Sporah

Hello all!
I'm desperate for some help here... I have a 2010 535i xdrive with the N54.
Yesterday, I put 10 hours into changing out the valve cover for a new one. I started by disconnecting the negative battery terminal. The middle gasket was leaking oil into my spark plugs and dripping down to my exhaust, where it burned up. I took the spark plugs out and let the minimal amount of oil drip down into the cylinders where it could be burnt off. I watched a DIY and followed everything step by step, thought everything would be perfect now.
Today, I turned the car over after pressurizing the fuel, and I have engine malfunction, reduced power!....

I immediately went to scan my codes, and here is what came up:

P0174 System Too Lean (Bank 2) [comes up twice on scanner]
P054B Cold Star "B" camshaft position timing over-retarded bank 1 [comes up twice on scanner]
P0301 Cylinder 1 misfire detected [comes up twice on scanner]
P0305 Cylinder 5 misfire detected [comes up twice on scanner]
P0304 Cylinder 4 misfire detected [comes up twice on scanner]
P0306 Cylinder 6 misfire detected
P0300 Random misfire detected

Does anyone have any idea as to what is going on? I did this job myself to try to save $900 in labor, would love to resolve this issue without having to pay $150 to get it diagnosed by a shop!
Thank you all for your time

kd7iwp

First of all, good job on doing this yourself, not only did you save $, but I believe you learned and know more about your car. First I would clear codes, disconnect the battery for a few minutes and try again. It also may not hurt to reset adaptations if you know how to do that in INPA/ISTA. When you reset them the car can act really strange the first few starts. I’ve had my throttle pedal not be responsive and rpm’s keep jumping for a few starts.

Also, when the car detects misfires it may deactivate those cylinders. I just had the valve cover and intake manifold off of my E46 last week and when I restarted it you could tell it wasn’t running on a cylinder or two. I believe the car had shut them off because I restarted and it ran perfectly. If you had oil in cylinders plus air in fuel lines it won’t start up nicely for first few moments and may be enough to turn off some cylinders.

Sporah

Thanks! I'm glad that I did this job myself.
I will try to clear the codes. I rented an OBD scanner at AutoZone yesterday so I'll have to try and figure out how to do that.
I'm not sure what you mean by resetting adaptations, could you expand on that?
Also, I've read online that it could be the VANOS solenoids getting clogged up or going bad. Seems to be something that happens around my milage. I just don't see how they could go bad as soon as I did the valve cover.

kd7iwp

Your car adapts itself over time to adjust for things like air leaks and things that get dirty. For example, if you regularly had a vacuum leak (on a naturally aspirated motor) that was minor the O2 sensor would detect that you're regularly running lean and would compensate for it by increasing fueling. This learned behavior is forgotten when you reset adaptations. Usually I will reset them when I replace parts so that it can evaluate the new components. I personally would doubt the VANOS causing a problem, especially that suddenly. We know the car would have had a somewhat rough start because it would have had to deal with air in the fuel lines and a bit of oil in the cylinders so I want to see codes erased and see it run again to see what, if anything, clears up as those codes you saw could potentially be misleading.

You said it went into limp mode (message about reduced power), did it run okay other than that? Was it running rough? Did you drive it at all?

dingolfing

Sounds like you have a vacuum leak (possibly from the valve cover gasket), allowing unmetered air to enter the system and cause all the misfires and running lean. I would double check the entire perimeter of the gasket (visually and by feel on the hard-to-see backsides) and either pull off the valve cover and reinstall again. The corners like to bunch up and not seat properly if you're not careful when installing onto the head.

Sporah

Right after I finished installing the new valve cover I started it and it was in limp mode + xdrive was malfunctioning. I found that particularly odd because we hadn't messed with anything to do with xdrive. Next day, turned the car over and xdrive was functioning normally, but it was still in reduced power and idle was rough and choppy. Drove a total of 30 minutes in limp mode.

Going to try and clear the codes now.

Sporah

I'll make sure to give the gasket another look. I inspected it once before tightening the et10s which I did in a specific order.

Sporah

just reset the codes and started up again. I’m still in limp mode and still have a misfire. Idle was very rough.
also, I still have the code P054B ColdStart “B” Camshaft position timing over-retarded bank 1

I'm considering taking it to my go to shop to get it diagnosed at this point ..

seanjordan20

Get some brake cleaner and spray around the VC and whatever else dealing with vacuum was removed to see if it runs better. If it does you've found your issue

zoom750

Did you remember to plug the two solenoids back in? The ones above the exhaust manifold heat shield, near the expansion tank? I missed those when
I replaced the gasket, and the engine ran rough.