[astrotj]

Was just told by my BMW dealer that I needed to replace the swirl flap actuator. $1,500 (parts $1,000 and $500 labor). Not happy!

[bayerischer]

Originally Posted by jasonprice07

You have to weigh up the likely hood of the flaps falling into the engine against any potential damage caused by removing them. I have not read on any of the Forums that removing the flaps has any negative effects, and in the short term this is true. Although what no one knows or seems to care about and I include tunners, indies etc. is the long term potential damage to the DPF.
I'll explain, swirl flaps are fitted to create swirl in the combustion chamber swirl has a dramatic effect on reducing engine out soot or particulate matter or to most of us smoke. The very stuff the DPF stores and then burns off when it regenerates. So if you remove the swirl flaps the engine out levels off soot go up. Depending on the base engine and the calibration used, it can go up a lot. Remove the flaps and the DPF is suddenly getting filled every 100km instead of every 400km, so where BMW claim a DPF life of 100k miles, it has now decreased to 25K.
Plus frequent DPF regeneration increases fuel consumption and also the chance of fuel (used in post injections) entering the engine oil, leading to engine run-away and failure.
So before you whip out the flaps, just think about the above.

The only people who truely understand the use of swirl are the engineers who work for the vehicle manufacturer that is what I tell my boss when I need a pay rise

Jason

this is exactly true, no tuner, or indy mechanic will agree with. i had removed swirl flaps and after cuople of thousand miles on clock, my particulate filter is full. so my mechanic costed me like 1500 euro by his "help"
internet forums can help, but also spread false info.
if you have removed pdf then u can remove swirls, but if you like me don't wanna remove pdf and have black smoke like a fricking tractor, then keep your swirl flaps and just check them from time to time and don't trust these experts that are smarter than engineers who created engine and knew why they put it there

[mjn77]

Originally Posted by leeandzed

Will try to cut a long story short.... Have a 2007, 335d M Sport touring. Recently had a brake fluid service at Sytner Chigwell plus their '2012 health check' offer for 20 pound 12 pence, they noticed an oil leak under the gearbox sump pan. They diagnosed this as a gearbox oil leak due to a warped pan and quoted me over 700 quid to replace the pan, refill the oil at 20 quid a litre (which apparently never needs to be replaced which i found out afterwards), cost to fit plus vat. I wanted a 2nd opinion so took it to a local Beemer indy specialist, put it up in the air and noticed straight away that it was an engine oil leak (black oil) and not gearbox oil (brown). Took them a few hours to find the leak as it was coming from the engine somewhere and running down onto the gearbox sump, hence it looked like a box issue. Eventually noticed oil coming out from the swirl flaps after having to remove the inlet manifold etc. Said it was a common fault and suggested to put blanking plates in place. Cleaned it all up, test drove a few miles and no more leaks. Cost me 280 quid. Would have been cheaper but it took them a while to find the cause of the leak, as the plates are only a tenner each and needed 6.

Never going to Sytner again and will certainly be sending them a sh1tty letter/email sometime very soon.

Recommend Highams Park Motor company in Chingford London E4, very good techs and seem very trustworthy.

I had the very same leak back in April, but as i had BMW Warranty, i got a new manifold fitted. So i'm not going to bother blanking them off.

[ryk]

I have a 330d factory build Jan 2011. I've been advised to first try a 'carbon clean'. Anyone done that and found it worked?

[jamalh01]

Hey guys,
I just had a question if anyone has had a problem after putting the blanks in place of the swirl flaps for the 335d. I have installed the blanks and now the problem I'm running into is the car doesn't get power from 0-2.5 rpms and after that the power kicks in so I'm curious as to if anyone knows what could be the problem. I'm also stage 2 tuned if that makes a difference and i did a egr delete kit as well.
thanks

[mjn77]

Originally Posted by jamalh01

Hey guys,
I just had a question if anyone has had a problem after putting the blanks in place of the swirl flaps for the 335d. I have installed the blanks and now the problem I'm running into is the car doesn't get power from 0-2.5 rpms and after that the power kicks in so I'm curious as to if anyone knows what could be the problem. I'm also stage 2 tuned if that makes a difference and i did a egr delete kit as well.
thanks

I had this problem on my E46 (same engine) and there was a vac leak somewhere. Check where you've re-assembled, you probably have a small air leak somewhere.

[jamalh01]

I have checked all the hoses around the area the only one I could think of that might be giving me the problem is the one that came with the egr delete kit I plugged that in when I cut the t hose that goes to the egr cooler and put that in place of it. Do you think it could be anything else? and did that fix yours? Also I'm not a mechanic or anything so if what I'm saying doesn't make sense I'm sorry

[mjn77]

My mechanic took it all apart after another garage attempted to fix another fault. All i know is that it took it all apart and put it all together again as when he inspected it, he said the workmanship was crap. It could see that vac lines had been nipped, bolts missing, etc.

[rsmallwo]

Can't believe I never posted a reply to this thread given the issues "swirl flap removal cost me"

In short, I had it done and it ruined the car, sold the car a year later. The car had a remap on it, once the swirl flaps got done (removed etc.) the DPF then kept filling up. I couldn't get the DPF to stop filling up until I had the swirl flaps put back on. However, the damage to the DPF had been done then, it will still fill up prematuely. I then foolishly replaced the DPF with a aftermarket DPF which didn't work well with the remap (filled up too often). Ended up taking the remap off and though it didn't fill the dpf up it did regen twice as often as normal.....killed the joy of the car and so i ended up selling. Sad really as i loved that car.

Originally Posted by rsmallwo

Hi All,

Should I be concerned about the Swirl Flaps on my 335d failing and destroying my engine?

My car is a 08/2006 build with 74k on the clock.

Going here:
http://www.swirlflaps.co.uk/

and my local indy:

http://www.autologichessle.co.uk/swirl_flaps.phtml

I might be worried.

Here doesn't point to my car though:

http://www.pmwltd.co.uk/swirl_flaps.pdf

Checked realoem and my car does have some fitted but will be the newer plastic only type.

http://www.realoem.com/bmw/showparts...52&hg=11&fg=40

Anyone had this fail on a 335d, anyone had them "blanked out" on a 335d, if so how much does it cost.

Thanks

[Maxlude]

2006 330d seems manual. Had car for 12yrs. I deleted swirl flaps with pmw blanks in 2017 due to leaks at 120k miles. Lost quite a bit of torque below 1500rpms but engine is more responsive. It's emapped to 280hp/450ftlbs at 100k miles. I have noticed that exhaust gas temp does not go higher than 220c even at mway speeds so is not passively regenerating the dpf. Thus it will register a stage 2 block, 45mb back pressure or more, after 1500-2000 miles, even when mainly mway driving. I have to then use my obd scanner to force a passive regen. Rather annoying but doable. It's on 135k now and after a regen still registers only 8-10mb back pressure at idle