De-Coke for £2k - yeah right!

[Ranger 6]

Just been told by my local BMW service centre that my car needs a new intake manifold and a de-coke - £2000 of your finest English pounds please?

Symptoms: EML comes on after a long journey, it then goes off the next day - the dealer won't tell me which codes have been read from the car. They said that the inlet manifold needs replacing as it's partially blocked.

Not a hope - it's off to TWG for someone who knows what they're doing to have a look...... If they say the inlet manifold is blocked then fine, I'll pay for it's replacement, but my spidysense thinks that BMW have got it wrong.

[Mr Tidy]

Sorry to hear of your problem OP.

Out of curiosity what engine does your car have? N53 maybe?

But TWG Automotive will sort it - that's where I've taken all my BMWs for the last 4 years.

[Mike335i]

I paid about £300ish for a walnut blast to clean the INTAKE on my N54. That was a Soper BMW.

[Ranger 6]

Drove it home with the dreaded 'drivetrain fault' all over the dash and no power.

Called the garage and they said 'well we may have disturbed some of the carbon in the inlet which triggered the fault'

No, actually your technician didn't put it back together after the investigation and the main inlet pipe from the intercooler wasn't connected - oh and another emissions pipe by the EGR cooler had been left off as well.

Useless fkers!

Thanks to Will at TWG for his offer of help to clear the fault - I called BMW assistance and they were superb, turned up in 15 minutes and fixed the lot, cleared the fault codes so the thing is back to health today.

I'll update when it goes in to TWG next month.

MrTidy - yes, I've been using TWG for 6-7 years now. Highly recommended!!

[MikeGoodwin]

and people want FBMWSH..... fking consistently disgraceful behaviour.

[Ranger 6]

Mr Tidy said:

...Out of curiosity what engine does your car have? N53 maybe?

Sorry, missed this - realoem tells me it's an N57 (2012 X3 35d)

[Ninja59]

Not surprising what mileage is the car at?

It will be the carbon build up in the inlet manifold from exhaust gasses coming back round...

[stevesingo]

I think there is a recall on the EGR coolers for these engines.

[Ninja59]

stevesingo said:

I think there is a recall on the EGR coolers for these engines.

Not a recall, but technical campaign, which in reality will mean most will only get it done when it fails or is in for other work.

[Ranger 6]

Mine was replaced last year - the warranty coughed up for that one.

[Mr Tidy]

Ranger 6 said:

Sorry, missed this - realoem tells me it's an N57 (2012 X3 35d)

Oh right - I was under the impression this was only an issue on the DI petrol engines.

Based on Will's advice both my BMWs are N/A straight 6 petrols!

[Ranger 6]

Ninja59 said:

Not surprising what mileage is the car at?

It will be the carbon build up in the inlet manifold from exhaust gasses coming back round...

Mileage is nearly 83k - so actually the whole thing is a surprise as I understand the carbon build up is more prevalent in engines which have only done short runs.

I use Millers addictive when I can and also do an annual Forte treatment for the injectors, turbo, dpf so as precautionary measures I'm not sure what else I could do other than blanking the EGR off.

The other strange thing for me is that the emissions light only comes on after a long run (150 miles+) and then goes off the next day when I'm on my commute.

Off to Yorkshire this weekend, will be doing 700+ miles, so will see what happens.