VRCustoms

I have Bmw X3 2007 with 131 000 km on tacho. I noticed that it is not runnig smoothlly on idle and I also read a lot of swirl flaps problems on web. So I decided to check egr valve and remove flaps at the same time.

You need to remove engine both engine covers, disconnect vacum hoses and injector connections hoses on egr valve, air filter with housing and strut tower bar. I forgot to take picture of engine without intake manifold.

After I removed it, you can see a lot of carbon on flaps.

Egr valve

Use carb cleaner to remove carbon and knife or something similar.

Then sand them and clean them.

I also cleaned intake manifold with carb cleaner and knife. Inside I sprayed with carb cleaner and left it over the night. In the morning  I used high pressure washer with hot water to remove almost all carb from inside. I aslo cleaned egr valve.

Carbon removed from egr valve

Then you install flaps back to intake. Connect vacum hoses and install operating rod. ECU still operates flaps so you won’t see any errors on your dash.

 

After clean up and removal of flaps, i noticed nice increase of power and torque. 

I wish I’d took more pictures of procedure, but  my hands were very dirty and my gopro battery was empty.