Evening all, I have been having ongoing swirl flap issues which I have recently resolved, info has been a bit sparse while I've been doing it so I thought I'd write it all down.
I've got a 2008 3.0TDI with 135k on the clock.
My problem was around bank 2 (passenger side), the idea with swirl flaps is that they close up at lower engine revs and close the inlet manifold area, this increases the air velocity and mixing in the engine and improves low down power. As the revs rise the flaps open to allow the air to flow into the engine more easily and improve power at the top end.
On the V6 the flaps have a little linkage arm that connects to a motor on the top of each bank, each motor drives the flaps open and close but also report their position to the engine control module, if the position is something unexpected the module opens the flaps fully and leaves them there, the engine management light is also lit.
The codes can be p2015, p2017 or others, mine was always p202000.
The usual solution is to change the linkage arms, these wear and the motor/sensor goes out of spec, I changed these linkage arms around 20k miles ago and the problem went away for a while.
Unfortunately the problem came back after around a year of driving, I changed the arms again but this didn't help, I progressed onto changing the swirl flaps and the plastic clips that hold them in place to take any free play out of this area, this involves getting the inlet manifolds off so is a little more involved. The flaps were solid but the problem remained.
I then got a second hand motor from ebay and fitted this, I checked the movement before I fitted it by plugging in the cable and watching it as I started the car, the motor did just what it was meant to so I fitted it properly.
Disappointingly the warning came back and I was no better off.
It appears that during initial set up a proprietary computer is used to calibrate the motor to the flap's movement range so putting a new motor onto an old manifold probably wont have the correct calibration and the error will return. For this reason, if at any point you take your car to Audi they prescribe a new manifold and motor assembly, already calibrated, for at least £500 plus fitting.
At this point after a few tears I wondered if I could frig the range slightly, I had seen bolt on physical stops that prevent the motor moving too far. I took a chance and gave the linkage a little push, pretending to be a bolt on stop, it sprang back to life.
Rather than buying a stop I thought I could achieve the same thing by raising the motor slightly in order to change how the motor sat in relation to the linkage, I put washers under the motor mounting bolts.
Hey presto the thing works!
Its possible to fix these things cheaply and there is plenty of info out there about worn linkages but the whole calibration thing took some working out.
Here's to having the engine management light off for a while!
I've got a 2008 3.0TDI with 135k on the clock.
My problem was around bank 2 (passenger side), the idea with swirl flaps is that they close up at lower engine revs and close the inlet manifold area, this increases the air velocity and mixing in the engine and improves low down power. As the revs rise the flaps open to allow the air to flow into the engine more easily and improve power at the top end.
On the V6 the flaps have a little linkage arm that connects to a motor on the top of each bank, each motor drives the flaps open and close but also report their position to the engine control module, if the position is something unexpected the module opens the flaps fully and leaves them there, the engine management light is also lit.
The codes can be p2015, p2017 or others, mine was always p202000.
The usual solution is to change the linkage arms, these wear and the motor/sensor goes out of spec, I changed these linkage arms around 20k miles ago and the problem went away for a while.
Unfortunately the problem came back after around a year of driving, I changed the arms again but this didn't help, I progressed onto changing the swirl flaps and the plastic clips that hold them in place to take any free play out of this area, this involves getting the inlet manifolds off so is a little more involved. The flaps were solid but the problem remained.
I then got a second hand motor from ebay and fitted this, I checked the movement before I fitted it by plugging in the cable and watching it as I started the car, the motor did just what it was meant to so I fitted it properly.
Disappointingly the warning came back and I was no better off.
It appears that during initial set up a proprietary computer is used to calibrate the motor to the flap's movement range so putting a new motor onto an old manifold probably wont have the correct calibration and the error will return. For this reason, if at any point you take your car to Audi they prescribe a new manifold and motor assembly, already calibrated, for at least £500 plus fitting.
At this point after a few tears I wondered if I could frig the range slightly, I had seen bolt on physical stops that prevent the motor moving too far. I took a chance and gave the linkage a little push, pretending to be a bolt on stop, it sprang back to life.
Rather than buying a stop I thought I could achieve the same thing by raising the motor slightly in order to change how the motor sat in relation to the linkage, I put washers under the motor mounting bolts.
Hey presto the thing works!
Its possible to fix these things cheaply and there is plenty of info out there about worn linkages but the whole calibration thing took some working out.
Here's to having the engine management light off for a while!
