intake manifold blown up ...
 

Hi guys,

next problem to report after I had to change the transmission two months ago. Seems to be a bad year for my wallet. Today when driving home I heard a "bang" from the front and the power was gone. Felt like 40 - 50 hp left. After stopping and looking after the engine, no warning lights and no message on the dash - which made me wonder - I saw that the intake system was blown. Broken in the middle.........

Is that a common problem? Really strange.

Best,

Helmuth

PS: this thing #1 Sauganlage-AGR BMW X5 E53, X5 3.0d (M57)

Common problem in early PORSCHE 911 car with CIS fuel system. Not the intake manifold but the plastic airbox will blowup leaving you stranded.

Exactly that plastic thing broke ..... and I was looking twice - it is not a Porsche ;)

This is btw my post #500 ..... thank you all here. Really great to be here even if I don't like to post that something broke again.........

If it was a PORSCHE you are posting in the wrong forum. :rofl: I had 500 at the beginning of the week. ;)

Shite. That's a pretty serious failure. I've never heard of that happening!

Please don't take this as insensitive, but could you post a couple of pictures of the damage? I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious to see it.

Let us know how you get on. Good luck!

You must had a backfire into the intake manifold for it to blow up. Although you have a diesel so isn't the fuel injected directly into the cylinders? Is your engine turbocharged? Could the turbo had pumped enough air into the manifold to cause it to blow apart?

Here is a picture of that problem. From the sound of the "bang" I would believe the turbo pressure has cracked the airbox. The sound was like when you pierce a needle in a balloon.

Have to drive ~30 km today to BMW and will be the road block of the season with the power left ..... wish me luck.

Ouch. That's a doozie. I find it strange that a stock turbo would create enough pressure to burst the manifold - there are tons of guys running around with aftermarket, high PSI turbocharged M5X motors and I've never heard this happening before.

Good luck with the fix. After you figure out what happened, I'd probably try to find a replacement from a breaker's yard and do a DIY deal. That's going to cost you loads of money at a dealer.

Let us know how you get on. Good luck!

Hi Helmuth,
Sorry to hear about your problem:(
I am just posting to say that I have seen a few with cracked inlet manifold and its a design fault specific to a Bmw OEM supplier .The manifold cracks even quicker with remapped cars running ,not so much higher peak boost than standard (about 1.4 to 1.5 bar),but continuous boost where some irresponsible mappers leave the Variable geometry on the turbo ,closed for too long to maintain higher continuous boost for longer.This can also break turbo!!!

The other big issue with your car is the exhaust manifold which so many crack on all 3.0TD Bmws,as they are made of thin stainless steel instead of good old fashion but stronger cast iron.

3.0TD extremely strong engine ,only the auxilliary components fail.:thumbup:

Congrats on post 500.Most of your posts have been interesting and informative and have contributed to making this site even better.
Thank you too for sharing and providing some very interesting information,my friend:thumbup::thumbup:

Hi Powers1,

thanks for your kind words. But I did not like the part with the exhaust manifold ...
Hope I get some time to collect money for the next problem. Replacemant of windscreen, transmission and inlet manifold in 3 months is enough. Hope the turbo and the exhaust give me a break. If this car would not be so much fun to drive it would have been already sold some time ago.

But I am still hoping that I can enjoy some time without problems from now on.... as I thought the last time(s) :-)

Have a great sunday my friend!

Helmuth

Just to finish that up.

intake: 379 EUR
work: 211 EUR
tax: 118 EUR

waiting for the next challenge - then she really has to go. I do love to drive that car but throwing something like 8.500 EUR (10.200 USD) on a used car in 3 months is something nobody can really explain. Just beeing shocked as I type that. I could have bought a brand new Dacia Duster for that money (nearly) - but do I really want to sit in one? ...........

Good luck guys - take care about your transmission.

Helmuth

Just had exactly the same thing happen to me.

A 'pop' from under the hood and the inlet manifold has cracked. Got one from a dismantlers and fitting it as soon as it arrives.

But can anyone suggest a reason why it would suddenly go? I was only pulling away from a traffic light in a queue of traffic so wasn't exactly putting it under load.

Hi,

heard from different other BMW owners that these things break - not only in the E53. My X is nice to me now - only the 3rd brake light is half gone - nothing else. Fingers crossed :-)

Good luck, Helmuth

You do wonder who made the decision to make them out of plastic!

The only other fault I've had on mine (touch wood) was to do with the tailgate and things not working (including the third tail light!). It turned out to be broken wires in the sheath at the hinge. An easy fix once I'd found the broken wires but there were really tough to spot!

Ive seen guys do that on tuned 5.0 TDI touregs and alot of the high powered diesels. Strange that a stock turbo would do that.

Are there more then 2 wires going to the 3rd brakelight? Mine is only half-dead....

I don't think so.