Anyone mucked about with Vauxhall/Alfa/Saab dieseasal swirl flaps?

[Urko]

Stepdad's Signum 1.9 150 has been condemned by the garage as the bar operating the swirl flaps has dropped off.

 

He is lookkng for a new car, but as I don't have enough shite to deal with, am considering offering him something suitably derisory for it as it's otherwise quite a decent motor with a good (known) long history with him.

 

As usual, t'internet is littered with stories about the issue ranging from people paying Vauxall dealers a million pounds every three months to fix it, to others saying their 10p fix not only solved the problem, but gave better performance, fuel economy, world peace and stopped Elton Jobn doing any more gigs.

 

Anyone got any war stories?

[SiC]

I fixed my Saab 9-3 150bhp diesel swirl flaps by gluing numberplate caps onto the rod - used just the bit with the hole in. Worked at utter treat and the engine gained back its torqueyness. This lasted for a good 8 months - until the car was written odd from being rear ended and me shunted.

 

It did need the correct type of glue to hold. Iirc I used epoxy resin.

 

There are repair kits on eBay that look a bit less bodgy than number plate caps.

 

Afaik there is little risk of the flaps being sucked in like they are on BMWs. But tbh, considering to replace the intake manifold is a cambelt + fuel pump job, there isn't much to loose on an older car like that IMO.

[Bren]

I know they are not difficult to blank off on a BMW.

 

Has the engine ingested anything?

[SiC]

Put it this way, it worked so well, I wouldn't hesitate buying another one with that problem (and a suitable discount) and doing it again.

[LabRat]

There is a cure- basically the cheap plastic nubs on the bar have broken off or worn out.

 

You can get a kit that replaces them with brass connections- http://m.ebay.co.uk/itm/VAUXHALL-CDTI-SAAB-TID-MANIFOLD-SWIRL-FLAP-ROD-REPAIR-1-9-150BHP-Brass-/151087231742

 

It's a ballache to do properly as space is a bit of a bastard, but will cure the problem.

 

The other option is to pull the inlet manifold and remove the swirls, putting blanking plugs in place, but it's a timing belt off job and you need to leave the actuator in place or remove it off the car with Tech2.

 

The shitters fix of choice would be to screw the rod straight onto the swirls with small self tappers, but you'd have to keep nipping them up every month or the bar will fall off!

 

(If I remember right, the actuator is on no3, so you could theoretically remove the bar and glue the other 3 ports half open, leaving no3 to work and no emls... Not the ideal cure though)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SiC]

To blank them on these requires the manifold off, with the above work to get it off. They have the actuator on the bottom of the manifold which would need removing - the other side is the top where the bar attaches to.

[Urko]

Thanks all - so that 10p fix wasn't an isolated case!

 

Typically, some git just up the road bas just listed a 1.7 Puma on ebay that looks tasty (rusty).

[Urko]

Meant to say, my Stepdad's hasn't ingested anything - I think the mode of failure on these is a bit more benign than the fabulously engineered BMW ones - no stories of lunched engines online.

 

That's worth knowing about having to take the bleedin timing belt off though - I was stupidly thinking removing the inlet manifold on the Vauxhall couldn't be worse than on a KV6 - ha!

[SiC]

4, 44 and 23 please.

[Urko]

Ok, thanks for all the input folks, this isn't going to happen. The garage offered him 700 sheets on a trade in, which was a tad salty for me to come up with as the disco has just come back with a new compressor and transfer valve (and a massive bill), so he took it.

[SiC]

Fair price for a trade in on one tbh. Probably end up thrown straight into an auction and leave some one else to fix it.

[Urko]

Yeah - I was hoping they'd be offering more of a rip-off price