Poll: Have you ever internally cleaned your FMIC?

Have you ever internally cleaned the oil from your FMIC?

  • Nope!

    Votes: 21 72.4%
  • Yup, and I definitely measured performance gains!

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Yup, and I kinda think my FMIC works better.

    Votes: 1 3.4%
  • Yup, but it didn't do a damn thing.

    Votes: 5 17.2%
  • No, but I should

    Votes: 2 6.9%

  • Total voters
    29

Jeffman

Major
Jan 7, 2017
1,618
1
628
0
My Helix FMIC has been on my car for 5-6 years, 40K miles, and I've never removed it to clean it. I see some oil in the charge pipe so there must be oil sitting in the bottom of the FMIC - but how much does this really matter?

Questions I have for the community are:
1. Have you ever removed and inspected your FMIC to evaluate how much oil you've collected?
2. Did you ever internally clean your FMIC, and if so how did you do it?
3. After internally cleaning the FMIC did you measure any performance improvements?

Thanks for your input.
 

R.G.

Lieutenant
Nov 17, 2016
668
326
0
Henderson, NV
Ride
E92 335, F10 M5
Anytime it's off I usually clean it up. Brake cleaner, shop vac and hose. Didn't do diddly performance wise.
 

chrisdfv

Corporal
Aug 29, 2017
270
216
0
Ride
E90 335i
I'm curios as to how much oil is in mine. I've had it on about as long as you have, similar miles as well.
 

9krpmrx8

Lieutenant
Nov 5, 2016
508
290
0
San Antonio, Texas
Yes, it's common on many platforms and if you have a lot (I had almost 2 quarts in my other cars intercooler when the turbo failed) then it's turbo rebuild time. And use gasoline to clean it.
 

LessIsMore

Specialist
Aug 21, 2017
56
22
0
Ride
09 535i
I vote no, and seems like it would be a waste of time.

on my 1G DSM (92 Eclipse GSX) back in the day, that was a one of the "stage 0" mods / maintenance things people recommend: clean your factory intercooler because "it could have cupfuls of oil sitting in it!" and you want it at optimal performance since stock IC was so small ... however even with 75K miles mine had little-to-no oil, mainly just residue, and cleaning made no difference in power, driveability, nor anything else.

Outside and cleaning/straightening the fins? - sure, makes sense.
 
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