Common issues & diagnosis
Charged air pipe: Charge air lines are a common problem in BMWs—heat, pressure and oil can eventually cause them to split—which will typically cause an obvious performance loss and intake noise, and usually the car will throw a fault on the dash.
Filtered air ducts: Filtered air pipes are less problematic—they can crack, but we mainly sell them for use in collision repairs
What is the part's function?
Charged air pipe: There are two charged air pipes in each car. One pipe that carries hot air from the turbocharger to the intercooler (the heat & pressure from the turbocharger significantly increase the air’s temperature.) The other pipe carries cool air from the intercooler to the throttle body/inlet manifold.
Filtered air ducts: Filtered air ducts transport intake air coming from the air filter housing to the turbocharger, where it is then compressed before being sent via the intercooler to the engine.
How to determine fitment compatibility
Each model generation will usually run a few different engine types, for which there will need to be different types of charge air lines & filtered air ducts.
The best way to confirm fitment compatibility of a charge air line or filter air duct is to match the BMW part numbers from the catalogue. This can be done by decoding your vehicle’s VIN in a BMW EPC (electronic part catalogue.)
If you don’t have access to an EPC, provide our team with your vehicle’s 17-digit VIN—and we’ll check our stock for a compatible match.
Interchangeability between models
There is some interchangeability of charge air lines & filtered air ducts between models that share common platforms and similar/alike engines.
