[Shane.]

Ive used the search button and i know there is loads of Info,

I had my car serviced today by PMV chelmsford who said everything with my car was fine, Except 2 items steering coloum failure (Yellow light once 2 weeks ago but touch wood never returned) and swirl flaps fitted, There told me E90 suffer from this problem and is common, I know there will try and sell as its easy money for them but from what i can see it mainly effects the E46 model,

My car has just 40k on it and runs well, What is your view on this? Anyone know of an E90 that has had the failure

[katie.g]

i too got suckered in by PMW,s swirl flap horror stories, to the point where i bought the blanking plates for my e90 320d at 90k

i tried to fit them but failed on first attempt, it was a bit more work than i anticipated

later i had the chance to inspect them with a snap-on tools camera , and they were in sound condition, so i left them alone

then the car got written off in a crash and i bought a 325d

i dont think there is any evidence of the e9x's range being affected by the problem, and definately not at 40k mileage

maybe you could forget about them for another 40k, and then perhaps get a local garage to do the camera inspection for you, it would cost very little

our local mechanic let me use his for a kiss on the cheek and a box of jaffa cakes !!

Regards Kathy

[katie.g]

your steering column comment has me thinking...

i though this only affected the post 2007 models with the electric power steering, not the earlier mechanical type ?????????

i'm looking forward to what the more knowledgeable chaps think of this

kathy

[skyrunner]

I de-flapped my '05 320d at 92k mostly because it was always in the back of my mind. Upon removing them all four were perfectly fine, no loose rivets, they were just a bit coked up. The only reason I removed them at the time was because I was doing an air filter change and EGR clean so it was a very little extra work to get the manifold off and blank them and for £35 in blanks it was cheap peace of mind.

I must admit knowing I don't have them is comforting and until you have the manifold off and look at them you have no way of knowing the condition of yours, and if you have the manifold off you may as well blank them!

PMW do hype the flap issue a bit on e90s, but given its a huge source of revenue for them it's understandable.

If I had an e46 I would change them without thinking as I have heard lots and lots of problems from e46 320d drivers, personally if I were you I wouldn't worry, but if you want peace of mind get it done. You may be better off sourcing blanks and getting a local mechanic to do it, although IRC PMW weren't too expensive all in.

It's a fairly achievable DIY job, it took me about 4 hours including an air filter change, oil separator swap (to a vortex type) and EGR clean.

At 40k you may not have had the turbo oil separator swapped (I can't remember what service it is at) and your '06 is likely to still be using a loo roll style, that definitely IS worth swapping to a vortex type as the old style gunk up and can cause the turbo to get a bit too warm.

[Shane.]

Cheers for the replys, There checked the turbo oil Separator and my car has already got the Vortex type fitted,

Ill have a think about swirl flaps Pmv want £160 fitted.

[Dizzle]

Sorry to dig up old threads but I'm just doing some reading around the swirl flaps 'issues'. this http://www.e90post.com/forums/showth...ht=swirl+flaps amoung many other thread seem to suggest scaremongering from PMW more than anything?

Did you bother ever getting them done?