Ehh, interesting experience - BMW Forum

TMac325is · 09-03-2004, 06:48 PM

---i know its a long post, but this is our afternoon of working on my car

ok, so im not the greatest mechanic in the world. me and my friend had some time today and earlier i read about the cleaning of the ICV, so i went through the procedure, but when i found the idle control valve, it was already spotless. im guessing the mechanic did this last time i took it in (though my car still kind of idles akwardly when cold)

while im at it, i printed up some instruction on debaffling. me and my friend were very excited because we found the baffle and were ready to take it out, but wanted to get the air box all the way out. there was 2 hoses running into the airbox which i didnt expect. so we guess and said that they were probably just sensors that we could pop off. WRONG, they were hoses carrying a pressureized substance that appeared to be coolant/antifreeze. we pulled the hose off and SPLASH a good amount of coolant comes blasting out, all over the engine bay/driveway, and we are like OH F*CK.. so we try to get the hose back on and are unsuccessful. my friend calls up his dad who used to be a mechanic and he helped us out and fixed the hose. so me and my friend said we better quit before we F anything else up. we put it all back together and i took my car for a spin and it ran fine...

soooo... that sucked, thanks for reading if you have the time.. i never got to debaffling, because i dont want to use a hack saw on my engine... this was a complete failure of a project but my car starts so im happy

jllphan · 09-03-2004, 07:05 PM

Nice. You don't need to take out the airbox, the baffle comes out very easily after removing the air filter.

RIBEMR26 · 09-03-2004, 07:10 PM

yeah...somehow the unexpected ALWAYS happens to me no matter how simple the task I attempt with my car...but I try to stick with my own rule...If I don't know exactly what it is...I don't touch it....

good thing you had a mechanic friend to help out...the $$$ wouldn't even have been as bad as having it towed to the dealer all f***ed up...a little embarrassing...

skawful · 09-03-2004, 08:32 PM

lol similar thing happened to me tmac, i feel for ya

Tochenzo · 09-03-2004, 09:43 PM

I was able to remove the baffle without taking the airbox out, just unplugged the snorkel and it slid out very easily.

e36_m3_Turbo · 09-03-2004, 11:24 PM

atleast u didnt get ur middle finger stuck in btw the rotor and heat shield. it cut me and smashed my finger, ouch

buuhh99 · 09-03-2004, 11:44 PM

yeah that is the heating element and u don't need to take the house of it comes off in one piece

uber e36 · 09-04-2004, 03:03 AM

Hahaha...

When I debaffled, I took it slowly and was carefull with that sensor...

But today when I installed my CAI, I totally forgot about that, and when I was yanking the air box out, I pulled hard and

all this fluid came spraying out...

I broke the thing and had to go buy a new one... now with my CAI I don't know what to do with that sensor... I drove tonight with it just sitting in the bay and it seems ok.

Scampi · 09-04-2004, 05:36 AM

When I debaffled today, I had to remove the whole airbox, because of one little screw underneath the box holding the baffle in place.
It sucked, but at least I got it out.

TMac325is · 09-04-2004, 08:32 AM

im still really confused, its the little snorkel looking thing in the front of the airbox that pretty much acts like a funnel for the air, right??

we tried getting it out, but couldnt figure out the clip thing, and didnt know that it would slide out.

are you sure the 2.8L isnt different from the 2.5?

SHAHAB323IS · 09-04-2004, 08:58 AM

there's a nice diy on these forumns by el presidente, but i'm sure you have probably already looked at it, anyway back to what i was going to say....NOW I KNOW WHAT NOT TO DO, NOTE TO SELF DON'T RIP OFF HOSES IF I'M NOT SURE WHAT THEY DO,LOL

skawful · 09-04-2004, 10:22 AM

the snorkel is very easy to get out:

put a flat head screw driver (i used the one in the tool kit) inbetween the metal and plastic of the clip and just force it open... it will snap off easily...
if you can move the airbox just a little then you can easily get the snorkel out...

uber e36 · 09-04-2004, 02:38 PM

T-Mac,

Go to the link in my signature to understand debaffling a little better... If you still can't understand, PM me and I'll explain.

-Geoff

TMac325is · 09-04-2004, 06:19 PM

i finished the debaffle today, too bad i didnt get a chance to see your link before... it took me a couple mins to find the clip under the airbox that i had to push it... really had to force that sucker out.. there really isnt a HUGE difference in sound, but in the higher ends of the revs you can hear it nice and loud... absolutely no difference in performance from what i can tell