Swirl flaps, worth fixing?
 

A bit of advice, if you would be so kind, on whether it would pay off to fix this?

XC70 2008. Engine system-service required message came on this week. Took it to a garage - they read a code P2015, and on investigation found that
a) the swirl flap arm was disconnected, and
b) the swirl flaps were stiff to move, surmising that they were possibly coked up.

They suggested that the arm had been disconnected for a while.

Cleared code and fault message hasn’t recurred.

So is there any evidence to suggest that it will be worth spending a few hundred to get this cleaned up and reconnected? Looking at forum it seems to be £3-600. Car seems to be running ok, passed MOT recently no probs (emissions figure was 0.44 as I recall). Av mpg (town and country driving) is 28.

One reason to get this fixed would be if the swirl flaps are stuck in a position that compromises performance or fuel economy. I recall being told (by my Volvo indie I think) that if they're in the open position, that means the car drives normally most of the time, but performance/economy wouldn't be as good at low speed, e.g. in traffic.

So if you can find out whether they're stuck in the open position, that might help you decide to part with the money. If you can move the control arm back and forth and it doesn't feel like there's much play, you could at least leave the throttle in the open position.

If you check the photos in my article (and one of the videos I link to), you should be able to figure out what position the control arm should be in to have the flaps fully open. This is all assuming, of course, that the control arm is still secure attached to the swirl throttle shaft (on mine it had a fair bit of play so the flaps would never have been fully open of fully closed, because the motor would have set it's open and closed positions based on the stop points on the control arm.

Hope this makes sense. To clarify, when I say 'throttle' I mean the following part:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/BJI8_PMkBsk/maxresdefault.jpg

And when I say 'control arm' I mean the part attached to the LHS of the throttle's main shaft that's being held in the chap's fingers in the photo. I'm not talking about the link arm that goes between motor and control arm (as that's not relevant here).

Forgot to add, in my experience it did make the engine smoother, especially at low speeds (as the flaps were now closing). I'd like to say it also improved economy, but I don't want to make false claims. I have since been getting improved fuel economy, but I switched to only using Shell V-Power diesel after all the cleaning work, and that might be contributing to improved performance as well. And my thorough cleaning of the EGR valve and inlet manifold might have helped too - neither of which will probably be done by a garage as it's horrible work.

Thanks, I’d looked at your thread when I heard from the garage and no way will I do it myself what with having to take off the fuel pipes etc. A question - are the parts for cleaning easier to access than the swirl flaps?

I'm not sure I follow the question, because to clean the inlet manifold (the large black plastic camshaft-cover) and air-intakes on the cylinder head you need to remove the camshaft-cover, which requires fuel-pipe/injector removal. To be able to clean these parts, you need to fully dismantle everything, and therefore you might as well renew the swirl throttle assembly at the same time (the kit is £150).

The only part I cleaned that didn't require removal of the above was the EGR valve. It is probabably worth cleaning the EGR valve on it's own - it can't do any harm. I suspect that if your swirl flaps are gunged up, the EGR valve will be too.

Thanks for that explanation, clears it up for me. I’ll see what I get from my TerraClean thread.

have you had it terraclean'd? if not I'd advise against it, took out my EGR valve....well it failed within days of having it done on mine and had all sorts of interesting coloured smoke for a couple of days after it was done....never again for me..I had it done against the advice of the garage I work in, but I thought I've read so many people online claiming it made a difference i'd give it a shot anyway, I assume that was with people who have not looked after the car at all, apart from the funny coloured smoke and the egr failing it felt exactly the same before and after for me.

Volvo EGR valve for the D5 makes replacing the swirl kit look cheap, for reference we charge around £380 to replace the swirl kit, can't remember the price off hand, haven't got the best memory!

The swirl can cause a permanent limp mode, some people are lucky and just have the slight decrease in mpg and performance for years, others find it chucks the car in limp mode.

My guess is (and this really is a guess) that the ECM can't detect whether the flaps are actually open or not (ignoring the motor/control arm position sensors) as it would need some kind of air-flow meter inside the inlet manifold.

I reckon the limp-home issue is when the motor can't find it's stop position, eithe due to snapped link arm, or excess play on the throttle control arm, or some other fault. Mine's never gone into limp-mode, despite lack of link arm, so I'm really not sure on this. It didn't have a link arm when I bought it, so perhaps the previous owner experienced limp-mode.

