[phil200tdi]

Does any one know anywhere in the UK who offer intake valve cleaning? Ideally the walnut shell blasting method.. I have spoken to a few people to no avail!!!

[Nigelo]

Originally Posted by phil200tdi

Does any one know anywhere in the UK who offer intake valve cleaning? Ideally the walnut shell blasting method.. I have spoken to a few people to no avail!!!

It's been on my mind too, especially since my car probably had a life a short journey, low octane fuel life before me - ripe for carbon build-up.

But until I start having issues, it'll be on the back burner. How many miles are on yours? I'm just over 40k.

[fastloop]

Originally Posted by phil200tdi

Does any one know anywhere in the UK who offer intake valve cleaning? Ideally the walnut shell blasting method.. I have spoken to a few people to no avail!!!

I just had mine done at Birds while my HPFP was changed. It made sense to do it at the same time as they had to get the intake off to get to the fuel pump. So after a quick inspection to see the horrors of 55K, it was time to clean them. The valves were cleaned chemically with brushes and lots of scrubbing and Denis spent a good few hours getting them nice and clean.

Here are a few pics of the state as they had started to loosen up the crap on the valves.







Unfortunately I was busy talking to Kevin as they finished cleaning them so I don't have any photos of the final state. I saw them around mid way through and they looked a lot better than the above photos. Car is now back to full power after a new HPFP and cleaned intake/valves. I was actually surprised how bad my dying fuel pump were affecting performance and it feels like I got 30-40 BHP back.

[phil200tdi]

Birds is not far for me!

How much was this service if you don't mind me asking? Pm me if you prefer!

Mine is on 80k miles!

[doughboy]

Grim!

The manual cleaning method (seem some clips on the US forums) seems to work well, just softening it with solvents and brushing / scrubbing it off.

Just need a wet vacuum with a tiny attachment to suck out the debris as you go, obviously turning the crank to make sure each valve is fully shut!

[fastloop]

Originally Posted by phil200tdi

Birds is not far for me!

How much was this service if you don't mind me asking? Pm me if you prefer!

Mine is on 80k miles!

You are probably better off asking them for a quote as my intake was already off because of the HPFP change, so I don't have an exact price. The valve/intake cleaning is about 3-4 hours + time for taking the intake off/on + test drive.

[phil200tdi]

I'll give birds a call to discuss!

Cheers

[m1bjr]

Originally Posted by Nigelo

It's been on my mind too, especially since my car probably had a life a short journey, low octane fuel life before me - ripe for carbon build-up.

But until I start having issues, it'll be on the back burner. How many miles are on yours? I'm just over 40k.

Cheap fuel will have NO impact upon this type of carbon build-up discussed in this thread - direct injection fires fuel right into the combustion chambers
This buildup at the intake valves is down to oil from the crank breather system (or any oil in the charge air pipes)

[phil200tdi]

I just managed to pull a SES light and code:

29D0 Misfirings, cylinder 4

Plugs changed a couple of weeks ago to rectify this - to no avail. I'll try to switch coils with another cylinder and see if the code travels.. if not could be injector or worst case carbon buildup.

Steve, you have a similar mileage to me - have you cleaned the valves yet? Mine just does long runs at motorway speed so hopefully the worst of the carbon is getting burnt away...

[neil@JuicedUpTuning]

Why BMS released their Oil Catch Can!

[phil200tdi]

On my list of mods with the bms dp fix and CDV delete.. Then I think I'll have the full set of all your products.

Oh no wait LED angel eyes.. Want them too!

[phil200tdi]

I'm getting bored of limp mode triggering now!

I think given the plug change seemed to improve things, I'm gonna go ahead with replacing the coil in cyl 4. Seem to be £50 inc vat and del on Bmminiparts - any one know any where cheaper?

[surrey 335i]

what fault code reader do you use? need to buy one.

[makkan00]

Originally Posted by phil200tdi

I'm getting bored of limp mode triggering now!

I think given the plug change seemed to improve things, I'm gonna go ahead with replacing the coil in cyl 4. Seem to be £50 inc vat and del on Bmminiparts - any one know any where cheaper?

What happened after chaging the plug? Did you get the code on a different cylinder or same one?

Bmminiparts are cheaper with OEM parts.
You can find them cheaper on e-bay / GSF car parts / Euro car parts, but onus is on you to take that risk, especially when difference would be £10-20 pounds.

