Camshaft regulator failure - advise needed

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Longtrail

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This sucks so badly - sorry you have to deal with this...

For both camshafts to snap like this implies one side of the load path got stuck; so the crank seizes and somehow the camshaft keeps spinning; or somehow the camshaft seized and the crank kept rotating? I'm curious on the state of the other bank? I'm guessing but it does seem weird to me!
 

Rover Range

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Wow! Sorry to see that! Maybe Rover Range has seen something like this and can provide feedback.
To be honest, I've never seen this. I asked a couple other techs and they said the same thing.
Usually, a sludged up motor can cause the cams to snap. Doesn't appear to be the case here.
 

audioslave

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This sucks so badly - sorry you have to deal with this...

For both camshafts to snap like this implies one side of the load path got stuck; so the crank seizes and somehow the camshaft keeps spinning; or somehow the camshaft seized and the crank kept rotating? I'm curious on the state of the other bank? I'm guessing but it does seem weird to me!
i looked through the oil cap. everything looked fine. on top of that, after that already happened, I was still able to start the car and move it from a pretty busy intersection. So at least half of my engine still worked :)
 

audioslave

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To be honest, I've never seen this. I asked a couple other techs and they said the same thing.
Usually, a sludged up motor can cause the cams to snap. Doesn't appear to be the case here.
Yes, when I got the car w/ 102k miles, the motor looked pretty clean. And under my ownership, she was getting 5k-mile oil changes religiously, so the motor looks spotless inside.
 

f1racer328

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This is nightmare fuel. Sorry about your engine.

Did you ever do an oil analysis by chance?
 

audioslave

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This is nightmare fuel. Sorry about your engine.

Did you ever do an oil analysis by chance?

I did not.
to be honest, I do not believe in oil analysis.

My other car is e90 BMW M3, and on the M3 forum we have the entire thread with perfect oil analysis and blown engines :)
 

powershift

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Sorry for your loss. When I was shopping around for my chain work I found companies wanting to replace the cam actuators, others don't do it. I had mine replaced and it was another $1k.

Conceptually if the actuators locked up and failed at the same time then that would explain the broken camshafts. They are made identical and were all running on the same engine through their life so it isn't impossible. What year is it?
 

audioslave

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Sorry for your loss. When I was shopping around for my chain work I found companies wanting to replace the cam actuators, others don't do it. I had mine replaced and it was another $1k.

Conceptually if the actuators locked up and failed at the same time then that would explain the broken camshafts. They are made identical and were all running on the same engine through their life so it isn't impossible. What year is it?
2012
 

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