Hi all, well at last found myself a nice 2003 X5 3.0D , been looking a while and this one came along, alls well, but did notice on hard acceleration it does puff out smoke, not excesive ammounts, but enough to see, been reading up and found a stainless steel EGR bypass mod on ebay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BMW-E39-E46-530-330D-X3-X5-EGR-BYPASS-KIT-STAINLESS-STEEL-TUBE-/141180995890?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item20df0b0932 but my question is , is thie what the call the swirly flap blankning off bypass, or is this just the EGR bypass, are the two different? whats the advantage of doing one or both

thanks in advance, great car, love it !!

much better than the merc XL 2.7d i had ;)

If its just dark smoke for a short period whilst under heavy load and full throttle and disappears at the next upshift its normal, its just clearing its self out, I have seen many of them do this after a period of town running, mine does the same.

Wouldn't be putting that bypass on if it was me, they don't like getting mucked around with and the blanking plates are for the inlet manifold, the blanking plates take the place of the swirl flaps once they have been removed,, the 4 cylinder diesel engines suffer very badly from swallowing swirl flaps but your 6 cylinder unit is a harder beast but it has happened, I had an E60 530d that started to make a slight noise so I took the manifold off and a swirl flap came off in my hand with a slight tug but it had done over 160k, if yours were to swallow a swirl flap its a major disaster and really expensive to sort, when I bought my current one the previous owner had gotten a new manifold fitted just in case so has saved me the worry or bother, and that to would be my advice to you if its done a few miles.

Stephen

e53 x5's don't have the swirl flaps! so ignore that mod, that egr bypass is cheap and nasty, find an aluminium one with a grnuine bmw gasket and that will ensure no future egr problems but what your describing is just what every diesel vehicle does, especially a heavy 4x4 model as it has a lot of vehicle to move. bit like when you floor a diesel car they smoke from little to total blackout behind just depends on driving style and vehicle maintenance. sounds like yours is fine and personally id leave it as is

check for boost leaks ie tur bo hoses