After changing the coil, reset the ecu or clear all the codes to avoid any further confusion.

All the best.

[neil@JuicedUpTuning]

Originally Posted by surrey 335i

what fault code reader do you use? need to buy one.

JB4 has built in code reading and deleting

[surrey 335i]

Originally Posted by neil@JuicedUpTuning

JB4 has built in code reading and deleting

sorry new to all this stuf, what is a JB4?

was looking at the ones on ebay that are £20-£70.

[phil200tdi]

http://www.juiceduptuning.co.uk/shop...duct.asp?ID=26

[RimasRS]

Anybody tried THIS?

[neil@JuicedUpTuning]

Originally Posted by surrey 335i

sorry new to all this stuf, what is a JB4?

was looking at the ones on ebay that are £20-£70.

To read and clear codes including the shadow codes you really need a BT Tool or a JB4 IMO

Originally Posted by RimasRS

Anybody tried THIS?

To clean off the carbon deposits? Will work but manual chipping off will still be required

[m1bjr]

Originally Posted by phil200tdi

I just managed to pull a SES light and code:

29D0 Misfirings, cylinder 4

Plugs changed a couple of weeks ago to rectify this - to no avail. I'll try to switch coils with another cylinder and see if the code travels.. if not could be injector or worst case carbon buildup.

Steve, you have a similar mileage to me - have you cleaned the valves yet? Mine just does long runs at motorway speed so hopefully the worst of the carbon is getting burnt away...

Ermmm... no.

Too scared LOL!

I think I have pinned my occasional stutter and rough start issue at last.
I too suffered sporadic misfires on cyl3 too, and very rarely a limp.

Swapped over after cleaning, both of the VANOS control solenoids.
No more error coded there or limps, as from the freeze-frame timing the limp was directly linked to VANOS valve on outlet.

However, I always suspected multiple issues and this seems to be the case.
Replacing coilpack (I had a couple of spares on shelf from a member on here) appeared to fix the missing.
But maybe it was only the biggest and most obvious issue, probably on the same cylinder.
Plugs were done by matter of routine a few thousand ago, no change and not replaced for a specific reason other than age.

This last weekend she started really lumpy, smoked a bit and stank of fuel.
A quick blip soon cleared it and it ran fine all week again.
A classic symptom of a sticky injector dribbling fuel into a shutdown engine.
It does this very rarely, normally after a thrash when its shutdown hot and fuel rail pressures will be high.
But, it tells me I have an injector acting up, and its likely cly3 as this is where I got the occasional misfire code.

I may try pulling them and getting them ultrasonically cleaned.
Did this myself in a lab once and it made a massive difference to an old Vauxhall I used to run.


As for carbon....
I read SO MANY threads on this but not one single person can catagorically say it fixed anything.
In fact appart for a little obstruction at high velocity (possibly roughness at small throttles) i fail to see what carbon in the intake will do.
Sure, its the reverse of gas-flowing the intake port, but it wont make 'that' much difference.
Certainly dont see how and oily intake will cause the errors people think it does.

Hey-ho - its all good fun!
I am at 70k or so IIRC.

PS- datalogging the HPFP fuel pressure was quite telling, as I thought this was the root cause of all the rough running and lumpt start.
However the rise of pressure and the actual pressure looks great, its always stable and gets to target quickly and cleanly every shift.

Still feel a slight surging on full bore sometimes, intermittant and never any codes. Must be an injector...

The HPFP job would be an inlet off, so if going to do that then the inlet might as well get cleaned too. Hopefully no need to go there.

[phil200tdi]

I guess you needs BT/INPA to log fuel pressure etc?

The valve cleaning sounds like a pig of a job.. If my hpfp were on the way out then I'd definitely have it done whilst in there.

[Alpina_B3_Lux]

Originally Posted by phil200tdi

The valve cleaning sounds like a pig of a job.. If my hpfp were on the way out then I'd definitely have it done whilst in there.

If you have the correct walnut shell blasting tool then it is actually quite simple from what I have heard. But if you don't, and you have to manually clean every valve from every cylinder with a toothbrush, then it certainly is a pig of a job and ideally needs at least two days (to let the valves soak in cleaning fluid before brushing them off).

I've ordered the BMW blasting tool and will hopefully be able to document how this is done in the next 2-3 weeks or so.

Alpina_B3_Lux