K&N intake problem

[Biggs07]

Hey everyone,
The dealership just called me and said they cant diagnose my error codes due to my K&N intake. The intake was on the car when I purchased it. Its saying there is a boost/air leak somewhere but they are unable to fix it due to the intake. Has anyone had this problem before. What are your suggestions??!!

[135Pats]

Originally Posted by Biggs07

Hey everyone,
The dealership just called me and said they cant diagnose my error codes due to my K&N intake. The intake was on the car when I purchased it. Its saying there is a boost/air leak somewhere but they are unable to fix it due to the intake. Has anyone had this problem before. What are your suggestions??!!

The dealer is full of crap, ask them how an intake would cause a boost leak post turbo. You could take the intakes off and literally just have the open inlet tubes, and things would be fine assuming foreign material didn’t enter the inlets. By definition a boost leak is happening post turbo, where the intake has absolutely no impact.

The practical solution would be to swap back to the factory box to appease them, but again they’re full of it. Seriously, ask them to explain why your pre-turbo intake is preventing them from reading error codes and/or finding a boost leak…You know, the type of leak that happens under boost….which comes from the turbos.

[135Pats]

VOB/Rockville BMW tried pulling that with my DCI a year and change ago, I did my best to remain polite, but on the inside I was laughing in anger if that makes sense. They told me they couldn’t ID which bank had fried an o2 sensor…because of my intake. Nice….

[Biggs07]

What did you end up doing?

[135Pats]

Originally Posted by Biggs07

What did you end up doing?

For whatever reason I actually had the stock box in the trunk, so I literally swapped the intake in the parking lot and presented it to them again. Shockingly, it was indeed a fried o2 sensor, and had absolutely nothing to do with my choice of intake.

If you don’t have the stock intake, maybe ask them if they can provide you with one just for the purposes of the boost leak test? As a bottom line I would not allow them to shoo me away because they didn’t like the intake on my car. You can make a 100% argument that they are factually incorrect to say that your intake is causing or preventing them from finding a boost leak. The intake has nothing to do with anything post turbo, how on earth could it “leak”? Just politely ask them to explain, from a mechanical standpoint, how your intake is causing this problem. I’d love to hear their answer.

[Biggs07]

Unfortunately I am not there to ask. My dealership took it to them. So all information is being relayed to me.

[135Pats]

Originally Posted by Biggs07

Unfortunately I am not there to ask. My dealership took it to them. So all information is being relayed to me.

Then call them back and ask for further context. They are wrong, there's no other way I can put it. In 2 minutes you can walk them through the myriad ways in which their described scenario is not possible, let alone logical. It would be like saying, “sorry we cannot/do not want to read codes or look at your possible cylinder 5 injector problem, we don’t like the offsets on your rear wheels”. It just doesn’t make any sense what they’re saying. So call them on it. Politely, of course.

[135Pats]

You’re welcome to use my Stock box if you want…would be a bit of a trip for you probably (I’m in Bethesda area), but no sweat off my back to loan it out, I doubt I’ll use it again.

Will be out of town shortly after I get home tonight, but I could leave it by the front steps or something along those lines and you could just come by and grab it. Let me know.

[Mr Kleen]

Originally Posted by 135Pats

It would be like saying, “sorry we cannot/do not want to read codes or look at your possible cylinder 5 injector problem, we don’t like the offsets on your rear wheels”.

[Biggs07]

The dealership is going to put a stock intake on for me since the K&N was there when I purchased it. So hopefully they can get it fixed then Ill just reinstall the K&N.

[135Pats]

Nice, let us know how that goes. Just for fun you should ask them how swapping the intakes will rectify the underlying issue. I’d be interested to hear their response..

[Biggs07]

Ok guys so heres where im at with BMW. They ran all the smoke tests and that came back negative. Now they have to go through all of BMW's ridiculous tests before they can decide whether the turbos need replaced. They believe it is the actuators but If they don't go by BMW's tests and steps then BMW wont pay for any of it.