XSeries-forum

On the old forum and this one AW8 bought up the question of the dreaded swirl flaps!!!!!!!!!
With little responce to this question i was intrigued to find out if mine had them as i try to do as much maintenance that i can manage myself to try and avoid hefty repair bills with these cars being pretty expensive to repair....especially at dealer labour charges
I did a fair bit of digging/web searching as AW8 did but couldn't find a definitive answer.I also checked real oem and took of the engine cover to check for the actuater bar that operates the flaps.
At this point i was 99.9% sure that i didn't have them.Also a few knowledgable folk on here like bazzyboy etc had said that they do not exist on x5's which made me even more confident that they were'nt on my model/year.
Well now i can also fully confirm that i don't have swirl flaps (2004 54 plate aug build)as yeaterday i had to remove the inlet manifold to do another job and to my delight there were no swirl flaps present.
I know that this has been gone over on several occasions on here and some peeps already know about there own cars but i thought i would post up about my year/model for the benefit of other 'non mechanics' who have the same date car that are still unsure.

Here's a pic to show no flaps

Thanks for this X555!
I did some digging around on this a little while back. From info on the 'net I was sure that none were fitted.....and after confirming there were no actuator bars on my X5 (2005) I convinced myself nothing to worry about. Glad to see you've 100% proved none are fitted to yours! Hope it wasn't a big job that you were having to remove the inlet manifold for......

Great effort and good to have another confirmation of this.

Now ... if you can also guarantee that the turbo never fails we can all sleep at night

................Great news - Thanks for taking the time to share this info benefit of our 3.0d owners

I do odd easy stuff but I'm far from mechanically gifted, (past warranties & having few & crap tools doesn't help develop skills).

You sell yourself a bit short. You've done some good work in ownership & often more than I would comfortably take on alone.

I guess that like others I have gentle fears of missing a step or something siezing/breaking.

You'd be impressed though, apart from my Peake Code reader I now have a durable socket set, caliper expander plus BMW dedcated oil filter removal tool & a hex thingy...........I even bought a magnetic pick up tool with l.e.d. on it this week (telescopic not flexible but only £2.99 from total garage).

[quote=""AW8""]...I even bought a magnetic pick up tool with l.e.d. on it this week [/quote]
Trust me i could have done with that yesterday it would have save me about 20 mins faffing about trying to retrieve my soccket (see my new glow plug post )

[quote=""pvr""]Great effort and good to have another confirmation of this.

Now ... if you can also guarantee that the turbo never fails we can all sleep at night [/quote]

If only ehh!

[quote=""Darnicmax""]Thanks for this X555!
I did some digging around on this a little while back. From info on the 'net I was sure that none were fitted.....and after confirming there were no actuator bars on my X5 (2005) I convinced myself nothing to worry about. Glad to see you've 100% proved none are fitted to yours! Hope it wasn't a big job that you were having to remove the inlet manifold for......[/quote]
Glad to be of some help mate .....see new post for why i removed the manifold

[quote=""AW8""]...I even bought a magnetic pick up tool with l.e.d. on it this week [/quote]

[quote=""x555""]Trust me i could have done with that yesterday it would have save me about 20 mins faffing about trying to retrieve my soccket (see my new glow plug post )[/quote]

Ideally as well as the l.e.d. item I'd later like a flexible &/or grabber equipped pick up tool.................so useful.

I'll have a look at your other post

Hey Mitch, good effort mate and thanks for info . Like you i did some digging when AW8 mentioned swirl flap failures on
the old forum , back then i did have a link saved on my computer (which i cannot seem to find) that showed swirl flaps fitted
to the inlet manifold and not the engine block as your photo seems to suggest, 6 flaps in total and each held in with 2 screws.

Found the link, here you go :

http://www.bmwland.co.uk/swirl_flaps_bm ... _flaps.pdf

Hopefully yours is different and does not have swirl flaps but link may help someone thinking about
doing this modification.

Thats the link that AW8 originaly posted on the old thread i think or me and the same one that made me 99.9% sure that mine didn't have them as there was no actuator bar
Here is my manifold upside down and as you can see no swirl flaps just the rubber seals (orange/red bits)...i originally thought that the orange/red bits were part of the swirl flap but not to be the case.


I think the one in the link must be a 330d or a 5er maybe?

I have my 2001 X5 3.0d sport booked in on Tuesday to get 2 injectors replaced, I have also asked to get the swirl flaps replaced with blanking plates (if fitted) so will be able to confirm if there fitted or not on Tuesday to my year/model.

[quote=""gareth82""]I have my 2001 X5 3.0d sport booked in on Tuesday to get 2 injectors replaced, I have also asked to get the swirl flaps replaced with blanking plates (if fitted) so will be able to confirm if there fitted or not on Tuesday to my year/model.[/quote]

Nice one matey the more we know the better

@x555
Just noticed the same inlet manifold pic in your glow plug thread clearly no swirl flaps, at least we know the facelift
models have no actuator bar hence no swirl flaps . Once again thanks for info .

[quote=""x555""][quote=""gareth82""]I have my 2001 X5 3.0d sport booked in on Tuesday to get 2 injectors replaced, I have also asked to get the swirl flaps replaced with blanking plates (if fitted) so will be able to confirm if there fitted or not on Tuesday to my year/model.[/quote]

Nice one matey the more we know the better [/quote]

My 2001 X5 sport 3.0d had two injectors fitted today and I can confirm I have no swirl flaps fitted to mine