INLET MANIFOLD MOTOR CHANGE ON A 3.OL S-LINE.

[johnmandy]

Hi everyone,

Over the last 6 months my inlet manifold motor gave up,on bank 2, probably due to being sited near to the turbo.
Anyway a new motor which according to audi also needs the inlet manifold changing comes in very expensive, when challenged on why a new inlet manifold is needed, audi really couldn,t answer apart from saying the manifold maybe stiff or worn.
I,ve checked the state of the manifold and flap and its certainly as free and clean as bank 1, so no problems there.
Now my question, could i just replace the motor, i have full vcds, or as audi state do i need specialist tools, i am able to dismantle the old motor without problem.
Just for reference, this motor problem throws up no faults lights, emissions perfect, just had its MOT and wouldn,t have been detected without vcds.

A word of caution for those looking to buy the 3.0 litre version variant, check these motors. When googling the problem, its surprising how many of these problems are out there.
My car is a 2007 b7 a4 3.0 saloon.

Many thanks to those who may reply.

john

 

[chrisa4quat]

as long as the flap motor is secure the light will be off, i know of an a6 where they have secured it with a screw and seems to have done the trick

 

[B5NUT]

This also affects the 2.7 I know someone who has got the same fault. I'm looking on eBay for a replacement inlet manifold as the price for a new one is almost £500. I have a mate who is an Audi tech and he say's they have had a lot of these 3.0 & 2.7 coming in at the moment with that fault. He also said if one side is going the other will be on it's way out.

 

[rowdyboy]

I take it this is the Tdi you are talking about?

 

[B5NUT]

he talked about the manifold being near the turbo so I figured it was the 3.0 TDi rather than the 3.2 N/A engine.

 

[johnmandy]

Yes its the 3.0 litre tdi,
This problem can be a quick and cheaper fix, maybe just changing the motor.
But i still need advice on wheather its possible without specialist tools, it would be no good changing it if theres a tool to maybe to set the limits on the motor, or similar.

 

[rowdyboy]

How is this problem detected, warning signs etc, if it doesn't throw up any faults??

 

[B5NUT]

It depends on the fault code on the manifold. My mates a4 has the engine management light on, and there is only that fault on the engine. Car appears to drive fine, and you can clear the fault but comes back when you start driving the car.

 

[quattro tony]

Hi john, ive changed a couple of these on a a6 2.7 tdi, The problem ive seen is the plastic rod between the motor and manifold wears and comes off. Ive looked into just buying the motor in the past only to be told by audi they didnt know if i just bought the motor on its own if it comes with the new rod, so i opted to change the whole lot , was expensive but im glad i did it as the flaps had worn on the spindles. It wasnt a too bad job to do, you do have to take a fair few bits off like fuel pipes, top part of the manifold ect.... but i didnt have to use any specialist tools, and it didnt need to be programmed with diagnostics, i just cleared the fault code and its been fine. I did the job many months ago and the customer has reported no problems, it gets used everyday. The reason you can clear it and then it comes back on is, when you turn the igntion off and on again the motors do a sweep test, open and close the flaps and if there is something wrong it will throw up the fault, something like : inlet manifold postion motor upper / lower limits exceeded bank 1 / bank 2. The new ones have been modified and the plastic rod is more substantial. , On this particular car one side of the manifold rod had come off and the other side looked ok and was free but it kept logging the fault code in the memory even though the light wasnt on, I only came across it when i was servicing it and did a scan of the ecu. When i took it off i found wear in the flap spindles. I hope this helps

 

[johnmandy]

How is this problem detected, warning signs etc, if it doesn't throw up any faults??

Hi rowdyboy,

I didn,t know i had a problem until i bought the full version of vcds and did a scan, whats strange is the light only came on about once every 6 months, untill i had a service from audi, it now comes on about every three days, but a quick stop and start sorts it out.
For some reason it doesn,t effect the performance of the car, passing a recent mot, just the dam light coming on occasionally.

 

[johnmandy]

Hi john, ive changed a couple of these on a a6 2.7 tdi, The problem ive seen is the plastic rod between the motor and manifold wears and comes off. Ive looked into just buying the motor in the past only to be told by audi they didnt know if i just bought the motor on its own if it comes with the new rod, so i opted to change the whole lot , was expensive but im glad i did it as the flaps had worn on the spindles. It wasnt a too bad job to do, you do have to take a fair few bits off like fuel pipes, top part of the manifold ect.... but i didnt have to use any specialist tools, and it didnt need to be programmed with diagnostics, i just cleared the fault code and its been fine. I did the job many months ago and the customer has reported no problems, it gets used everyday. The reason you can clear it and then it comes back on is, when you turn the igntion off and on again the motors do a sweep test, open and close the flaps and if there is something wrong it will throw up the fault, something like : inlet manifold postion motor upper / lower limits exceeded bank 1 / bank 2. The new ones have been modified and the plastic rod is more substantial. , On this particular car one side of the manifold rod had come off and the other side looked ok and was free but it kept logging the fault code in the memory even though the light wasnt on, I only came across it when i was servicing it and did a scan of the ecu. When i took it off i found wear in the flap spindles. I hope this helps

Thanks quattro tony,
That sounds good news, i may after my return from holidays recheck the operation of the flap assembly, and check its ok and not worn, being a toolmaker by trade i,ll try and manufacture a new stainless steel rod and just replace the motor, i.ll post my results if sucessful.

cheers john

 

[rowdyboy]

BMW's had a problem with swirl flaps on the inlet manifold, is this the same kind of thing does anyone know? The cheapest fix for that was to remove the flaps and plug the holes, I know a lot of people who did this and not one of them could tell any difference in either performance or MPG afterwards.

 

[quattro tony]

Hi, yeah bmw's had a big problem with the flaps spindle rods wearing out and they break with the flap getting sucked into the engine, Ive personally done two of these, 1 had to have a new engine and the other i managed to save with new piston and repaired head, does soo much damage. Ive not come accross of the audi v6 tdi's dong the same tbh. The bmw ones seemed to both go around 60k mark without warning . Im not aware of any repair / upgrade kit for the audi ones but yes the bmw ones can be done.Couple of pics i had below.