I have fitted a Darkside manifold on my 2014 640d and it was very good quality and fitted spot on. It is a reasonably straight forward job and took me about an hour and a half to do on the drive. I am a mechanic by a previous trade and previously cleaned my original manifold and reset the swirl flap parameters but then manifolds we’re around £800. I would not hesitate to fit one of their manifolds and mine has been perfect. Just as a side note you will need to reset your air mass adaptions after fitting.
Cheers
Jim

 

Thanks for you reply, Jim. I'm looking at buying one now, however the garage has just told me that they won't fit customer supplied parts!

Might need to find another garage.

 

That’s a shame as they are a doddle to fit. Where are you located and have they already removed the manifold?
cheers
Jim

 

I'm located in Blackpool, not many specialists around here. And yes, it has been removed. Today's work was just an inspection for what work needed doing. They needed to do a walnut blast too.

 

All that needs is a good clean out,flaps throwing away and a blanking plug fitting.

 

If a clean is all it needs then that's what I'll do. They did say that the green lever in the picture was jammed up, I suppose that is the mechanism for the flaps and removing them makes it a non-issue?

 

Would they agree to guaranteee the work and not the part or perhaps source a manifold themselves as there are a number around which I think are probably the same as sold by Darkside. Cleaning and blanking is an option as Johnny says.. Shame you are not local to me as I would happily fit it for you as it’s straight forward.
cheers
Jim

 

Nah, I don't think they'll budge. If I can just get it cleaned and have the flaps blanked, I think I'll go for that.

It's strange because I got a wheel changed on my old E92 with them, and that was a secondhand wheel and they didn't ask any questions. More to go wrong with an engine I suppose?

 

The biggest issue with the swirl flaps is the mechanism wears and when you start the car first thing the actuator does a sweep and because of the wear it goes beyond the parameters which puts it in limp mode but does not throw a engine management light. When I first cleaned my manifold I had to put an stop On the actuator which worked well for about 18 months then did the same. That’s why I opted to just change the manifold.
cheers
Jim

 

With the blanking plug fitted that also acts as a stop for the flap motor I do believe. With my n57 I didn’t use the blank I plugged hole with a nut and bolt and some silicone sealer.
N47 are so much easier just replace gasket with one from a 18d job done

 

Okay, showed my local garage the pictures I in the OP, and they seem to think the swirl flaps are jammed, but will happily fit an aftermarket manifold. Might be ordering one soon.

 

£150 job tops,mine was only £90 by a good bmw specialist,i bought the blank,ie cam sort of shaped bit of alloy,but if they are cleaning it will be more costly.

 

Was yours just as bad or worse? Showed the images to my local garage and they think the flaps are jammed in place. Can that be cleaned?

 

Yep cut one of the flaps and then the metal rod and remove the lot and then clean out

 

If I were to clean it out and keep the flaps on, is there a chance they could come loose and do irreparable damage, or was that problem fixed on this engine? I know it was a big issue on some earlier BMW diesels.

 

If they have been sticking then the part where spindle goes through will be worn, they are plastic flaps so don’t do the damage older metal ones did but I would leave them in as you are just asking for issues down the line.
While manifold is off it’s the time to either ditch the flaps or replace manifold or you will be in for the labour to do it again

 

Do you know of any good eBay sellers for secondhand parts?

Thanks for all your advice btw

 

If it was me Imwould put on a replacement manifold and retain the swirl flaps. The new design is safe and does not cause issues like the old ones.
cheers
Jim

 

So a little update. I got my car back today and they have done a walnut blast to clean it out.

However, I have been told that the swirl flap motor could be jammed, so it might not be just the manifold that needs replacing.

I've seen a used N57 inlet manifold with the motor included. Thoughts?

 

mental,seek out a good indy,he will remove manifold.sort swirl flap bar/blqnk,clean manifold then replace,no need for a new manifold

 

If its jammed open then no problem as long as it doesn't throw an error code and it's all clean now

 

Forgot to say that it may be jamming intermittently, sometime open sometimes closed or somewhere in between. But if they were jammed open, wouldn't I be missing out on a lot of low end torque? I can already feel a big difference.

 

Seen secondhand inlet manifold on eBay except it's from a 2015 330d. All the part numbers check out, think i could use it?

 

I'd have no issues with getting a used one and refurbing it to as BMW intended and swapping them out on account of that's what I did!

I linked to a complete one in my earlier post

EGR was throttling my engine!

This is what my intake manifold was like due to the EGR pumping diesely oily soot back into my engine in the name of "emissions"! E91 320d 2011 139,000miles Looking into the manifold... Looking back toward the EGR inlet... I got a used one off eBay a few weeks ago and got it nice...

www.bimmerforums.co.uk

 

The swirl flap actuator motor can not jam up so the issue must be in the swirl flap mechanism. The easiest and most cost effective answer is the replacement manifold which has all new swirl flaps and linkages. You just then attach your actuator and job is sorted. For what the manifold costs balanced against messing about and labour charges its a no brainier for me. The actuator motor simply moves an arm through an arc and can not jam. The linkages however are more complicated and as stated I strongly suspect that is the issue. when the ignition is switched on the actuator does a sweep and it must be within parameters. If it is unable to sweep or goes beyond where it thinks it should stop it throws a fault for failed swirl flaps. You can turn the car on and off and it will often reset as it only does the sweep on the initial start up and not every time. I have learned this through experience of the issues you have been having. As previously stated initially I cleaned my old manifold but when you do this you have to reattach the actuator and then manually push it through its arc and work out where to put a new stop so it stays within parameters to compensate for the linkage wear. It sounds to me like the garage has cleaned the manifold and not made the alterations to ensure the actuator remains within the set parameters and it is throwing the fault as a result. If they have cleaned the manifold correctly the swirl flaps should move easily. Hope this makes sense. I will try to find the link which covered this.
cheers
Jim