Intake Manifold

[Guest chrisH]

i've just spent all of Saturday and half of Sunday removing the Air Intake Manifold, cleaning it and putting it back.

 

This is the first time i've attempted this and it is a sod of a job.

Next time around ( if i need to do it ) should be a lot quicker.

 

I'm glad i did it, it was full of C??P.

 

have'nt had a chance to see if it made any difference but hopefully during the next few days i can give it a good run.

 

Also noted that one of the hoses is worn through.

 

I dont know what its for but i did take some photos any advice would be greatful.

 

Its the top hose ( the narrow one) from the plastic pipe leading up to the intake manifold.

 

I cant get the picture to upload (too big), does anybody know what it is from my description.

If not, i'll try and take some lower res ones.

 

Chrish

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Definitely worth cleaning these bits out. Don't worry about taking lo-res pictures, just use a photo editing package or even MS-Paint and save them as JPEG's. The photos I've uploaded to this site have all been taken on a 3.1Mpixel camera running at near its max resolution, running at about 800kb per photo, then reduced to approx 30% size and JPEG'd to medium "quality". They come out at about 30kB, easily small enough to upload.

[Dieselalhambra]

:( This problem of the inlet manifold clogging up seems quite common, my car has done 82k , and has already had a new maf , can you say why you removed inlet manifold was it power loss ? Can you briefly detail any dificult parts of the removal. Can you access from top of engine bay or do you need to have car jacked up. I do not need to do this as yet but the info may help if I need to in future.

[Guest chrisH]

I've had the Gal for about 14 months and for the first 6 months just thought the lack of power was because it was a diesel.

( My Gal is a 98 90bhp tdi with 115,000 miles on it at the moment)

 

Once i'd got in to this web site i soon realised that something was wrong.

Initially i thought it was the MAF but was reluctant to spend huge amounts of money on a 'thought'. Then I got a hold of the VAG-COM software. It showed some errors regarding the intake manifold.

Having read the Haynes manual and several stories from various web sites I thought I'd have a go at removing the Intake manifold and cleaning it.

Ha, it sounds so easy. Well, actually it is but the first time can be frustrating.

 

All the stories and Haynes manual said remove the 6 nuts from the manifold and away it comes, not that easy when you cant seen what your doing.

 

Firstly, you remove a couple of plastic pipes (not sure what they are but the Haynes manual will tell you ) and the EGR from the manifold, next you remove the six nuts that hold the manifold to the engine, actually its not nuts you remove but bolts, there are some nuts around the back which i removed but then found out they are off the exhaust manifold (at least thats what i think they were off ). This is what took uop most of the time as they were awkward to get to.

Once the bolts were off the manifold came away easily and it was all mine to play with.

A word of warning, stuff some rags into the open pipes so nothing can fall into them and be very careful nothing falls into the open ports into the engine where the manifold used to be.

Once i had the manifold on the bench it didnt look that bad, it was only when i started scrapeing the crude out did i realise how much its was actually gundged up.

I used a can of carb cleaner, a toothbrush and a coat hanger, it took about 2 hours to get it clean ( well nearly clean ).

I put the manifold into a backing tray, one like the turkey goes in at christmas, and started spraying , scrapeing, spraying, scrapeing, spraying, well you get the picture.

 

Putting the manifold back was easy, i used the same gasket (even though the Haynes manual tells you not to ) it wasn't damaged so i thought it would be ok and it was. Next the pipes went back, then the EGR thingy and all was done.

 

I started the engine up with my fingures crossed and it worked.

It's been a week now and its better than ever. I've done over 600 miles and have actually been able to overtake and stay in the 'fast' lane of the motorway without somebody being up my A**E.

 

As Ivor said its well worth doing.

 

If theirs anybody in the Liverpool area that wants someone to advise/oversee let me know.

 

 

One final bit of advice, get lots of those rubber doctor type gloves, I went through 6 pairs and the dirt still managed to get under my finger nails and is still there now.

I also ended up removing the protective under tray as i dropped the tools so many times it was easier to pick them up from the floor than try and search on the tray !!!!!! Oh, and all the work was done from the top of the engine.

 

Good luck to who ever tries this. :(

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Congratulations, sounds like a job well done.

[Dieselalhambra]

:o Thanks for the detailed discription , it may come in handy in the future