AFE Intake - Stay well clear!

[esscolab]

Driving down the A12 today to get a warning light appear "Charging Fault!" Power steering went, driving home was hard work.

When I got home I switched the engine off for 10 mins, but switching it back on caused the same fault to appear.

Phoned up my local BMW garage and they said bring it in. Left the car with them for a couple of hours to get a call back saying that the AFE intake fitted had caused wear on the alternator belt and caused it to snap.

I went back to inspect the damage and it had in fact pushed the front intake downpipe causing it to rub against the alternator belt. This must have been wearing away for about a year until it finally snapped. Additionally to this, the aircon aluminium pipe also had come out of it's clamp due to the same intake pipe pushing against it.

I asked the garage to put the stock intake back in and throw away the AFE intake. This all is going to cost around £400 for new belt, refitting old intake and labour. I am never going to use after market intakes again as they appear to give no gains and can cause other components to mess up. They are simply not worth the money.

If anyone else has the AFE open intake they should check the same fitting to make sure they don't fall fowl to the same problems.

[///Mike135i]

Bloody hell.

I am of the same opinion but the Dave F kit on my M3 was absolutely sublime.

I would be very warey of messing with the 1er though as I haven't seen a kit that handles the heat soak issue all that well yet.

[esscolab]

Getting the car back hopefully today. I will take a pic to show what they said had happened. Personally I think the 135i has so little space under the bonnet that the slightest change can have knock on effect.

[esscolab]

The garage phoned me up today to say the car is ready. As soon as I pulled out of the BMW garage I get "engine fault" and it goes into limp mode. Stopped and started the car and the error appears as soon as I change into 2nd gear.
Take it back to the garage and they run diagnostics, comes back as a boost issue. They tell me that it will need to cool down before they can run full diagnostics. Suspect a turbo or something possibly related to the exhaust.

Beginning to get annoyed at all this, seems to be one thing after another. Told garage to not spend any more than 4 hours on this, as they already charged me £470. I hope the warranty covers whatever has caused the new fault.

I went in with one problem and come out with another. Cars used to be so simple....

[esscolab]

Car finally back after a weeks diagnosis, fault on dash displayed Engine Fault and went into limp mode. Cause was a crack in one of the Vacum Accumulators and was losing compression on one of the turbos. Warranty covered it in the end.


Happy to be back on the road!!

[clived]

So is "AFE Intake - Stay well clear!" still an apt title for this thread? ;-)

[esscolab]

It is in my case. I don't want to risk putting it back in again after the shite I had with it.

[esscolab]

Just put in order for the BMS drop in filter, IMHO open intakes aint worth the £'ssss. This was my first exposure to these intakes, I have learnt my lesson.
I also noticed that in the summer the oil temp is at least 10 degress higher with the open intakes due to heat soak.

[pavelitto]

Originally Posted by esscolab

Car finally back after a weeks diagnosis, fault on dash displayed Engine Fault and went into limp mode. Cause was a crack in one of the Vacum Accumulators and was losing compression on one of the turbos. Warranty covered it in the end.


Happy to be back on the road!!

Since you have a remap are there any problems with the warranty?
You said the warranty covered it so I guess the dealer doesn't know/care about your remap, right?

Im curious because I'm considering remap as well... my warranty ends in November and I don't know if its worth waiting if the dealers can't easily spot the remap or they don't care about it when I bring the car for a warranty repair.

[esscolab]

I never mentioned the remap and talking to the guys at Evolve it's pretty damn hard to spot.

The replacement vacum accumulators was because the last BMW garage repaired a crack in them with some plastic epoxy rather than replace them!

[///Mike135i]

Originally Posted by esscolab

I never mentioned the remap and talking to the guys at Evolve it's pretty damn hard to spot.

The replacement vacum accumulators was because the last BMW garage repaired a crack in them with some plastic epoxy rather than replace them!

Thats rediculous!

Glad you are back on the road.

I really miss the induction raw of my M3 with open intake but as you rightly said, there is no room in the 135s engine bay, its already too cramped and the intakes sit quite for back. Heat soak must be terrible.

[moff]

I really like my BMS DCI at the moment. I might go back to the stock intake and see how it feels in comparison though.

My car tend to run at 115-118C according the temp gauge - but this is when driving pretty hard. Never seen it go to or over 120C.