Valve Cleaning DIY

[Gabrius]

You wont be able to see the bracket without removing the TB pipe and TB.
The bracket is under the manifold and behind he TB, dead center.

I have full motor mounts so my engine doesnt flop around the engine bay, so no issues here.

Nice. I have the VF Engineering mount kit so ill probably do the same. Remove and not reinstall.

 

[Zach L]

The bitch bolt is located ... if you draw a straight line through the two hoses that are directly above the oil filter holder about an inch and a half up. I had to put the ratchet extension between the 2 hoses to get it.

Ding ding ding!

I have removed/installed the manifold bracket bolt prob 10 times without ever removing throttle body. You can see the bolt if you point a flashlight down between the intake runners. You'll want put the triple square bit onto a 1/4" ratchet with 6" extension connecting them. The skinnier the extension, the better. The two coolant hard lines will split away from each other as they move toward the passenger side of the car. Pass the extension right through the "V" shape where they split apart. It is not a direct, perfectly straight line to the bolt, but it is a small enough angle so you can still loosen and tighten the bolt.

When reinstalling, attach the bracket to the underside of the manifold and hand tighten the bolt that attaches it to the manifold. That way if the bracket is not perfectly aligned with the hole on the engine block, you will be able to slightly rotate the bracket into the proper location. To screw in the bottom bracket bolt, use a piece of duct tape on the bolt head and bit to make sure the bolt does not fall off the bit. Once bolt is screwed in, jiggle and twist the ratchet until the tape comes loose.

I disconnect the charge piping from the throttle body often, but I won't ever remove the throttle body unless I have the manifold off the car... the bolts for the throttle body are just too much of a PITA to justify removing it. Not to mention there is the throttle body gasket that will eventually need replacing.

 

[M0riarty]

Ok, I just did the intake valve cleaning on my 06 FSI @ 127K. I have had random cold start misfires on cyl's 2 & 4 for a while now per VCDS. This combined with a general feeling of sluggishness and laggy throttle response prompted me to finally tackle this project.

First the goods (good lord):

Cyl 1:

Cyl 2:

Cyl 3:

Cyl 4:

Filthy splitters (brownies anyone?):

It's pretty clear why I was misfiring on cyls 2 & 4. Yes, I have had a front PCV delete on the car for the majority of it's life, No catch can or VTA setup though. Castrol Syntec under warranty period and Rotella T6 currently.

A couple of notes:

-This tool setup works to get to the M10 triple square bolt (1/4" socket with 6" extension, hacked off M10 triple square bit in socket):

-Ended up pulling the throttle body off to gain access to the M10 bolt and dipstick tube, turns out it's not necessary - and as other have stated - it's a real PITA to get to the TB bolts. I would not remove the TB if I did this again.

-The 2 inner/lower access guides to the intake manifold bolts (on either side of the TB) will NOT fit a 3/8" extension! You need a 1/4" 6" extension and narrow T30 to reach these two bolts.

-My dipstick tube came off with almost no effort - a dealer visit years ago for a bad injector may have made subsequent removal efforts easier than a virgin tube might be.

-Crank bolt was a piece of cake to rotate (to close off open valves for scrubbing). This was with the front end of the car in the air, DSG transmission in Park.

My workstation:

I didn't get the valves as immaculate as a walnut blasting, but pretty close (no pics). Got her put back together today - car runs like new, perfect idle, pulls harder, couldn't be happier! I should have done this 60K miles ago - I had no idea the buildup would be this bad.

 

[Natalie]

I didn't get the valves as immaculate as a walnut blasting, but pretty close (no pics). Got her put back together today - car runs like new, perfect idle, pulls harder, couldn't be happier! I should have done this 60K miles ago - I had no idea the buildup would be this bad.

I've had a few of these over the last 40k or so. 146k now and still have not cleaned the valves. Never ran the car that hard, no performance mods but I'm assuming it would look like this.

When I was in the dealership a few weeks back to get my thermostat put in they quoted me (thermostat and carbon cleaning $620.13), $480 for thermostat and rest for carbon. I did a double take and asked a few questions and they said yea just $620.13. So I told them to do it. I thought they were going to take the manifold off to get to the thermostat.

