle has to hit the target within 0.3 seconds or else the fault code will happen. It's way too fast for an OBD scanner to pick up. Using an oscilloscope only shows you what's happening. There's no way to compare it to what the ECU wants to happen.

 

not all insta software is full function i have found, i have access to to a snap on Zeus at work with latest software update that will allow some function on them,, autel elite think is best tool out there at present,

 

Just want to follow up on this. The solution to my 2DA0 2C58 problem was to update the ECM software. I had Integr. level (plant): R056-14-07-500 version and I upgraded it to R056-17-03-504. On the test drive the codes came back but after clearing the vanos adaptations and continuing to drive the codes never came back again.

I'm confident with the above solution. I battled with this issue for maybe 6 months, clearing adaptations and driving continuously and the codes always came back.

The above video was taken with new victor reinz brand camshaft O-rings. I later replaced the O-rings with bmw/mini brand and I did the above spinning test before starting the engine and the intake cam appeared to leak less oil than in the above video. The codes however still continued to appear until I updated the ECM software .

 

Just to add a similar experience I have had after repairing an N18 which had snapped it's timing chain (vacuum pump).

Got both inlet and exhaust 2DA0 and 2DA2 angle offset codes after a minute of driving. Checked everything, scratched my head as it didn't make sense - car would run and boost perfectly for a couple minutes (which wouldn't be the case if the timing was out).

After reading about the SW updates I reset and re-learnt the valvtronic adaptations and also "reset" the engine control module with my Ancel tool and it did the job. No more fault codes. Might help someone...

 

Interesting thread, I'm getting a 2Da1 (exhaust camshaft sensor plausibility. Signal implausible) code after a timing chain replacement. I tried replacing the Vanos solenoids and the strange thing is that when I remove the inlet solenoid and replace it, the limp light goes off and I can drive it without it coming back on. When I start the car the next day it comes back on. Replaced the cam sensor also and code still appears. Can't figure it out. Maybe I need a software update as well.

 

the sensor is working seeing something not right with what it expects to see and dont, ie plausibility tends to be not sensor and more system not doing what it should do, low oil pressure can cause it not saying its the problem, so can faulty vanos sprocket or oil control solonoid

 

I had 4 codes before I did the work to the car, 2 were related to the blow off valve (2c90, 2c91) I replaced the diverter valve and had turbo rebuilt. The other two codes were 2c57 charging pressure control plausibility pressure to low (figured this was from one of the other codes) and 3429 engine oil pressure sensor plausibility pressure too high before engine starts. That led me to replace the oil pressure switch. I'm wondering now if the 3429 could have been something more and is now reflecting the 2da1 code. I'm also wondering if the timing is off by a small amount. The engine was making a low audible clicking or popping sound near the timing chain and then stopped when engine was warm. Hard to explain the sound, it wasn't like metallic tapping more like a hollow suction sound like popping that wasn't rhythmic if that makes sense. I thought maybe it was the sound of the new solenoids cycling through to pull oil.

 

Thank you for replying Mike. I always look forward to your input.

 

I think I have enough knowledge to replace the oil control solenoid. I do have a question, is it possible this code can be thrown by the timing being off? If so, I would prefer to start there since it's inexpensive to replace the sprocket bolts. If it really wouldn't have much to do with that and most likely an oil pressure problem then I would just start in that area. It seems like it has more to do with the oil pressure since the code goes away when removing and reinserting the inlet solenoid. I also forgot to mention that my scanner was picking up one misfire on cylinder 1 as well. And as far as the timing, all the tools lock in place where they should, not sure if the timing can still be off if they all lock in correctly?