We all know the swirl flaps can cause problems because the links get worn and the servo cant initialise within the correct limits, which most people repair by simply replacing the links (I opted for another approach of a bit of copper wire for one side and a small metal plate for the other). But I was wondering if there have been any reports of any of the 3.0Tdi engines ever suffering from complete failure due to the internals of the swirl flap system failing and entering the valves? As most do not replace the internals, just the outer links...
Not that I have ever heard of. I replaced the links on my car at around 75K because it was intermittently reporting swirl flap issues. Just started reporting them again at 120K . Everything is plastic unlike some cars such as BMW's where the swirl flaps are metal and end up being ingested and wreck the engine.
That's good to know. So I've no need to worry about replacing them anytime soon then. Ive made mine work as follows, very crude but it's doing the job and cost nothing. No fault codes recorded since doing it.
The actual flaps are on a metal rod inside the lower manifold and run through plastic bushes which wear through. These then put extra load on the motors causing DTC to be shown. I have seen some cars whereby Audi appear to have re enforced the bushing with hard plastic inserts which seems to work well. But as you can imagine the lower intakes are not cheap from Audi.