They came back 20 minutes later and said, sorry we were wrong. It's $863 for the cleaning. Still want to do it? Sorry, no...

How long did the job end up taking you?

 

[CKGTI]

This looks a little bit above my skill level... I just had a rough idle cold start last week that caused an CEL. Definitely misfiring, but it was also -20C at the time. That's -4F for you yanks.

Anyone have any recommendations on indy mechanics to get this done in ON Canada? And approx costs?

 

[M0riarty]

I've had a few of these over the last 40k or so. 146k now and still have not cleaned the valves. Never ran the car that hard, no performance mods but I'm assuming it would look like this.

When I was in the dealership a few weeks back to get my thermostat put in they quoted me (thermostat and carbon cleaning $620.13), $480 for thermostat and rest for carbon. I did a double take and asked a few questions and they said yea just $620.13. So I told them to do it. I thought they were going to take the manifold off to get to the thermostat.

They came back 20 minutes later and said, sorry we were wrong. It's $863 for the cleaning. Still want to do it? Sorry, no...

How long did the job end up taking you?

I had the car apart for a week in total - but I also did the thermostat, cam follower and coolant flush while I was in there. Also had to make 3 parts/tool runs to Napa for stuff I didn't have. Helps to have access to a second car while tackling this job. Honestly if I did it again (just the carbon cleaning), I could definitely have it done in a weekend.

I had a similar dealer experience - they wanted $800+ for carbon cleaning and thermostat replacement. Feeling pretty happy to have avoided that!

I found the APR Flapper delete PDF to be the most useful guide, though I would omit removing the TB. The biggest benefit to removing the TB is having visual line-of-sight with the manifold support bracket/bolt for removal, but I would do it by feel next time.

 

[grendelson]

I was also quoted over 800 for thermo and cleaning - did it myself but took 3 days. ( first time Ever removing an intake off anything bigger than a MC )
Day1 part day just some removal. Day2 more removal and thermo replacement and cleaning. Day 3 touch up intake cleaning and reassembly ( new sealed injectors, all freah coolant etc. Could have been 2 solid days even for first time job.

 

[Christoph559]

I want to do this bad bought my car with 170k, I am the 2nd owner. For the mileage she runs great and pulls hard and dosnt have any studder when cold.

 

[Zach L]

Second time you do it, you'll be able to do it within a day. That's with much of the time just letting the valves soak.

I usually park car Friday night and get started around 9am next morning. Finish by dinner and clean up after eating.

Next time I do it, I'll prob try the walnut method.

 

[Zach L]

Yes, I have had a front PCV delete on the car for the majority of it's life, No catch can or VTA setup though.

Next time you have the car up on jack stands, disconnect your charge piping hoses from the intercooler and pour out the oil mess that I promise is sloshing around in there right now.

You have half of what you need to do either a VTA PCV setup or an exhaust-routed PCV setup. Just remove that rear PCV outlet from going into your intake and run a hose to the ground or plumb it into the exhaust (after the cat).:thumbsup:

You'll still get valve buildup due to weeping valve guides, but it will happen MUCH, MUCH slower and you won't have any of that junk going through your turbo, intercooler, throttle body, intake manifold, etc.

Moroso nipple used for plumbing to exhaust:

 

[zrickety]

Don't do that. It's not legal and it will stink. Leave the pcv alone and drive it hard for 30 min every once in awhile.

 

[TypeR_126]

Anyone here tried the zip tie trick to clean the valves? Seems like that would be a lot faster than soaking

 

[fastwire]

hey guys I will be doing this soon, have a question though, Iam at 165k miles and have random misfires at WOT on 2nd gear:
this applies to the Audi A3 2.0T FSI? It involves removing the intercooler, radiator etc? thx

 

[grendelson]

I did the zip ties. Made 2 out of white and black zip ties. I'll post some pics soon. Used 2 bottles of b12 instead of 3 or 4 that was recommended with good scraping between each pour. It came out very good with zip ties and pick tools. I'd definitely try walnut blasting next time. Just to be faster.

 

[grendelson]

Fastwire. If u dont have a coolant cel then no reason to remove the thermo or intercooler. Just the intake manifold to clean the intake ports.