Swirl Arm low cost repair!

[denzil023]

Hi all,

I thought I would post my solution to this issue as this thread was particularly useful when it came to making the repair.

I have a V50 D5 Automatic from 2007 which has the old style link with a rose joint on the swirl flap and on the motor / actuator and holes in both ends of the link which should click over the top. My car has covered roughly 57000 miles and the linkage was worn out at the engine end. After a kick down to accelerate the dreaded message of 'engine system service required' came up. Engine revs were restricted to 3000rpm under heavy acceleration. After a trip to the dealer and being told it was £650 to repair the linkage I thought I would have a bash myself.

I had to remove the rocker cover which is a bit of a chore, as documented elsewhere! Once in I removed the swirl flaps, drilled a 3mm hole through the rose joint at the engine end, filed and cut down an M3 bolt to the correct length and then gently pushed it through. I then put a new linkage I had bought from eBay on. Following this I placed an M4 then an M3 washer and then a nut on to stop the linkage coming off the joint. Finally I tapped the end of the bolt over with a trusty hammer to stop the nut coming off. I would rather have used an M3 nyloc but this was hard to come by over the festive period.

I then placed the flaps back in the appropriate place, reassembled the rocker cover and fired it up. Everything works fine and the error has gone away to boot. The only parts I had to buy were the link (£11), as previously described and 5 new copper injector washers which have to be replaced (£20). One thing to be careful of, as I am sure everyone is aware, is not to strip the threads when tightening the rocker cover and injectors back up, the block is only aluminium and this is very easily done as I nearly found out!

If you have the old style linkage you won't be able to get it from your dealer unless they have stock as it has now been superseded by the newer link.

I have attached a couple of photographs in the hope they may aid someone in the future.

Thanks ever so much for the previous comments as they really did help.

Happy new year,


Ed