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Ben, have you tried a brand new actuator from Mazda, or just continued to put used ones in it?
As I understand it, inside the actuator there is a spring-loaded pin which locks the actuator in place at start-up. Oil pressure then builds, fills the actuator, and un-locks the actuator once it's got enough oil pressure to operate. My assumption is that the pin is not locking the actuator, which means it's free to flop around until oil pressure builds up.
Acamas has this issue, I've had two used actuators in it so far. I've never had this issue with any other VVT motor (and I've been through a few). I currently have a brand new actuator on the shelf for it but I haven't gotten around to swapping it.
I haven't, those are many dollars and it's not my car. It's a friend of mine, and once i spent some of my own money to make sure that nothing i did caused the problem, the burden of fixing it went to him, and i think he's made peace with the fact that it's just going to do that.
I find it odd that I've never had the problem with any other actuator, except for the two actuators I've put in this car. That's too much of a coincidence for me.
I find it odd that I've never had the problem with any other actuator, except for the two actuators I've put in this car. That's too much of a coincidence for me.
That's what i don't get, and also why i did the entire seal/oring/washer service kit just to cover my bases. We've had 3 actuators in this thing now that all do it. Maybe i'm misdiagnosing it, but it's way too high in the motor to be oil pump or anything. It's definitely cylinder head area, definitely front half, and definitely intake side.
The only parallel i can draw from experiences with other motors is that some years (early) KLs had some weird wave washer on the back intake (i think) cam, to help align the friction gears. Turns out it's really not necessary, it was replaced with a solid unit in later runs, but the early ones wear out, lose tension, and then rattle and sound shitty. Doesn't cause problems, just noise. Kindof sounds like this, but doesn't go away. (And the VVT noise is louder, slightly more rattle-y) Example here:
I ran into this problem when I replaced my timing belt last year. I was getting a nice rattle at startup for just a few seconds. I remembered that I also had to install my spare valve cover when reassembling everything (including the oil control valve/solenoid that was already installed on it).
Doing some quick troubleshooting I started by swapping out the oil control valve with the one from my original valve cover. Turns out this was causing the rattle. I'm guessing that the seals in the valve may have dried out or slightly deteriorated while mounted to my spare valve cover that sat unused for a couple years.
Swapped my oil control valve last night before going home. No rattle on startup last night. It did rattle briefly this morning, but it didn't rattle 3hrs later when I went to lunch. Not conclusive yet, but potentially promising.
Swapped my oil control valve last night before going home. No rattle on startup last night. It did rattle briefly this morning, but it didn't rattle 3hrs later when I went to lunch. Not conclusive yet, but potentially promising.
did this solve it for you?
Last edited by The Australian; Jun 7, 2018 at 04:28 PM.
Reason: Spelling
Hey Ben, had you posted any audio for this issue? I checked the thread and didn't see anything, but wanted to make sure since I'm on mobile and it's easy to miss things.
Time to add a bmw vanos accumulator. There should be some sort of anti-drain back on the system, can’t think of where it is though. Is Everyone that has the issue on the same ecu?
Don't know, the trans shat the bed literally the next day. I'll know when I fire it up next week to move it from its current resting place.
Car has been in storage since the trans blew up in April. Fired it up for the first time in two months yesterday to move it out of storage. No rattle. Very good sign.
My camshaft seals are leaking a bit, car seems to surge from 4K rpm and I've been getting P0012 ( "A" Camshaft Position - Timing Over-Retarded), which my research pointed to either dirty oil or VVT issue. I plan on doing oil change, cam seals, valve cover gasket, sparks and a few other items on NB2 soon and wanted to make sure I don't undo the wrong bolts and find myself is a similar predicament. Can anyone confirm which bolts I need NOT touch in order to keep actuator in one piece and not cause this headache?
I take it I need to remove the 3 Torx to expose the camshaft bolt, but NOT touch those 4 bolts around the main bolt holding it to the cam itself? Just unto the main one in the center and remove actuator as a single item?
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