Swirl Arm low cost repair!

[Thassos]

On mine one of the four retainers in the socket had broken off, (a pic attached). The reason the link gets a bashing is when it self calibrates, driving the arm fully each way. You might want to consider fitting the volvo 'nail' kit and a rubber stop as mentioned on some older posts, it worked for me, no more swirl arm problems for 30K+ miles)

[younger06]

Would a problem with this swirl arm make fuel consumption very inconsistent??

[cbrown1360]

Presumably will depend on rest position of swirl valves. As in previous comments could someone please confirm open / closed postion of valves on 2007 185PS D5 i.e. arm towards engine or towards motor?

[Newtovolvoxc90]

Originally Posted by Thassos

On mine one of the four retainers in the socket had broken off, (a pic attached). The reason the link gets a bashing is when it self calibrates, driving the arm fully each way. You might want to consider fitting the volvo 'nail' kit and a rubber stop as mentioned on some older posts, it worked for me, no more swirl arm problems for 30K+ miles)

Same here, bit diddly, and with BG fingers was a nightmare to fit.
Had to buy a second "nail" as lost one in the engine bay somewhere, but managed to fit it, and the message disappeared

[Thassos]

Yes its definitely a fiddly one to fit, making the hole also needs to be done with care, glad it fixed your problem at least you can see what goes on with it, fitting the rubber stop is a good option to avoid more bashing of the repaired linkage as replacing the whole swirl flap setup is an expensive repair..

[tt82]

Originally Posted by cbrown1360

Presumably will depend on rest position of swirl valves. As in previous comments could someone please confirm open / closed postion of valves on 2007 185PS D5 i.e. arm towards engine or towards motor?

I can't even find mine to have a look!

[Thassos]

I think the throttles are closed during engine shutdown/low revs (found an old pic I took when trying to fix the arm with a rubber band approach !) attached.

Also attached a pdf showing the throttles (the bit you cant see inside the engine), to give an idea of what they do..

[Jetmech]

The throttles are closed during low engine demand, but open when the engine is shut off or starting.
This is how I have our D5's tethered permanently open. It has been like this for 3 years with no issues. There are no alerts, but a code is generated for the actuator being out of limits.

[sibrown]

have been getting codes and discovered the arm on my 06 d5 keeps popping off at the engine side.
So figured that either the ball on the arm is worn or the receiving socket is worn/ now too big . Removed arm and dripped super glue over the ball socket on the arm . Next I took a latex glove and wrapped the ball in latex then trimmed with a blade.
I have therefore coated the ball on the arm in a layer of latex in order to make it thicker and grip the receiving socket. So far so good.

[VVTi]

Depending on the age, the later style link arms can be turned around so they stay on. You'll need a pair of decent pliers (ideally pump pliers so the grip is parallel) to force it on.

When mine went this is what I ended up doing and had no more issues. Is seems the ball joint gets warn and the little recess on the arm is not thick enough to hold it on, but if you reverse it with the larger collar holds it nicely and the reverse angle of the arm doesn't seem to affect operation - it probably puts more stress on the arm as the angle is now slightly different but at £3 a pop its worth ago - not that mine ever went again (10k miles).