2008 e70 n52 engine tick after parking for the night

[|3MWx5]

I just bought a 2008 x5 3.0si with 106000kms on it. Everything ran great for the first week then it developed a rough kinda lumpy idle intermittently, no codes, little hesitant at starting at a light but not horrible. Decent fuel mileage, good power.
So I did the normal searching everywhere, did the usual go to things, check vacuum leaks, ccv, new vanos solenoids(ÜRO brand), cleaned the vanos filters, new NGK plugs, tested coils, pulled disa valve for inspection, engine oil/filter.
Nothing changed, still no codes.
Then cleaned and put old bmw vanos solenoids back in just to see if there would be any change at all, there wasn’t. I pulled it out of the shop, running totally fine other than the lumpy rough idle, and parked around the front of the house.
Then the next morning when I start it up it has a new engine tick, like a lifter tick, exhaust leak, or dead hole. No codes again. Pulled it back into the shop.
Pulled the old solenoids out put the new ÜRO solenoids back in but made no difference. Checked the coils, by unplugging one at a time. No difference.
No exhaust leaks.

I did notice a bit of oil in the eccentric shaft sensor, if this senor fails could it cause a valve/lifter like tick?

The fact that it run good when I parked it and didn’t the next time I started it has me thinking it’s an electronic sensor issue. And from I’m learning these cars are one of the most ‘sensory’ vehicles there is!
I have a hard time believeing it could be an oil pressure issue from be parked over night. No low oil pressure warnings. Oil is still in it. A mechanical issue shouldn’t arise from being parked.

I was just about to pull the trigger on over $2500 in OEM bmw parts to get another 100k out of this thing but now second guessing if it’s worth putting any money in it.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.


Thank you!
Travis

[DialedIn]

The N52 engines are well known for having a very audible ticking noise, especially on cold starts.

Most new owners like yourself believe it to be a problem with the engine, because it sounds alarming.

But it is just the way these engines sound.

If you are really bothered by it you can use 20w-50 engine oil, it reduces the sound significantly. But probably not the ideal oil to use.

[|3MWx5]

Thank you for help.

It’s not the normal start up tick that goes away or quiets down.
It’s quite a bit louder. I’ve started it and let it run for 5mins or so. Enough time for the idle to drop to 650ish and still sounds like a really bad lifter tick or exhaust leak.

[jbash87]

Impossible to diagnose noises over the internet. Videos help, but not much.

Throw some marvel mystery oil additive in there and see if it keeps ticking. This really helped the tick on my old E90.

When you say no codes, how are you determining this? Are you saying that the check engine line isn't on or that there are no codes when you read it with a good (bmw specific) code reader?