VLIM or VTCS broke... and they want to replace the intake!?

PeteyBoy3K

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'04 Mazda3 5d, Titanium Gray
So, I had my car at the dealership for the oil change (I had a coupon... what!?) and figured I would ask them about the rhythmic ticking coming from the engine compartment. The tick itself was metallic, and increased speed with the RPM.. so I thought it was a sticky valve or something. (It was also about twice as loud as any of the injector clicks).

I asked, and now they have an entirely new intake on order and will call me when it comes in so they can replace mine under warranty.

Apparently, the tick is some "peice of the intake architecture" that is flapping.., and is also fully integrated so that the entire "intake" needs to be replaced. I never got from the "service rep" whether it was the VTCS (little butterfly valve near the manifold that causes more "tumble" at low RPM) or VLIM (the tuba valve!), I don't think he knew what I was talking about.

I am not even sure that the tick is related... I'm pretty sure the alarming noise in question was a hard metal-hitting-metal sound (allbeit small peices of metal). Perhaps these intake controls are metal or metal lined? I'm guessing that the dealership plugged up my car to a diagnostic machine and read "VLIM/VTCS failure" and decided to replace it. But hey, it's a warranty repair, and if the tick goes away when I get my car back... I'll be happy.

Any idears?
 
i'm assuming you mean the intake manifold, and not the actually accordian and air box? there's plenty of stuff that can go wrong inside the intake manifold and some of the pieces are metal, though i'm trying to place in my head where metal can hit metal...think it's around plastic? There are 2 systems in there, effecting tumbling of air as well as intake runner length, so maybe something cam loose and is hitting something else. i wouldn't worry too much if they are replacing it under warranty, hasn't effected driving has it?
 
hmmm i feel some ticking but only when accelerating, not at idle. do you hear it at idle as well?
 
ZoomVT said:
hmmm i feel some ticking but only when accelerating, not at idle. do you hear it at idle as well?


just tell the voices in your head to shut up.... then you should be all set..
 
MrTea said:
i'm assuming you mean the intake manifold, and not the actually accordian and air box?

I'm not sure what they meant. I wasn't talking to the actual technician, but the "service rep"... and the best I could get out of him was "the intake..."

there's plenty of stuff that can go wrong inside the intake manifold and some of the pieces are metal, though i'm trying to place in my head where metal can hit metal...think it's around plastic? There are 2 systems in there, effecting tumbling of air as well as intake runner length, so maybe something cam loose and is hitting something else. i wouldn't worry too much if they are replacing it under warranty, hasn't effected driving has it?


Yah, that's my thought. Well, something broke... Hooray for warranty!

I dont think it has affected driving... then again... the poor 2.3 litre has been lugging a lot more... I just thought I wasn't hitting the gas enough during startups and the cold was affecting it. Whatever change in power band has occured gradually.

Also, The time I got the engine flush and a new air filter at 35K... the car had so much more power I had never known I had lost... Since then I have realized my butt-dyno needs recalibration.
 
Oh yea... had it replaced a couple of tuesdays ago...

ticking is gone....

also, I have a lot more low-end power back... and that seems to have affected my mileage for the worse ;)
 
Ya I'm currently going through the same mess but with a 04..Im not gonna lie I drive it like I stole it but I dont have the luck of warranty. They said it was the intake runner control which is part of the manifold so you have to purchase the whole damn assem. around $1200CAN Im thinkng if this would be a good time to throw a little snail on...:)
 
Just ordered my new manifold from protegegarage. Stupid VLIM system took a crap. $440 later...
 
i think my car has had a small tick at idle since the day i bought it. You can only hear it with the engine open. They said they replaced the butterfly valve under warranty but it still makes the noise, I wonder if I have a similar problem...
 
the flaps in these intake manifolds are plastic and they have been known to cause problems... I believe there was a TSB on this also

mine might be going bad too, but I haven't had time to check it
 
Unplug the VLIM and VTCS solenoids (either the vacuum lines or the electrical connector). If the noise goes away when you unplug the left one (left as you're looking at it, not the vehicle's left. The red hose in the attached picture) then the VLIM is bad and you have to replace the manifold. If the VTCS is bad, you can remove it but then it idles bad and drives weird.

Ummm... if you have a speed3, this may not apply.
 

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the flaps in these intake manifolds are plastic and they have been known to cause problems... I believe there was a TSB on this also

mine might be going bad too, but I haven't had time to check it

the flaps in the intake manifold are definitely made from metal, atleast the one we had here before it got shipped out for prototyping.


And you guys know that the injectors on DI cars are loud as hell right? louder than traditional ones.
 
the flaps in the intake manifold are definitely made from metal, atleast the one we had here before it got shipped out for prototyping.


And you guys know that the injectors on DI cars are loud as hell right? louder than traditional ones.

Again, can't speak for the speed owners but the VTCS flaps in a regular 3 are definitely plastic, just like the rest of the manifold. I'll figure out about the VLIM flap(s) after I put on the new manifold and dissect the old one.

And no turbo = no DI (this thread was started in '05)
 
Again, can't speak for the speed owners but the VTCS flaps in a regular 3 are definitely plastic, just like the rest of the manifold. I'll figure out about the VLIM flap(s) after I put on the new manifold and dissect the old one.

And no turbo = no DI (this thread was started in '05)

jbiird has a MS3 so he has DI. And anyways most times when people come in with a ticking noise under the hood it is damn injector noise.
 
wow i missed the date on this thread... i did not know that the injectors were that much louder but now that I think about it, it makes perfect sense. i suppose this should be in the standard 3 section, moved
 
the flaps in the intake manifold are definitely made from metal, atleast the one we had here before it got shipped out for prototyping.


And you guys know that the injectors on DI cars are loud as hell right? louder than traditional ones.
this IS the normal mz3 forum, NOT the ms3 forum... they separated this s*** for a reason :rolleyes:

and yeah, major back from the dead
 
this IS the normal mz3 forum, NOT the ms3 forum... they separated this s*** for a reason :rolleyes:

and yeah, major back from the dead

now that i moved it, yes, it is in the mz3 section. until my last post it was in the ms3 section, we clearly didnt go back to 05 when we moved the threads over
 
well its safe to assume all threads older than 05 would not talk about the ms3 if much at all, so why not just move all that s***?
 
maybe an admin could do that, but for me it would be a huge pain in the ass to move ALLL of those threads individually. and since most people's browsers are only set up to see the past years post at most it would be pretty much worthless. back on topic please
 
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