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BMW diesel engine breathers - have you checked yours?
DarrenW - 19/3/09 at 03:00 PM

Just thought id let you know what ive found out so that hopefully, if you have similar car, you wont fall foul.

As with most engines, BMW diesels have a crankcase breather filter / oil seperator unit. On the BMW diesel engine, such filter wasnt part of the service schedule until recently. When old and partially blocked, pressure is increased, turbo seals can be popped out and turbo dies.

Allegedly BMW forced Garrett to investigate turbo failure in pre Nov2003 150bhp 2.0D engines. New design turbo didnt completely resolve it, putting the breathers onto the service schedule helped significantly (all from what ive been told).

For BMW owners, the breather seems to be main dealer only - approx £40.
For TD4 owners, the element can be bought for about a tenner. Again i dont think the breather is on service schedule for TD4's but same rules apply.

I know the 3.0D has very similar breather, probs worth replacing them on those too.

Can i also say if you suspect you have one with the infamous injector trouble - get them seen to without delay and dont use easy start to get engine started. i suspect my no.3 injector was overfuelling and washed the bores / put diesel into oil which also damaged the turbo.


Oh - its also worth removing the swirl flaps from 2.0D inlet manifold if you have a particular build date - BMWLand has details.



I should probs also say dont look at tinternet forums to find out what the common faults are on your car. I had 3 years trouble free motoring until the day i registered with BMWLand. I only did so to get info on changing oil myself to save some money!


owelly - 19/3/09 at 03:06 PM

HAAAAHAAAA! You said swirlflaps!!!


DarrenW - 19/3/09 at 03:07 PM




Just PMSL


hobbsy - 19/3/09 at 03:39 PM

First thing I did when I got my M47 engined E46 was change the oil "loo roll" breather filter that clogs for the new "vortex" style filter.

That and get rid of the crappy EGR valve which fills the intake manifold with oily sooty rubbish (and arguably may contribute to intake manifold probs - including flaps falling off).

Yes I said it again owelly - FLAPS - but falling off this time rather than swirling


Jasper - 19/3/09 at 04:49 PM

Sounds like I need to do this - already had a turbo go on a E39 6 year old 3D engine with only 70k on the clock.....


Jasper - 19/3/09 at 04:49 PM

Sounds like I need to do this - already had a turbo go on a E39 6 year old 3D engine with only 70k on the clock..... and I haven't even chipped it yet!


nstrug - 19/3/09 at 07:18 PM

Thanks for the headsup - I will check this.

I have a 9 year old chipped 330d (E46) and with 150k miles on the clock I think it may be living on borrowed time.

Luckily the first generation of the E46 330d didn't have swirl flaps (on the manual anyway).

I have a mind to get an E91 330d, bit I'm a bit worried that they haven't been out long enough to reveal any serious issues yet.

Nick


Rob Palin - 19/3/09 at 08:36 PM

I had a problem with a blocked crankcase breather and it resulted in my intake manifold splitting - with a mighty boom!

Found out later that the filter in the breather was originally intended to last the life of the car but has now become a serviceable item. I was told main dealers should do it as standard, though i don't know at what mileage. Not all independents know about it, it seems, as mine was regularly serviced by one but still went kablooey!