VW TSI Intake Manifold - Garbage?

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OVERKILL

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So a buddy of mine from work, his wife had a TDI that was affected by the buy-back program. This put her into a 2016 Tiguan, which they recently due to mileage and incentives, traded for a 2018 Tiguan when the dealer was blowing out the remaining stock.

Fast forward to last week and apparently she got a CEL, took it to the dealer, and they told her it was probably the intake manifold, and since it was so new, they weren't going to do any troubleshooting, they were just going to replace it. This struck her husband as odd and so after he dropped it off this AM to get this done, he asked me about it. I hadn't heard about it so we did a quick Google and apparently this is extremely common. Not only is it common, but there are three different ways it can fail!
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Now, the three components on the intake manifold that can defecate the bed are not available separately, so if any of them sod off, you are replacing the entire thing, which is, according to the dealer, a 4-hour job. This seems... ridiculous? At least the manifold unit isn't insanely expensive
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There's a video I found on Youtube when he and I were looking it up that explains the three failure modes:
 
Don't forget about sandblasting the valves while the manifold is off, that is another few hundred dollars in their pocket. Due to not installing the port injectors in the holes that are already there, but blocked off. I have two Vws that drive me nuts as it is, but I wouldn't get any of the new ones because of this nonsense. They would be really good cars if they paid attention to certain details. Can't imagine 4 fuel injectors cost that much to include in each car.
 
Originally Posted by Trav
This is really common and VW has a redesigned manifold for a couple of hundred if its out of warranty.

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine...on-over-oe-06j133201bd/06j133201bh1ktkt/

If you are skeptical of VW's improvements and want to save 4 hrs labor charge every time this is the way to go, it doesn't take long to rack up a grand in labor.

https://www.hpamotorsports.com/20t-fsi-tsi-intake-manifold-v2


The vehicle is a 2018, it's only like 6 months old IIRC. I would have expected them to have it updated and revised by now and installed from the factory, no?
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Sorry I thought you meant the 2016, I guess the updated version is crap too. Toyota had one also that the guts ratted out of it, fantastic plastic.
 
Originally Posted by Trav
Sorry I thought you meant the 2016, I guess the updated version is crap too. Toyota had one also that the guts ratted out of it, fantastic plastic.


No worries. Yeah, that's what first struck me, holy plastic!
 
I know of plenty of 2.0 TSI engines with 150,000 miles and the original, never removed intake manifolds. That being said, it does defy logic that they continue to manufacture what appears to be a substandard part for this engine.
 
I have a 2013 GTI I bought new and mine went out around 81K miles. I replaced it myself and cleaned the intake valves while I was there which needed it.
The job is pretty easy, but you need a triple square spline bit which might surprise someone if they never worked on a modern German vehicle.
A local dealer near me quoted $900 to clean the valves and replace the intake. I bought the intake manifold at that same dealer for just under $200 if I remember right.
My car has 154K on it.

Issues I've had with my GTI since new: Dual-mass flywheel died around 50K, intake manifold around 81K, oil separator or PCV at 112K and the mechanical high pressure fuel pump
died around 126K. if your oil separator gives out - DO NOT DRIVE THE VEHICLE ONE FOOT UNTIL IT'S FIXED! Unless you wanna risk blowing the rear main seal and making the repair over $1000.
 
It seems that oil quality affects manifold issue.
I had VW CC with 2.0TSI, never had that issue, while this Tiguan had manifold changed under warranty by VW before they offered vehicle for sale. Since then I used Castrol 0W30 or 0W40, and no issues since.
PCV is bigger issue IMO. It is cheap part, but can create bigger issue if not changed when it starts to make whistling noise. According to some people it seems VW purposely created fail/safe system to blow off rear main seal to prevent potentially larger issues.
Of course, all this is approximately the price of spark plug change on my Toyota. So go figure.
 
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Originally Posted by skyactiv
I have a 2013 GTI I bought new and mine went out around 81K miles. I replaced it myself and cleaned the intake valves while I was there which needed it.
The job is pretty easy, but you need a triple square spline bit which might surprise someone if they never worked on a modern German vehicle.
A local dealer near me quoted $900 to clean the valves and replace the intake. I bought the intake manifold at that same dealer for just under $200 if I remember right.
My car has 154K on it.

Issues I've had with my GTI since new: Dual-mass flywheel died around 50K, intake manifold around 81K, oil separator or PCV at 112K and the mechanical high pressure fuel pump
died around 126K. if your oil separator gives out - DO NOT DRIVE THE VEHICLE ONE FOOT UNTIL IT'S FIXED! Unless you wanna risk blowing the rear main seal and making the repair over $1000.


So true. We've seen 3 2.0 TSI rear-mains come through my shop in the last 6 months. VW has redesigned (shocker) the rear main seal to a double lip design, replacing the original bonded single piece which was GARBAGE. Seriously, if you've never held a 2.0 original design rear main in your hands, you're missing out. It's an absolute joke, and it's amazing it could seal ANYTHING. I wouldn't trust it to seal a drip from a leaky faucet.
 
Originally Posted by WhizkidTN
Such wonderful German engineering at its finest indeed!


I think it's utterly stupid. My M5 had 8 throttle bodies and it didn't have anything approaching this level of idiocy going on under the hood. I think it's more a VAG thing than a German thing.
 
My guess is that the Mexican plastic they use is not up to snuff. They should have used the German formula of resin polymers.

Don't most modern car engines have these kind of intakes ?
 
Originally Posted by PimTac
My guess is that the Mexican plastic they use is not up to snuff. They should have used the German formula of resin polymers.

Don't most modern car engines have these kind of intakes ?


You watch the vid? The failure models are surprising.
 
The intakes are indeed garbage on this engine.

My GTI was assembled in Germany and the intake is made in Europe. All MK6 Golfs and GTI's are assembled in the Wolfsburg, Germany factory.

But at least you can buy one without breaking the bank.

Most engines even on the newest vehicles, don't use such an intake. The Nissan 2.5 uses one.

The feel of power delivery of the VW turbo engines are second to none.
A Focus ST is faster than me, but my car has a much more pleasant feel to the engine.
 
The plastic manifold of our 2005 Subaru Legacy GT (2.5 turbo) lasted us the 240k we owned vehicle trouble free.
 
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For the extra power you get with the 2.0 vs the 1.8 it just is not worth it . Of coarse that's in the cars . The SUV models all have the 2.0 so it can't be avoided , myself being a vw guy I wouldn't ever own the 2.0 . The two engine's appear to be identical other than displacement but obviously that isn't true because 1.8 doesn't have near the issues of the 2.0
 
The plastic/resin intake manifold on our 2005 4.6 V-8 Explorer lasted till around 190,000 miles. I don't recall the replacement cost but through my indie mechanic it wasn't too much. From what I read it's a common problem with many older Ford 4.6's.

Whimsey
 
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