Just done mine - tip on getting the square shaft out - get a pair of small nosed molegrips on the end of it - you can geton at an angle of better then 45 degrees - and tap on the moley lightly with a small hammer - worked for me - slowly at first but with patience...........

OK. So the general understanding is that it is best to remove them.... Might be best then

Just my contribution to the thread, I brought a donor manifold from a 2007 Freelander 2 not sure how many miles it had on the clock but what a it was to remove the swirl flaps! Bent a good pair of long nose piliers trying to twist and tug the out.

In the end I resorted to brute force to get the inner spindle out by twisting out of each chamber one by one snapping it into smaller peices, made a right mess of all my tools and the workshop!

Managed to get most of the muck/carbon deposits out using parrafin and brake cleaner then blowing through with an air compressor. Glad I brought a donor as it took me a good hour or so of choice words to get the flaps out. Hopefully this weekend I will get around to replacing mine (2010 106k miles) blank off the egr and swap out for some fresh plugs

What a pig of a job picture after removing filter

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Good job, I’ve just done my 2007. All four glow plugs dead, throttle body gears stripped, swirl flaps loose in the manifold with bits of brass bar floating about. Not sure where the fourth flap went but three fell out on the deck, along with the brass bits. Egr blanked off, plus the leaking leak off pipe nightmare ( other post) . All in all, a good and worthwhile job, but it’s still rough starting on milder mornings when the glow plugs aren’t required. My old cavalier diesel estate doesn’t give this many headaches.

Just finished removing the swirl flaps on mine. Can't put it back yet as waiting for new manifold seals. Post is terrible at the moment.
Anyway could not for the life of me pull out the brass rod holding the flaps in place as they were in very good condition, apart from being filthy. Didn't want to use a blow torch as FL2Printzern did in case I damaged the manifold. My solution was to use a Dremel and grind away the plastic in the centre of each swirl flap at the point it contacts the brass rod. I could then break them off the shaft. Slow and careful job but no damage. Brass rod then slides out effortlessly.
After a good clean of the manifold, put the actuator back in the end with some silicone grease for the seal. Attached it to the vacuum assembly and reconnected the vacuum hose, rather than blank it. Servo will still move the arm but now it's not connected to anything.

Don't know if anyone else did this but I also removed the fan assembly to give better access. That said I have take a lot more that the four hours some have quoted and I haven't started the re-assembly yet.

Must just be getting old and slow.  Now at the point when I learn something new something old is lost out the other side !
Now retired so it doesn't matter anymore.
Freelander now gone.

Can I ask how many miles your 09 GS has done ?

And is there a particular year or model of JAG XF that has the intake sans flaps ?

Finally got around to removing the swirl flaps & renewing the glow plugs. The swirl flaps were all intact but about as dirty as you would imagine for a 13 year old engine. Three out of the four glow plugs were open circuit, nice to have a code free scan after seven years of ownership. Glad I haven’t been anywhere really cold in that time, as it might not have started too well!

Thought I’d remove the dual fans to make some extra room to work in. I must say an auto that has the extra cooler, air con hose etc does not make it easy to get them out. Brute force & ignorance won out in the end though. I certainly wouldn’t bother removing them to access the oil filer, as I’ve never had an issue changing it anyway! (Now Sold). 2008 Freelander 2 (Nazca Sand) SE TD4 Auto. Statutory write off & on WOVR for hail damage but still road legal.
171037Km as of 09/05/22
Superchips Bluefin Flash
Nanocom Evo II (also sold)

Just de-flapped mine by fitting a donor manifold that I'd already whipped the flaps out of with minimal effort. After 12 years and 132k miles it was reassuring to see the existing flaps were still present although quite yucky and as some of the seals were past their best which added to the clean up.

Fitted new glow plugs, but should have replaced the loom too as I'm still getting P0380-00 error code and initial rough running, especially if it doesn't get used for a few days.

Manifold was fitted with new seals and I also cleaned the throttle body and it does feel better to drive. Unless that's just in my head after I spent 2 days working on the thing...!

Have you checked the glow plug relay? (I’m guessing yours has one)!

I was amazed how clean my throttle body was, all shiny without any carbon/oil buildup at all.

I did fit an egr blanking plate about six years ago, so maybe that has helped. (Now Sold). 2008 Freelander 2 (Nazca Sand) SE TD4 Auto. Statutory write off & on WOVR for hail damage but still road legal.
171037Km as of 09/05/22
Superchips Bluefin Flash
Nanocom Evo II (also sold)

Mine pre-dates the relay and yes the throttle body was a lot cleaner than expected, so just a quick flush out with spray cleaner.

Mine has a relay, 2008 model. (Now Sold). 2008 Freelander 2 (Nazca Sand) SE TD4 Auto. Statutory write off & on WOVR for hail damage but still road legal.
171037Km as of 09/05/22
Superchips Bluefin Flash
Nanocom Evo II (also sold)

Now I'm curious...

Hi All,

Deflapping is not a job I want to do, particularly as it's possible this has already been done. Please let me know what you think from the pics below. Just finished replacing a new looking timing belt and serviced a haldex with a pump that looked like it was just out of the box so better t be safe than sorry.

Anyway the intake manifold on my 2007 looks like someone has cut out a viewing hole to look at the accutuator. Looks pretty neat or perhaps they are all like this anyone know? Here is a pic and you can clearly see the arm coming from the diaphram that works off the vacuum is disconnected from the piece that turns the bar that rotates the flaps. So the question is was this intentionally disconnected by someone servicing the car or has it just come apart. I've owned the car since about 2016. I'm not going to know unless I take it off. A few years ago the car started running really rough when cold but nobody could work out why and the issue corrected itself. I think this may have been swirl flap related. So the intake manifold is gunna have to come off.

ribama1, was the lever already missing or have you removed it? (Now Sold). 2008 Freelander 2 (Nazca Sand) SE TD4 Auto. Statutory write off & on WOVR for hail damage but still road legal.
171037Km as of 09/05/22
Superchips Bluefin Flash
Nanocom Evo II (also sold)