Swirl Flap Removal and Inlet Manifold Kit in Uprated

An engine overhaul kit: swirl flaps on the M47 and M57 come loose and go through the engine, and the accepted fix is a blanking kit with the manifold cleaned and the EGR left fully functional.

We are an independent parts supplier. We are not BMW AG or MINI, we are not appointed by them, and BMW and MINI are their trademarks. What we sell are parts that fit those cars, described as such. Every listing states the chassis codes and engine codes it fits, the production date range, which quality tier you are buying, the labour time the job actually takes, and whether the part needs coding to the car before it will work. Where a part is only made in plastic by the factory and fails because it is plastic, we say so and we offer the metal one.

Specification and fitment

• Fits: 3 Series E46 E90 E91 E92 E93 F30, 5 Series E39 E60 F10, X3 E83 F25, X5 E53 E70, 1 Series E87 F20
• Engine: chosen above. These cars change mid production, sometimes twice in a model year, and two cars built four months apart can take different parts. Send us the last seven digits of your VIN with the order and we check the part against the build record before anything is dispatched. It takes us two minutes and it is the difference between a part that fits and a return.
• Production dates: 1998 to 2018 depending on chassis and engine
• Quality: redesigned where the original failed. On this site that usually means metal where the factory used plastic, or a reinforced guide where the original wore through, and the specification says exactly what was changed
• Part number: cross referenced to the original equipment number for your VIN and confirmed before dispatch. We do not publish a single number against a listing that covers several build variants, because that is how people order the wrong part
• The failure this addresses: the specific failure named in the title, with the symptoms and the diagnosis set out on this page rather than assumed
• Labour time: three to five hours on a VANOS or breather kit, eight to fourteen on a cylinder head, and a full engine out job on the rebuild kit
• Coding: no coding, but the adaptation values want resetting with a diagnostic tool afterwards or the car will run on the old learned figures for a while
• Also needed: engine oil and filter afterwards, new stretch bolts throughout, and a coolant change where the head comes off
• Torque: every head bolt and VANOS bolt is single use, torqued then angled. On the six cylinder VANOS the sprocket bolts are famous for backing out, and the kit includes the later specification bolts and the correct thread lock
• Weight: approximately 11.2 kilograms
• Warranty: two years or 24,000 miles, whichever comes first
• Diagnose first: a VANOS fault code is not a VANOS unit. Nine times out of ten it is a solenoid, which is a hundred pounds and twenty minutes, and it is worth proving that before anything bigger comes apart
• Emissions: We do not sell diesel particulate filter deletes, catalyst deletes, EGR blanks or emissions defeat software. They are illegal on a road car in the UK, they are an MOT failure, and they invalidate insurance. Everything on the performance pages here keeps the emissions equipment intact, because that is the only kind of performance part worth fitting to a car you drive on a road.
• Swirl flaps: the blanking kit removes the flaps that come loose and destroy engines. The EGR stays fully functional, because removing that is illegal and we will not supply it
• Sprocket bolts: on the M52 and M54 VANOS the sprocket bolts back out and wreck the engine. The later bolts and the correct thread locking compound are in every kit here

What arrives

• every seal, gasket and O ring in the job
• solenoids where the kit includes them
• single use stretch bolts and the later specification sprocket bolts
• thread locking compound
• printed instructions with torque figures and angles
• the special tools the job needs

Fitting

Three to five hours on the smaller kits and a good deal more on a cylinder head. The special tools are in the kit, which on a VANOS job is most of the reason people pay somebody else. Reset the adaptations afterwards or the car will run on its old learned values for a while and feel wrong.

Which version to buy

Before you buy anything on this page, have the fault properly diagnosed. A VANOS code is usually a forty pound solenoid rather than a thousand pound overhaul, oil under the car is usually one of two gaskets rather than a rear main seal, and a rattle at idle is more often a dual mass flywheel than a timing chain. We will read a fault list for free and tell you which of those it is.