So all this talk about vanos’s failing

So all this talk about vanos's failing i was wondering just how many fail with full BMW service history?

Does it depend on the miles?  or how old the car is?

Or how the owners/previous owners drive them and look after them?

Funny that, how it's a specialist UK thing and not world wide, they'll do anything to relieve you of your hard earned cash here in the UK.

My E30 M3 has 100k on it and no noise from the chain uses no oil on a long or short run and still goes like stink. Just shows how wrong these specialist can be with these cars!

Absolute agreement with the above.

Most common vanos failure point is the bolts that hold the unit to the head which can cause oil leaks and eventual failure. This should have been corrected for free on any car that has seen the dealer network in the last 5 years.

The noise is actually caused by (very minor) wear in the gears which is something that doesn't really affect the performance. Internal leaks in the vanos unit are the ones to worry about and these are rare. Almost all the M cars that BMW have produced have loud powerplants!

BMW warranty covers noisy vanos units so by all means replace it if you can but don't get carried away worrying about it if you aren't covered. Given that the warranty costs somewhere between £500-£750 every year I would question the value of it anyway...