Excessive clatter in E320 CDI?

[mescaline]

Originally Posted by a02ml500

The M55 motor is the electrical motor under the manifold and can be seen in the photos. It is the black plastic thing under the manifold. There is a easy way to check if the manifold flaps are binding. I took off the engine cover over the intake manifold and in between the openings (third and fourth cylinders if I recall correctly) you can see the M55 and the strut to the flaps. With the engine off and with a long screw driver, I pushed the M55 and strut towards the front of the car to simulate its operation and closing. The strut would not return to its starting position but would get stuck and had to be pried back to its position. Initially, we suspected the M55 inlet motor but once we removed the motor (this can be done from under the car and without removing anything else) it was clear that the flaps had resistance and were not smooth in operation. That led to the cleaning. Alternative is to simply replace the manifold, which comes with a new M55 motor.

Hey , did your ECU throw any error codes while you had this problem? I have some trouble with boost, ECU throws all kind of errors about turbo wastegate but i very much doubt its that...

[nopcbs]

POR-15 is a Paint Over Rust convertor product. You were using it as a cleaning agent.

Huh?

- GRL

Originally Posted by a02ml500

I second the intake manifold being all messed up. We have two of these cars, both 2005 and with approximately 100,000 miles. One of them would make loud clatter and intermittently there was no boost. The diagnoses were from EGR ($500) to M55 (inlet port shutoff motor $200) diagnoses to intake manifold replacement ($1,000 plus labor).

Over the weekend, I pulled the manifold (huge job and not for the faint of heart) and the flaps were so coated with soot that they creeked when they were opened and closed. At a certain position close to being closed, they actually got stuck and had to be pried open. Anyway, I cleaned all with POR-15 and old toothbrush and the car is quiet and very steady. Hope I do not have to replace the manifold in the future. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news as I really like these cars!

So, what would cause such a build up of soot on one car? Bad fuel, short trips without proper warm up, running on a bad glow plug?

[a02ml500]

It has been a while now but I believe the code was that the M55 motor failed to return to its original starting position. Basically, the flaps are covered with soot and get stuck. You can check this by taking the cover of the manifold off and moving the lever of the M55 to see if it moves all the way and back freely.

My symptoms were the clatter and intermittent no boost. I think this was caused by a combination of a bad egr and the non ULSD diesel.

You can try whatever you want to clean soot. I know what I used and what worked. The alternative is to buy a new manifold. Hopefully, you do not have this problem

ciao

[BlackOpalCDI]

You are correct sir POR 15 is a rusty metal paint

but they also make some excellent other products like harsh cleaners to prep metal for their paint etc...

Im guessing that he used one of these to clean the excess soot off of all the slots in there

Hope this clarifies things for ya

[a02ml500]

Thanks blackopalCDI for clarifying things...

it indeed was the marine clean from por-15

here is the link

MARINE CLEAN-POR-15 Inc.