Matt_330CI Posted December 29, 2015 Report Share Posted December 29, 2015 Thought this would be a quickie job but as usual, it turned out to be a bit of a bitch. For a bit of background, I had been experiencing an ECU light and occasional lumpy running for a good year without ever finding the cause. Then I found a gaping hole in the upper intake pipe, located between the MAF sensor and the lower intake pipe.. This was £19 from BMW and took 10 minutes to swap over. The light went off for a month or 2 then came back. I thought it had popped off but no so figured another one had gone. Eventually I poked the lower pipe and it crumbled! 82k miles and both pipes had gone to crap! The lower one was £11 from BMW and was somewhat more challenging to fit. This guide may save you a lot of time fiddling by doing a bit of extra work to get better access which is the main issue. These are the two pipes, upper intake left, lower intake right. My upper one had split round the ribbed section very badly. The lower one split/crumbled on the narrow section coming off of it. As discussed, the upper one alone is easy peasy. It's just a jubilee clip on the MAF sensor and another on a plastic ring fitted between the above two pipes. I would strongly recommend doing both though. Quick look at a standard 330 engine bay. http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e338/lotuschris/Engine1-1.jpg First open the airbox. Pull the pipe out of the cold inlet. Undo the jubilee clip from the MAF to the upper pipe, undo all the box clips and pull the whole lid off and away from the upper pipe. Take the filter out (might as well replace for £8 from ECP) Two 10mm bolts secure the lower box to the car body - pop that off. Undo the rear Jubilee clip to take the upper pipe out - you'll have to remove an auxiliary pipe from it. Now you'll see how tight it is! The challenge you will face when you get to the lower one is access to the two jubilee clips that hold it on, one on the throttle body and one on DISA Valve. Mine had the screw/bolt facing down into the engine bay. Zero chance of getting anything in there at all. First you'll need to take out the cabin filter at the top of the engine bay - 3 plastic twist clips to remove the cover then 4 x torx scews to take the whole thing off (you'll need to undo a cable cover at the front of it, it just pulls off) Once that's off, you can remove the rubber seal on the top right behind the suspension tower. With that off, there's a rubber grommit with a plastic hose running through it. Pull that out. There's a plastic guard separating the engine bay from a big open space with a white container in. No idea what it is, but that's your access. 2 x twisting plastic clips. Turn these 1/4 turn only then gently pull them out - or else they break. You should then be able to wiggle this guard free and take it right out. I also removed the DISA valve via 2 x torx screws and an electrical clip. Doesnt need to come out but the more access you have and the more light you have the better. Now I could get a 6mm spanner in and just about see the heads, upside down, in a confined space to undo them. I reckon I got 1/8 of a turn at a time unwinding a rusty clip! Put some WD40 on and loosen them up before re-using them. It will help a lot. Once off you just need to put it all back together in reverse order. Use a little washing up liquid to get the pipes back on. It's not actually very difficult but before I got that plastic guard out I could see no way at all to get to the clips. I thought it was a stupid mistake and a mechanic had put them in during assembly upside down by mistake. But when putting it back together I couldn't see anyway to get access from the top either so maybe just too cramped in there for it's own good. MICK 330 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimp Choker Posted December 29, 2015 Report Share Posted December 29, 2015 That last jubilee clip is a bugger, on rebuild I turned mine for easier access next time round. Sent from my LG-H815 Ruesta 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt_330CI Posted December 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2015 No matter what way I looked at it I couldn't see how flipping it around would work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avalaugh Posted December 29, 2015 Report Share Posted December 29, 2015 Just get yourself a clip driver, you'll never look back. Only about £7, the shaft is a tightly wound Spring, so it's flexible yet strong. Makes undoing any jubilee or worm drive clip in a tight to reach space a complete doddle. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt_330CI Posted December 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted December 29, 2015 (edited) 2 hours ago, avalaugh said: Just get yourself a clip driver, you'll never look back. Only about £7, the shaft is a tightly wound Spring, so it's flexible yet strong. Makes undoing any jubilee or worm drive clip in a tight to reach space a complete doddle. