Hi.
ebay.
Regards

I have a 2010 Freelander 2, how do I identify if my car has swirl flaps or not?

Luke

2010 is the change over point for swirl flaps. If you look at the plastic intake pipe that goes from the airfilter and runs across the back of the engine you can tell from that. If the engine has swirl flaps the pipe has 4 extra blank pipes that come off the main pipe at right angles. These are of differing lengths and are blanked at the ends. They are often referred too as organ pipes. If the engine does not have swirl flaps then the plastic intake pipe is just a normal shaped pipe. Hope this helps!
See eBayitem no: eBay Item No. 223549323663 for an example of the organ pipe style that an engine with swirl flaps has!

Luke G wrote:

I have a 2010 Freelander 2, how do I identify if my car has swirl flaps or not?

Luke

Many thanks for the advice, looks like I have the model with the flaps...
I want to remove them asap, when re-installing the inlet manifold do I need to replace the seals with new ones? Are there any parts I should buy before doing the job?
Luke

Seals - The genuine seal kit is around £13.50 plus postage so I changed those but others have not. My old ones looked in good condition.

Fuel Filter - This needs to come off to remove the manifold so might as well fit a new one unless its been changed recently.

Glow plugs - I'm in the UK and changed mine whilst I was there but a fellow Aussie would probably be better able to advise if this is worth it for you. (I was on circa 70,000 miles and 3 of mine were dead). FL2 HSE Auto Galway Green
Evoque SD4 Auto Blue.
FL1 HSE TD4 Manual Black - Gone.
RR Classic V8 EFI - Gone

Many thanks once again, I ordered a new gasket kit today so will probably start spinning spanners next week when they arrive.

Ley us know how you go... and those like me that are contemplating this in the near future always appriciate photos

I just finished removing the swirl flaps and thought I’d report in on the job. Firstly thanks to all the people who have commented on this thread as the advice was invaluable. The job took me a quite a bit of time, it was about 5 hours to get the inlet manifold off. I put this down to not being all that familiar with the motor. I found there were a few “hidden” bolts which took time to find, in particular the 8 on the manifold itself, 7 were easy to see but I was almost ready to give in as I had problems finding the last one when I finally found the bracket under the manifold that holds the manifold in place which also had the final bolt. Removing the flaps was fiddly and took about an hour. I ended up breaking each one and it finally allowed me to get the shaft out. I then spent a bit of time cleaning out the manifold with a degreaser as it was quite dirty and I wanted to ensure there were no stray bits of plastic in there. Finally, putting it all back together was actually enjoyable as it all went together neatly and without problems. This took a couple of hours. I did replace the manifold seals while I was there which was the only expense ($30 AUD). Hope this helps anyone contemplating this job.

Hi All, quick question?

I’m in the process of installing a replacement inlet manifold without swirl flaps.

A couple of observations that I don’t quite understand.

On the later Freelander models & Evoque’s with the same engine where the swirl flaps have been deleted there is still a port on the vacuum pump, (to what I can see) which is a vacuum line down to the “Intake Manifold Runner Control”. This is a solenoid that I’m guessing opens a port to allow vacuum to operate the diaphragm which controls the swirl flaps.

Why is the port on the vacuum pump still there if the swirl flaps and controllers have been deleted? And what is it supplying now?

Also, there is an exhaust port with a small foam filter in the swirl flap vacuum line so does it actually matter whether the vacuum line is plugged or not as it’s open to atmosphere at one end anyway?

Just to note; I have transferred the whole vacuum system onto the replacement manifold so the diaphragm is operating as normal but the leaver is not connected to anything. This way everything is still doing what it was originally meant to.

The pump vacuum port is also used for a vacuum operated system that is blanking the EGR flow during DPF regeneration on DPF equipped cars so it's still used on some cars.

Opening the system to atmosphere through the foam filter is an attempt to delete the swirl flap system, previous to taking it out definitively.
Open to atmosphere line means no power to actuate the diaphragm, so the flaps will remain always open.
Take the whole vacuum system out (hoses, solenoid, etc) and put that small foam filter directly on the vacuum pump port to plug it and prevent dirt entering and forget about it.

Thanks Alex, that makes sense now. I'm guessing taking the solenoid out won't throw a fault code?

Last edited by Walenut on 1st Aug 2019 9:50 am. Edited 2 times in total

Yes, it will throw an error, readable only by tester (will not lit MIL, from what I know), but you can put a small 1K resistor in the electrical connector to simulate the solenoid presence.

Thanks Alex.

On later cars could you use the vacuum port to bypass the ERG then?

Replacement non swirl flap manifold now fitted and back up and running. A couple of observations. I chose not to take the ERG pipe completely off as the bottom bolt at the rear of the engine looked impossible to get back on. Just removed the top one and loosened the bottom one allowing a fair bit of movement.

Due to not removing the breather pipe that comes over the manifold I had to separate the manifold from the throttle body to get it off. To do this the MAP sensor has to be removed. Inspecting the sensor the port was full of soot. So worth inspecting and cleaning it.

Take the engine/sump guard off so all the nuts & spanners you drop fall on the floor!

It's useful having a replacement manifold as you can use it for reference i.e., bolt location etc.

Mileage on my 2010 car is 55,000. Most of my journeys are short 3 or 4 mile runs so I expected the manifold & swirl flaps to be completely clogged up with soot. But to be fair the ERG port & manifold was cleaner than the one I bought off eBay. (Cleaned in a bath of white spirit) All of the swirl flaps where in good condition and fully functioning. Although they where just starting to get a good build up of carbon on them.

Not noticed any difference yet, starting seemed the same. Running the car seemed more responsive but I've also blanked the ERG & replaced the air filter and fuel filter so that might have something to do with it.

Also replaced the glow plugs whilst it was off. Noted that the OEM ones are NKG.