Bimmerbee

Hi All, Update on my post asking for info on swirl flaps. It appears that the function of the swirl flaps is to provide a bit of extra low speed torque/drivability by 'swirling the mixture' as it enters the cylinders. I have taken the plunge and eventually had them removed and replaced with a set of blanking plates from Swirlflaps.co.uk. I think you would be hard pushed to notice any difference in performance on a standard 3.0SD but I must admit that I can detect just a hint of a flatspot in my re-mapped engine. I think I will have to have it put back on a rolling road and fine tuned to optimise the fuelling. Its been 30K miles since the re-map so it may be a good time to check out how the engine is doing anyway!

I been made aware that some BMW diesel engines have something called 'swirl flaps' fitted to the inlet manifold (check out vids on Youtube). Apparently these items are prone to falling apart and then get ingested into the engine causing major damage to pistons, valves, cylinder head etc. It seems the remedy is to remove the swirl flaps and fit a replacement blanking plate in their place. Has anyone experienced or heard of this problem? Does anyone know what the swirl flaps are supposed to do? They must be part of the engine design for a reason so does removing them have a detrimental affect on power, economy or CO2g/km?

Be wary of cheap remaps! Personally I would source a company with a rolling road and a reputation for tuning BMW's. The advantage of using a rolling road to remap your engine is that you get an accurate measure of any changes the remap has made to power and torque output and not just a general estimated figure. The rolling road will also show up any problems that your engine may have before adding more stress to it by upping fuelling and boost pressures etc. When my 3.0sd X3 was remapped it only made 278bhp as a standard output (should have been 286bhp) but the torque was over standard spec at 440lbsft. After tweaking the settings on the rolling road it now produces 340bhp and 510lbsft. This approach to tuning costs a bit more (around £499) but its worth knowing exactly what you have got for your money!

After my local BMW dealer quoted £455 to replace my front discs and pads I decided to hunt down some genuine BMW parts and have a go at doing the job myself. There are plenty of non genuine replacement parts available but after some internet surfing I managed to order a set of genuine discs & pads (plus sensors and lubricant paste)from a reputable online company at a much more reasonable cost. Fitting the parts was surprisingly straight forward and I managed to do the job in around 2hrs which has saved me just on £200. I probably could have done it quicker but as the car is very heavy I wanted to make sure I jacked it up safely before removing the wheels. Do any of you X3 owners attempt any DIY maintenance?

Hi all, I am new to this forum but I thought I would share some thoughts on my ownership of my X3. I bought a silver grey 57 reg 3.0sd about three months ago and is the first BMW that I have owned. It had 20K miles and the previous owner must have liked putting the ticks in the boxes on the options list as it was nearly 47K when new! I paid just over 22K for it from a specialist! It has the full motorsport package (and a load of other goodies)and is fantastic to drive. Yes the ride is a bit on the harsh side but you get used to it. The standard vehicle was reasonbly quick but I have gone a bit mad and had a rolling road remap (Evolve)taking power up an astonishing 340bhp/510lbstft torque. Apart from the amazing performance I also get another 3mpg on an average journey of mixed driving. If I drive at around 65mph on a longer journey I get around 39 to 40mpg, for the day to day mixed journey stuff I regularly get mid thirties consumption and when you feel like being a bit of a hooligan it drops to around 29mpg when using the extra performance. Running costs can be a bit on the steep side, BMW dealers in my area (South East)charge upward of £120 per hour for servicing and genuine parts are not cheap either although I have just found a good source of BMW spares (BMMiniparts.com) and a good local BMW servicing specialist with BMW trained technicians. Tyres for the optional 19in rims cost an absolute fortune (around £220+ per corner)as they are specially made for BMW, road tax is in the top band for the 3.0sd vehicles manufactured up to 2008 - some small engine management tweaks for the 2008 onwards models see the emissions dropping from 232g/km to 208g/km and nicely into the £225 a year tax band. Shame I didn't know this before I bought mine! Althought the car is a pleasure to drive I have also experienced the negative side of BMW ownership. My car was unmarked when I picked it up but in my short period of ownership it has already been dented (3 parking dents)on both sides and been given a completely unjustified parking ticket for having one of the rear wheels partway over a white line! Other drivers now refuse to let me out of side roads and will not let me in when queueing in traffic which I certainly did not experience with my previous car - a VW Passat. I guess it's somethng I will just have to get used to!