This morning upon start up, my car started a noise that it has never done before.... ever. Imagine you are vacuuming your house, when all of a sudden, you suck a rock up into the brushes. That is the noise that my car is making. Sounds like something bouncing around or something hitting my fan (which I checked and nothing is). The noise slightly increases when I raise the RPM's. I cant hear it at idle, the noise starts right around 1500 rpms or so. Kinda sounds like it might be a bad vanos unit from what I have heard about the marbles in the tin can noise, guess it kinda sounds like that... but havent got any positive conformation from the E36 M3 threads. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Anybody?

A rattlely sort of sound around 1500 rpm that isn't present at idle or higher rpm sounds very much like a noisy Vanos. You can isolate where the noise orginates from with a stethescope. Start with the Vanos housing on the front of the head.

Alright, thank you!