FYI, I've taken a different approach to Terracleaning. After replacing my swirl throttle and cleaning the EGR valve just before Christmas, I then drove to southern France and back (for holiday) only running V-Power and Total Excillium. At first I was noticing black smoke when starting the car from cold, but it stopped doing this after a week. I'm hoping this was the result of the premium fuel additives cleaning things up. I'm mentioning this it might be cheaper to switch to premium fuel, although I would assume Terracleaning would do more, especially if it somehow gets into the air intake/inlet manifold/valves etc..

I'd be interested to hear what parts of the engine Terraclean can reach, and in what capacity - presumably it can't actually flood the air intake regions with cleaning liquids can it....

Hi gents.

I've did all the procedure, disconnected battery, new swirl flaps, Egr and throttle body cleaning, new valve cover gasket, changed new injector cooper washers.....etc

Now Volvo (Xc90 D5 185HP) doesnt start...just cranks....is there some air trapped?

Thx in advance!

Hi Parkl,

I do these swirl flaps all the time and you have to be really careful not to drop any carbon deposits down the inlet manifold when you take the old flaps out.

It is very tempting to clean all the carbon deposits off around were the flaps sit but in doing so it is very easy to let bits drop down the intake. I image this is what you have done ....

Anyway these bits land up getting squished onto the valve seats and in effect they prevent a good gas tight seal and you cant generate good enough compression to start the engine it just turns over and over.

You will need to charge up your battery overnight and also get another car to jump start along side and any other jump packs you can lay your hands on as you want to get a good cranking speed

Eventually you will start to get it firing on one cylinder and then it will start up shortly afterwards.

Don't burn out your starter in the process if it wont start after a few minutes then let the starter cool for a half hour before trying again.

If that doesn't work then try a very small amount of easy start down the side of the intake manifold inlet, where that rubber joint is undo the jubilee clip and push a screw driver down the side to make a gap to squirt down.

Only use a very small amount the D5 really doesn't like easy start and will sound awful. But it might help to clear those valve seats.

Do you have any ODB diagnostic tools, e.g. Torque software app with bluetooth connector, or VIDA DICE ? It's worth checking you're getting adequate pressure in the high-pressure fuel lines. Have you checked for fuel leaking around the fuel rail nuts ?

Mine did take a total of about 10 seconds cranking before starting, following reassembly. This was one long crank (~8 seconds) with a 20 second pause, and it then started 2nd time (slightly lumpy for a couple of seconds and then perfect).

Hi and grazias for replys...

It started after couple attempts, no leaking at fuel lines,
but it blew valve cover gasket in front right corner and also injectors 3,4 and 5 are leaking.... :(

Hmm, I'm gonna repeat the process w/t a new gasket and small sealant spots and new injector clamps, bolts and of course new cooper washers.

Hopefully it's gonna be ok, I 'm using torque spanner for 10Nm rocker cover and 13Nm injector clamps.

Shame to hear it didn't work out. I am a bit a confused though.

When you say front right corner, do you mean the corner where the swirl flap control arm sits? If so, there is a rubber grommet holding the swirl throttle axle in place that needs pushing down quite hard into the cylinder head.

Either way, there shouldn't be much air pressure inside the top cover. If anything, there should be suction of air. Maybe one of the intake valves isn't seating (as per previous suggestion) and combustion pressure is filling the top cover ? It must have taken a lot of pressure to flex that top cover. Was the gasket well seated in the top cover grooves? It should sit in place nicely and not fall out when you're fitting the top cover (no sealant needed).

I only replaced the copper injector washers when I did mine, but did thoroughly clean the injector seats in the cylinder head until they were shiny:

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/pictu...ictureid=10556

Hi Semnoz I am just in the middle of replacing my swirl flaps - looking at your other detail post on this but seems to be locked for reply for some reason - anyway just wondering how you cleaned your inlet ports? have the cover off and the ports are full off oily gunk, but presumably if you disturb too much it is going to fall into the cylinder or get stuck on the valve seat...is this a problem or I guess it just gets burnt off?? My flaps seemed to be stuck closed but didn't notice any problems with power or error codes. thanks for any advice.

Hi - I am replacing my swirl flaps now...so would you suggest I don't try and remove any gunk from the inlet ports? being a clean freak I can't resist making everything shiny now I have made the effort to remove everthing. thanks

Hi - I am replacing my swirl flaps now...so would you suggest I don't try and remove any gunk from the inlet ports? being a clean freak I can't resist making everything shiny now I have made the effort to remove everthing. thanks

Wouldnt a tow from a friend be the answer. (Unless you have an Automatic car) I have had to do this when changing a cylinder head after a broken Timing Belt destroyed the Cam Shaft and several Valves, and finding the battery had gone flat, it would save a lot of mucking about with booster batteries etc.

