I have a 2005 Bmw 330i zhp. I was driving out of a gas station when it suddenly started making engine noise, then the oil light came on, then the check engine light. I drove it about 2 miles home where i parked it. I scanned it and now reads p0012. I changed out the Vanos sensor $200 later and it did not fix. I have checked the oil filter and it looks okay. I run 93 octane and use castrol fully synthetic with perfect changed invtervals. I reset the code and the check engine light went away but the oil light is alluminated from the start and its RED. The engine makes a ticking/knocking noise as if it has something inside it rattling. Just got the car back a few weeks ago from the transmission shop $2500 LATER and now its doing this. I dont know what it could be and i cant just continue to throw money into it. Can anyone please tell me what this could be? this is really hard on me as its my only car..

Also, ive been reading alot about the infamous "nut backing off" the oil pump. I found a video on YT that sounded like the rattling in mine and they troubleshot it to be the nut that had backed off and was sitting in the oil pan when removed. I already ordered an oil pan and a nut with saftey wire to drop the oil pan next week and hopefully thats the case.. will keep everyone posted as there was no to none, on the internet about what this could of been and i hope i help the next poor soul like myself who is desperate to find out what this is..

FOUND THE ANSWER... So, after much research without i found out what the culprit was to my problem. It turns out that BMW has an issue with the OIL PUMP. I had reason to believe that even though my car was topped off with oil, it actually wasnt getting distributed through the engine, so before i started throwing money into it (a practice i know too well) i decided to inspect the oil pump. I saw a video of a guy whose car was doing the same thing who diagnosed it to the oil pump sprocket retaining nut. What you have to do is to drop the oil pan, and once i did i found the nut sitting inside the oil pan. There is a reverse threaded nut that attaches the oil pump to the crank. When overrevving or something of the sort, sometimes the nut backs off and falls off disabling the pump from distributing oil. To fix: drop the oil pan (a tedious process but relatively easy with a little bit of time and patience) attach the sprocket and chain and (reverse tighten) the nut. I found a nut online that has a safety wire hole on FCP or ECS tunning and comes with safety wire. So you add some locktight to the nut, reverse tq to 17ft lbs and safety wire the nut to the sprocket. Then it will never come off! :) Advice is to NOT DRIVE YOUR CAR as you can/will destroy your engine. I actually drove it home about 2 miles after it happened and luckally didnt destroy mine. All in all it took me about 12hrs and wasted about 15$ on the nut with deliver and a few more $ on the locktight. Way better than replacing the pump... oh also, word for the wise, there are some tq wrenches that do NOT reverse tighten, so i stripped out the first nut on accident after i was waiting for the "click" on my tq wrench. 17lbs is not that tight. German "good-and-tight" tq will suffice. I am happy to have my car back... hope this helps and good luck everyone.

@CAREERGIRL do you have an oil light indicator? is it yellow or red? if youre not getting an oil light, then it sounds like it might be a transmission problem. If there are hesitations on gear change from one to another then a transmission service might be the solution as a low tranny will hesitate to change gear. You have low miles so far so i doubt that is the case. Provide more information to better assist in diagnosing the issue. I know what its like to feel desperate bc your car is in the hole.