Swirl flaps - when do they open/close?>

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bob6600

MB Enthusiast
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Jan 3, 2013
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AUDI S8 V10, S210 E320 CDI (R.I.P.)
ANOTHER problem I have just noticed. last week took off the inlet manifold and EGR to give it a good clean. Car was limping prior to this so thought could do no harm. However, I have noticed that the bar does not move under light throttle (as it did before). Bar is connected and so is the electrical connector.

Is there anything else that effects this working?

Does the motor work only when engine is cold or allt he time?

I did take off the motor prior to soaking the manifold so haven't shorted it out!
 
I had this concern too...

My car is an e320, and i always thought that my manifold flaps wer not working.

Today i checked the inlet bar with my engine running in different rpms, and the flaps never moved....

I wonder if the car has to be moving so that this mechanism can operate.

ANY HELP¿?
 
Nope, it's moving while revving idling engine. I don't remember is there difference in warm/cold engine, I've tested usually cold one. And when star plugged in, you can command flaps open and close via system.

OP: limp mode may have caused by blown motor. Have you check fuses (there is no separate fuse for swirl flap motor but it may blow another one - usually cause engine fan constantly on while ECU is not having voltage).
If I remember right MAF siganl gives some info to motor control, faulty MAF may also cause limp mode.
Best way to continue is to plug it to star.
 
MAF is new so rules that out.

I tried to get it plugged into STAR yesterday but the car doesn't want to talk to the laptop! Car is really doing my head in at the moment.

I know the flaps should open/close at idle because they did before, but I also only tried it on a cold engine. Will try this morning
 
You may have some bigger issues with you car if star is not establishing communication at all. Have you checked all fuses (also right hand sided box)? Engine fan is not on? Car is still running (but in limp mode) without any other issues? Battery voltage ok? Earth wires ok? No water in fuse boxes?
 
I also had recent concerns regarding swirl flaps on my w210 e220 .took it to a local specialist and same thing they open when the engine is cold just by revving engine but once up to temp they don't move by just revving it. He told me this was normal and that they will only open when the engine is under load and demands the airflow.
 
You may have some bigger issues with you car if star is not establishing communication at all. Have you checked all fuses (also right hand sided box)? Engine fan is not on? Car is still running (but in limp mode) without any other issues? Battery voltage ok? Earth wires ok? No water in fuse boxes?

Vehicle has been on STAR before so not sure what has gone wrong with it now? Apart from limping, car runs fine. Can reach 70mph no problem, although it takes a while!

Most fuses were checked by Mercland, I'll go through them again. Rad fan is not constantly on and battery voltage is ok. No other issues and earth connections seem good. No water in fuse boxes

Really stumped with this one:confused:
 
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Bob have you had any progress with regards to the flap operation ?. I keep getting conflicting answers from people and can't find anything concrete of he operation of the swirl flaps.
 
Nope.

I am going to check mine on the weekend and see if they open when cold

Still don't know 100% if this is correct though?
 
Nor me I know mine operate when cold but not when engine is hot. This doesn't really make sense to me.
 
Update:

Mine have ceased operating when cold so need to figure out why and then see if it works when warm, when fixed of course
 
Bob have you had any progress with regards to the flap operation ?. I keep getting conflicting answers from people and can't find anything concrete of he operation of the swirl flaps.


I have sorted the issue and mine now open when both warm and cold
 
Don't suppose you could enlighten me as to what was wrong. Would appreciate a start point to try on mine I've checked everything and can't see anything wrong.
 
Yeah that needs putting on the BMW forum .but I guess sooner or later they will all find that out anyway.
 
Mine was linked to another problem, my 38 pin diagnostic port was not working.

Thanks to Alex Crow's suggestion to check the fuses near the ECU's, there was a 7.5A fuse that had blown (previously missed). This gave me ignition power back to pin 2 on the diag port (previously dead) and the swirl flap motor works again
 
:)
Mine are gone
When I bought the car knew swirl will be on its way to the grave-oil leak from turbo intake pipe
Mine is 2007 w221 320 diesel
Limp mode came a week after-swirl gone by diagnostic
For the time being I disable it by resistor mode, tricked the ecu as the swirl would be in place
Car runs fine but on heavy acceleration smokes like a puff a train lol
Anyways decided to do biggest job I ever undertook on the car - swirl replacing with manifolds, all seals along with oil cooler seal....the whole lot
All parts costed me 1000£ from MB don't know the labour cost but no more then 300 quid
As I'm keeping the car I have to do it, I'm very fussy car need to be mint
Shame this engines develop these issues
Design of manifolds is cheap, linkages which control the flaps are plastic, cause of heat they melt, flaps go offline and boom we have problems
Will post some pics of manifolds once removed
My mech did this job on a Ml few weeks back, owner apparently is over the moon with performance of the car after, fuel economy power all increased by far
Will post you guys how I got along with the job
 
If it helps anyone, it was this fuse that had blown, 4th one across, 7.5A

2013-10-24181428.jpg
 
Hi

My lats but one car was a 320d (2008) and the engine blew at 140k. I never did find out what made it blow, but it sounded like one cylinder was scraping metal on metal. COuld this have been a swirl flap issue?

cheers
 

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