Vario Cam solenoid swap in Car

[vza]

Thanks Will do. Vince

[vza]

Well, I took a quick peek as to where the bank 2 solenoid would be. I imagine its only accessible from below? New at this adventure. V

[vza]

I finally pulled my solenoid and just connected it directly to 12v source, the piston came out about a 16th of an inch or so then started to smoke. It seemed there was engine oil inside the solenoid.(maybe that was the source of the smoke?) Any thoughts?? Thanks Vince

[Ahsai]

What is the resistance of the solenoid? Should be around ~13.5 ohm

[Keith Patterson]

Hi all, I'm joining the Variocam actuator party with my 1998 2.5 which seems to have a list of problems that just gets longer.

 

The idle has never been great since I've owned it over the last few months, but the car drove well with no smoke, just a slight rattle on start-up.

Yesterday when going up a long hill, the engine lost power and the engine light came on - still ran, but a bit rough. Managed to get it home, but fault codes indicated misfires on bank 1, and the dreaded P1340 and P1531 indicating cam timing was out on bank 1 too.

 

A quick look underneath and it was clear to see the source of the problem - the variocam actuator wiring had come away, explaining my previous C1 fuse issues as the wiring presumably grounded.

 

I'm guessing in addtion to the actuator dying, bank 1 timing is also out too, although I've still to check the timing marks to confirm this. Durametric showed a steady 24 (degrees?) out for bank 1 when a friend kindly read the codes for me.

 

Keith