Help! Screeching from Engine Bay

[MetzgerMeister]

Hi all

So today I replaced my valve cover for a brand new BMW one. Everything was fine until I started it up and got this noise

https://youtube.com/shorts/YLKuhDEpG...b5dg43WWJALOnn

Can anyone tell me what the hell this is? Hardly pcv since its brand new??

[MetzgerMeister]

I think all is ok. I loosened all the valve cover bolts and retorqued them. Think I may have accidentally over torqued them originally which obviously put excess force on the cover and maybe restricted the pcv system. Just a guess but it seems fine now.

[1heckinboi]

I have this same noise but it's so infrequent I've not been able to trace it down, though I haven't done my valve cover yet

[MetzgerMeister]

Still have it a bit, not as bad or frequent as first time. I didn’t retorque the bolts at the back of the engine so will do it soon and hoping that solves it. I don’t see any other reason for it

[1heckinboi]

Originally Posted by MetzgerMeister

Still have it a bit, not as bad or frequent as first time. I didn’t retorque the bolts at the back of the engine so will do it soon and hoping that solves it. I don’t see any other reason for it

At first I thought it was my belts/tensioners, I went ahead and changed them all out and it still came back the same. Right now I just kinda have to drive and hope I'm able to pull over and catch it because I can't get it to come up consistently

[MetzgerMeister]

I've a feeling your issue is that the PCV valve has failed whereas mine is a different kettle of melted horses.

[N1rve]

If this noise was consistent up until around 25-30 MPH, I would say it's a PCV failure. This is literally what it sounds like but constant lol.

[1heckinboi]

Originally Posted by MetzgerMeister

I've a feeling your issue is that the PCV valve has failed whereas mine is a different kettle of melted horses.

You may be right, full disclosure though I already know my valve cover is on it's way out the door. It was making that really loud kettle sound before and stopping every time I opened the cap, I did the little PCV fix and it went away.

I can definitely say your sound is the same as mine, and it certainly isn't the same kettle sound I had prior to the fix. The only thing I noticed that is consistent is anytime I have the car outside and it's cold/wet out, the sound will come after some driving one time and never again until I let it sit for hours

[MetzgerMeister]

Originally I got the noise constantly. After retorquing the bolts bar 3 it's very intermittent and has no pattern but is still there after a drive.

I'm planning on doing all the bolts this weekend and will report with my findings. It's too coincidental that it improved a lot so I'm hoping that by redoing all the bolts it will solve the issue.

N1rve - I had the failed PCV a while ago and this noise is coming from a brand new BMW valve cover. I replaced just the gasket on my previous one and all bolts were torqued correctly and I had no issue. When installing this new VC I was under time constraints and fighting the rain (Ireland) so I did exactly what I shouldn't have done which is rushed it.

[1heckinboi]

MetzgerMeister Did you reuse the crankcase vent hose or get a new one? This part

[MetzgerMeister]

1heckinboi - I reused the hose as I bought a new one over a year ago when I did the VC gasket as I thought it would be ok given that it's new enough.

Yesterday I did a full loosen and retorque of all 26 bolts but the noise is still there. I googled the issue last night and found the thread on here by user named Tangent and I now have a new hose ordered. The likelihood of this issue being a bad valve cover is much lower than it being the hose issue.

Talk about an utter waste of time retorquing the bolts twice! The good thing about this is that I can now do a full valve cover replacement in 3.5 hours as opposed to the first time I did it which was 6 hours.

[1heckinboi]

Hopefully that's the issue we are both having, I ordered the valve cover and hose just waiting on them to ship so it'll be little bit before I change them out. I also ordered a new gasket flange for the actuator, mine had a little bit of residue built up

[MetzgerMeister]

To be quite honest, I'm not brimming with confidence that a new vent hose is going to cure my issue. I inspected the one I have and it doesn't seem to be damaged at all. It feels to me like the PCV on the new cover is blocked somehow, like as if they put a protective cover on it from the factory and never told anyone therefore it wasn't removed before installation.

As far as I know, the cover comes in a bubble wrap bag in a box and that's it. I'm almost at my wit's end with this. Thankfully I held onto the old cover in case it needs to go back on.

[1heckinboi]

I actually got my VC a lot sooner than expected, was able to put it on along with that hose and flange gasket. I have only took it out for about a 30 minute drive and didn't get the sound to come up. However the weather right now is a bit warmer and dry compared to when I usually get it.

Gonna drive it the rest of the week and see how it works out

On a side note my old valve cover was not leaking oil anywhere and had no visible cracks, the vent hose I cut off the sleeve and about right in the center there was a very small wet spot of that gunk. I couldn't actually see any damage so most likely it was a pin hole or a crack is along the rib. Lastly already known but my flange gasket was leaking a little bit but I believe that wouldn't contribute to the noise

[MetzgerMeister]

But if an update - I didn’t do anything to the engine, not even replace the hose. The noise is gone completely therefore the S55 is self healing 🤣

[1heckinboi]

Had 2 days where the weather was the same as when I had the sound occur and didn't have it come back up. Might be a little early to say but looks like it's resolved