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk There was no way to get a tool like that one it though? The nut was facing down in into the engine bay with a couple of inches of space at the very best. You couldn't get at it from the side as there was nowhere near enough space to get the smallest of spanners on it so you had to take out that guard to get to it. Just found this picture - this is the upper boot attached to the lower one. http://s84.photobucket.com/user/slntdth42/media/Throttle%20Body%20Cleaning/PA110557.jpg.html Edited December 29, 2015 by Matt_330CI Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bennno2005 Posted January 6, 2016 Report Share Posted January 6, 2016 (edited) Did this solve the problem with your EML and lumpy running? EDIT I've had the EML come up on mine. Codes match an air leak. Had a look and my lower one is goosed in the same place as yours. The top one looks to be fairly new so I'm just going to replace the lower one. Also need to replace one of the vacuum hoses on the top piece as it seems to be very perished. Edited January 6, 2016 by bennno2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruesta Posted January 6, 2016 Report Share Posted January 6, 2016 4 hours ago, bennno2005 said: Did this solve the problem with your EML and lumpy running? EDIT I've had the EML come up on mine. Codes match an air leak. Had a look and my lower one is goosed in the same place as yours. The top one looks to be fairly new so I'm just going to replace the lower one. Also need to replace one of the vacuum hoses on the top piece as it seems to be very perished. If your down there replacing the lower intake boot its worth pulling out the idle control valve and giving it a good flushing through with some carb cleaner. It will be full of black soot and eventually they start to stick which throws errors and the engine management light. Once the lower intake boot is removed pulling out the idle control valve is very straight forward. bennno2005 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MICK 330 Posted March 26, 2016 Report Share Posted March 26, 2016 I had the joy of this job today What a pig lol. On re fitting I did manage to sort the jubilee clips into a better position for next time. On re fitting position both the lower boot & the smaller elbow pipes jubilee so you can access them from the top down the side of the DISA valve & between a pipe that I don't know what it does/goes to etc... You need a "knuckle" on the extension bar to get at them. Bottom one first then fit the smaller elbow pipe & do the same again. I have a strange sucking noise around 2/3 seconds after switching off. It lasts maybe 1 second. Cant locate it & gave up for today! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOB_330 Posted June 15, 2017 Report Share Posted June 15, 2017 On 2016-3-25 at 23:26, MICK 330 said: I had the joy of this job today What a pig lol. On re fitting I did manage to sort the jubilee clips into a better position for next time. On re fitting position both the lower boot & the smaller elbow pipes jubilee so you can access them from the top down the side of the DISA valve & between a pipe that I don't know what it does/goes to etc... You need a "knuckle" on the extension bar to get at them. Bottom one first then fit the smaller elbow pipe & do the same again. I have a strange sucking noise around 2/3 seconds after switching off. It lasts maybe 1 second. Cant locate it & gave up for today! That noise could well be the DISA valve, it's normal for it to do that when you switch the car off. MICK 330 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MICK 330 Posted June 15, 2017 Report Share Posted June 15, 2017 5 minutes ago, BOB_330 said: That noise could well be the DISA valve, it's normal for it to do that when you switch the car off. Blimey BOB_330 this takes me back. The car didn't do it when I bought it Bob. No one said "They all do that sir" at the time (March 2016) & to be honest the car stopped making this strange noise that long ago I couldn't tell you when lol. What a PITA job that was. Car still performs ok with no issues so "I dunno" lol but cheers for reply. Now it doesn't make any noise so is the DISA up the duff?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOB_330 Posted June 16, 2017 Report Share Posted June 16, 2017 (edited) Yh I remember when I changed my lower intake boot, took much longer than I anticipated, always the smallest of jobs which cause the most hassle! I know that the DISA valve makes a noise on mine but is only noticeable when you pay attention to it. I think if its knackered then the engine light usually comes on, yours is probably ok I guess. Edited June 16, 2017 by BOB_330 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...