2008 V70se lux 2.4 Geartronic

would this apply to me i have a 2006 v70 d5 only had it a few days and noticed that the actuator rod for the swirl flaps was hanging off so i reconnected it and now it wont start after cranking the actuator makes a buzzing noise as if its stuck and also buzzing from down on passenger side still wont start if i disconnect the arm hope you can help as im stuck lol

When I replaced my swirl flaps, I tape a small length of hose to the end of my Henry Hoover hose and used this to suck away the carbon while cleaning the inlet chambers. Again using the hoover to suck any carbon down the injectors sleeves. Taking your time, double checking everything is clean is well worth while. Turn the key to No2 for a couple of mins, and away she starts. Smiles all round.
By the way Henry Hoover is mine not the Mrs so no ass kicking there lol

I'm looking at getting mine fixed as since I've had it it's never had an arm from the motor. Local garages haven't got a clue what I'm talking about so I may have to try a Volvo garage. I would do the work myself but time restraints and risk of messing it up would just worry me too much.

I need all engine mounts replacing too so could do the job lot.

Cars just passed it's MOT so it's worth giving her a little tlc.

This year she has had 2 engine oil changes, 5 gear box oil flushes/changd, power steering flush and change and anti freeze complete flush and change.

Are you refering to this article:

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=275786

It's working fine for me. If you mean the photos aren't displaying, you need to be logged in to the forum to view them. In this article, it briefly mentions how I cleaned the valve seats/ports - similar advice to the recent post from Stephen2015.

I have a d5 with swirl arm missing and goes into limp
Quite early on with engine system service required do the swirl arm make the car go into limp
As on reading here most run ok with arm disconnected

I took mine in for it's second service (since I've had it) and the dealer have reported the arm was totally missing on mine - a MY2012 D5 200 with 95k (bought at 84k).

My car hasn't gone into limp mode since it's been missing so I've been lucky - it was showing 32mpg when I bought it and I've never been able to get it up past about 29.7mpg for months now even when using V-Power Diesel. I do live in the Moors so put the location down to it but seems I could have been missing the linkage for a long time now and have just gotten used to it.

I'm looking forwards to seeing how much difference it makes when it's all done - should be getting the car back tomorrow at some point with new brake disks too.

Swirl Flaps
 

My old V70 (06 D5 SE) had a broken swirl flap arm and a few other problems. Changed the MAF, VIDA showing problems with the sensor, new Swirl flaps and then the Turbo actuator. The difference was amazing, at least to me. Acceleration was better. My local garage did all the work and was quite reasonable.

I am glad I read through this post, I had no idea what swirl flaps where until I read it. I’m new to owning a diesel engine car, having had petrol the last 15 years. Curious about the swirl flaps I went out on my lunch hour and checked, and I was not surprised to find my swirl flap arm hanging loose. This looks as though it was knocked off during the cambelt job though, so I will hook it back on when I get home later as I was not able to do it in the car park due to the air filter tube blocking it. I will be interested to see what difference it makes!

Just want to say, I got home from work and immediately set about the reattaching of the arm to my swirl flaps. Sooo glad I found this thread, it’s made a big difference already! I’ve only reversed it off my driveway and driven up and down my road. I can’t wait to see how she is on my drive to work tomorrow.
Recommend doing it!

Must be the time of year (!) as my engine management light came on yesterday. Got home and on VIDA it said Swirl actuator offset. Taking off the engine cover the little plastic arm has come off. It's part number 31216460. I could push the old one back on but am assuming it is worn and will pop off again. Ordering one now but my query is I am unclear how to attach. I couldn't pop the old one back on as due to the way it's stopped the distance is wrong. Is it just a matter of stop starting the engine until they two ball ends line up more appropriately?

No need.
You can move the swirl actuator using Vida seeing as you have it.

That sounds ideal! Unless someone knows the correct menu option I may have quite a hunt on my hands. I'm slowly learning VIDA but mostly for diagnostic so far, injectors and electric windows!

All sorted I hope, error codes cleared and new arm fitted. Test drive tomorrow.

fingers crossed !!!

Looking good! Loving VIDA!

Great thread guys, my son in-laws V70 has the swirl valve issue, I found the actuator link hanging off the valve arm end.
I tested the valve end and the valeve have free movement but are leaking at the actuator end I have done a basic repair with the link to reattach it buy wrapping stainless wire around the arm end near the socket to increase the purchase. I have just driven 4 hour on the free way and its still attached.
I plan to replace the swirl valves soon and with the Torque figure and info on this thread I'm sure it will be a lot easier

One question if I may is there a specific kit other than what appears on eBay that I should get and how complete should it be? EG injector line seals