Infamous ghost whistle, already new intake boot

George03

Member
Who can help me sort out the problem with the ghost whistle on my m54b25? I know this topic has been discussed multiple times.

I performed a smoke leak test several times. First time showed up a leak in the lower intake boot, so replaced that with a new one. The whistle remained. Smoke test didn’t show any other leaks.

Whistle can be heard under light throttle between 1600-3000 rpm. Especially 1-3 gear. Any faster and road noise takes over. Tought that maybe the airfilter box could be leak. Removed it and drove around the block with air going straight in the MAF. Seems to make the noise even louder.

A lot of people suggest the CCV/PCV and test via oil cap. The engine idles and performs great, very slight vacuum on oil cap, which should be normal.

Other common suggestion is the DISA. That didn’t show a smoke leak. And even ICV is sometime mentioned.

Could there be something a smoketest misses?

Anobody else had this problem and managed to solve it? Your help is appreciated.
 
Some say (well documented on here) that the noise comes from constriction in the oil filter flow dynamics

Cheap filters or collapsed old ones may be the root
 
Has a previous owner fitted a home made metal air intake behind the near side kidney grill? I removed the one mine had and the noise disappeared.
 
@bigwinn: I always use MANN which should be an OEM supplier. Will check today as it is a minut job.

@MikeyH: No the car is completely stock. Thanks for your input though. Suppose that metal intake scoop was for more cold air. Doubt it made any difference in performance.
 
Checked the oil filter, that is still in a great shape.
After I previously checking the vacuum at the oil cap, I also checked the vacuum at the dipstick tube opening, which seems to have a similar vacuum, so I don’t think there’s anything wrong with the ccv.

Is th

So the search continues.
 
In the meanwhile I changed the ccv/pcv. Didn’t make any difference. Still the same monotone whistle noise.

Anybody got suggestions?
 
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