Palmo

To be honest I think you have hit the nail on the head! Being careful - VERY CAREFUL - from cold is key, as is cooling down after a long / hard run. I reckon the majority of people don't follow these guidelines and then have some 'serious' problems later on. Equally to this is 'careful' running in of the engine when new. Too many people IMHO drive cars too hard during 'run-in' period leading to untold problems later in the cars life..... higher than normal oil consumption, component failures etc.

My view is to take some careful consideration from new (running-in), and warm up / cool down carefully along with proper maintenance and the car will pay you back with less problems. Of course no matter how you treat your car, there is always the potential of component failure which is the luck of the draw, but I reckon the chances are greatly reduced.

Non of this means you can't enjoy your car - mine is driven pretty hard quite a bit of the time but only when fully warm - even more critical with an all aluminium engine - and always cooled down properly. I also ensure I only use the best quality fuel - another critical part IMHO.

Anzafin

Hey Palmo!

You can check it out yourself if you have them or not !
The procedure is extremely easy:
1. Remove the plastic cover of the engine.
2. With a mirror, check if you can see the long axel of a flap moving mechanism on the left side of engine. It locates
on the bottom side of intake manifold.

Don't remind the text in the pic!

In this pic you can see the long axel you're looking for!


If you don't have it, you don't have the flaps. If you do, you have them. :thumbsdown:

E60Sim

We have had it since day no 1, and followed the running in procedure. Furthermore we have a electric heater installed, which always is used during cold mornings (up to 10C), which heats the oil, so the engine reach its operating temperature faster.

A friend of mine picked me up the other day (in a Fiat 2.0TDI) and floored it with a cold engine, even though is was a Fiat, I told him the importance of not stressing the engine when it is cold. He wasn't aware of that

Palmo

My father has his own garage. Over the years he has seen (and indeed I have on many occasions when visiting) engines that have failed with relatively low miles. Upon further investigation and after chatting with the owner - and even observing how the owner drives during a test drive / pulling away it becomes apparent why!

For example I have a neighbour who recently had a 335i coupe, and who has now changed for an M3 (before these he had the old shape 330 cabrio etc.). Every morning he starts up from cold, back's out of the garage, leaves it idling for 30 seconds whilst he closes his garage door, then pulls away with full throttle for approx 100 metres (to the end of the road), eases off at the junction, when clear - full throttle again and heads off like that! His view is simple..... he won't own the car long enough for it to be a problem, but even questions that it will cause any damage at all. Again his view is that engine materials are "much stronger these days".....! I'm waiting for the big bang!

Palmo

UPDATE:

I have just been and checked to see if mine has the "Swirl Flaps" or not - I followed the instructions kindly supplied by 'Anzafin'.

I can confirm that mine DOESN'T seem to have these - I am 95% sure of this, although it is awkward to fully see with the Manifold on the car, but by using a mirror and closely inspecting (with the engine cover removed) it certainly doesn't appear to have these fitted as shown in the pictures.

So what does that tell us.....

1. Newer LCI owners (including myself) don't have to worry about this issue!
2. This MUST indicate that BMW themselves ARE aware of the issue and have modified the manifold on later cars accordingly. I would have thought therefore that these can indeed be removed on earlier cars..... however, surely the car's ECU is programmed to take account of these been present, in which case I guess an update to the cars software would really be needed to fully ensure no problems occur without them - just my opinion the last part.

Anzafin

Good for you! It is surely quite tight place to see properly, but I believe you inspected it with caution .

You may be right with your statement about the possibility to take them off on earlier models and updating ECU after the procedure.
I'm gonna ask this Finnish guy (who got them uninstalled by dealer) about his procedure!

BasRed

I just spoke to BMW customer care here in Holland and they state that they have heard of the problem, the guy I spoke to recognises it as a known issue, but it's not (as we know) a formally recognised BMW issue. He couldn't tell me anything more about it, advised me to go to a dealer... That's the first thing I'll do when I pick it up next week! ;-)

Any more information welcome!

Anzafin

Ok, here we go again

I contacted the dealer, which had removed the swirl flaps from one of their customer's car.
I asked is this really true they had done it and if so, was any reprogramming needed. I also
asked if they had any information from BMW itself and what is their (dealer) opinion about this issue.

They kindly replied that they had removed them and no reprogramming was needed .
No instructions from BMW (surprise surprise...), but they assured that removing the flaps will not affect
the engine anyhow. Only that it won't brake down because of those suckers anymore .

So maybe I'm gonna do another surgery on my car this summer .

BasRed

Anzafin, you're a star!

Thank you so much again for your information. I'm about to go on holiday for a week but when I come back I'm gonna slap my dealer around the head with this information! ;-)

Palmo

+1 - agree that there is some good information from Anzafin here - I'm just lucky that this issue doesn't seem to affect my car.


On another note I am interested to see the outcome from the original poster 'RobyO'?