[bigdaddycane]

it can't hurt....you will have to do it at some point.

[alex2364]

It'll hurt my wallet so I'd rather wait til 40-50k if it's not necessary. Plus I don't know how long I'll be keeping this.

[bigdaddycane]

do what I did....take it to Adam (Clem) and have the cleaning done and downpipes installed at the same time.....huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge difference.

[16M3]

Patrick BMW in Schaumburg, IL

[16M3]

Originally Posted by egregor

I hadn't heard of it happening yet, but I could definitely see cats and O2 sensors being toasted by buildup, in the same way that never changing your air filter will. The car runs overly rich as the result of air starvation which directly effects the life of those components. The part that sucks here is that it wasn't discovered until a ton of other work had been done, which is kind of inexcusable for the dealer considering buildup would have certainly occurred by 90K miles.

Tell me about it! I miss that car. I will be in the market for a new one next year...but I am thinking, with Direct Injection, I will be carrying out some walnut blasting as preventative maintenance every couple of years...

[bigdaddycane]

I will be carrying out some walnut blasting as preventative maintenance every couple of years...

yes, as should anyone that owns an N54.

[Orion4]

Is there anyone in the immediate Centreville/Chantilly area that does this at a reasonable price? Almost afraid to ask Sterling BMW what they would charge.

[bigdaddycane]

Originally Posted by Orion4

Almost afraid to ask Sterling BMW what they would charge.

don't do it, waste of time....I asked them ~$800

[Orion4]

Now, that's impressive!!!

I will contact Luther today or tomorrow.
Thanks

[Orion4]

Luther and Scott did their magic on my 08 335i Sport with 72K on it, Thursday evening. Noticeable difference: smoother idle, rev's smoother, feels as if the power is coming on quicker/cleaner when accelerating. Not sure yet, but appears my gas mileage has improved slightly. Will know more end of this month when I drive to Fl for a couple of weeks. Also wont know for a while, but my water temp gauge is reading about 5-10 degrees cooler the pre-cleaning. Trip will tell more.

Took about 1 hr-15min and about 3/4 of a bag of shells. My Intakes were really nasty. The after picture is lousy, but they all looked factory new when finished.

Thanks to both

Woody

[treyank]

Originally Posted by Orion4

Is there anyone in the immediate Centreville/Chantilly area that does this at a reasonable price? Almost afraid to ask Sterling BMW what they would charge.

I've been looking for someone in the Chantilly area as well with no luck. BMW Sterling wants $850! I may just call one of the numbers on this board and drive to MD

[diamondbimmer92]

Originally Posted by treyank

I've been looking for someone in the Chantilly area as well with no luck. BMW Sterling wants $850! I may just call one of the numbers on this board and drive to MD

Give Luther a call

[Orion4]

From my experience I highly recommend Luther and Scott. Very friendly and through. I cant speak to any others as this my only experience.

Woody

[MrSmileyDC]

I finally got around to getting this done a few weeks ago. I had Luther perform the service. We had a few scheduling conflicts at first, but we eventually were able to work out a time. That part could have been better as my time is just as valuable too. As for the cleaning it took about two hours for the job once he got started with minimal work stoppages. I might suggest taking time to figure out a method to keep all of the carbon bits from being blown all over the engine bay and into the cylinder. Initial engine startup was a little rough, but cleared up once free of the walnut shells. Overall, the car runs smoother and I haven't noticed any rough idle. I also did a reset of the adaptations with INPA later that day.

[MrSmileyDC]

It's all good. Thanks for letting me check out the before and after of the intake valves. I'm not too sure on the mpg, I think I might have gained one or two. I'll have to check it out on my next long road trip and see if I can average out close to 29 again.

[FormerRotor]

I have to do this on my diesel. I want to try to get it done every 50k and I'm sitting at 52 currently. I shot PMs to Clem and Flemming.

[cap1]

Hello all, first off I want to apologize for the noob question, read through this thread and didn't see my question answer directly. My question: Is this a normal maintenance (50k, 75k etc) that BMW performs to vehicles? I'm assuming no.

[MrSmileyDC]

BMW won't pay for it. It's the design of direct injection. No fuel passes by the intake valves, so you don't get any of the cleaning action. I first did it at 90k and mine were pretty bad. No tune and highway miles though. I had rough idle since 60k, but now it's gone.

[cap1]

Got it, thanks for replying.

[davidkotok]

if you are going to invest in this i recommend purchasing the oil catch can from burger and installing it after blasting but before turning the car on... will prevent needing to do this again so soon.

[HellsBells]

I just had my 335 cleaned by Luther at Flemings Auto in Hyattsville, MD.
Luther is a good guy and he did a great job - from start to out the door in 2 hours for $430 bucks. I highly recommend this to anyone with the N54, especially if you have an "upgraded" air filter and running a tune, you are going to get A LOT of gunk in there.

I started misfiring and now all is clear...

[Eugeinus]

Hells - how many miles did you have on your car when you got this done?