Need some advice B6 PASSAT owner.

[Guest]

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[Unkonwn_User]

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[h100vw]

I reckon you should run around in 2nd for a week and clean out the exhaust that way.

I suspect you are right and there's a good amount of soot built up in the exhaust. Lots of cars emit a puff of black when you first open them up, due to the richening of the mixture.

I wouldn't worry about it breaking if you tune it, there's thousands of tuned 2 litres on the planet. There's a lot more tuners out there than APR so do some more research on that subject.

Cleaning out the intake is a pretty time consuming job, a grand seems a bit heavy. There's no other way to do it though.

[Unkonwn_User]

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[Martin]

1) on full acceleration i noticed theres big black plumes of smoke behind me. Especially when i first did this. I assumed the previous owner never gave it much of a boot and it has gotten slightly better.

There is nothing unusual about this at all - however it's more common on tuned cars
I had my ECU flashed at 14,000km and the car has blown this very large cloud of fuel haze ever since
It's more noticeable if you've been quietly driving for some time and then floor it.
I know ~5 people with Octavia's (most are tuned) and they all do it
The stock car does it the least

Just check your exhaust exit, put your finger in and touch the side
If it's dry soot you are fine - if it's wet slime your engine is tired and has some blow by (needs a rebuild)

He advised me this will cost $1000 to walnut blast clean.... wtf?? I did some research and found out its common on Direct Injection engines to have a carbon build up.. Should i get this done?

Direct injection into the combustion chamber means there is no fuel washing over the inlet valves
Hence they can and do get carbon build up for sure
At that mileage, probably a good idea to have it cleaned,
but there are other more cost effect methods
Mountain bike Mike has cleaned the inlet valves himself and Brad explained another technique
Read about it here: http://www.vwwatercooled.com/forums/...aru-90185.html

2) The cars now on 120000k's after a mega road trip. Im toying with the idea of doing an APR stage I chip or something similar. This boasts 180kw power. Im concerned about doing it at these kilometres. I don't want the car to be something to redline all the time, but would be nice to compensate for the weight a little more.

As long as the engine is not blowing oil (you could do a compression test) go for it
The APR flash really puts some life into the engine and makes over taking a breeze
APR Stage 1, the top end is worse than stock, Stage 2 is the ducks guts but you need the down pipe also

3) A friend was telling me installing a down pipe might be a good idea to lean out the fuel (by having less restrictions near the turbo) to prevent the carbon build up issue escalating (he's done this on his mk5 gti).

Absolute nonsense - exhaust restriction does not have any effect on fuel supply!

The fuel is controlled by a closed loop system,
the ECU is watching the O2 sensor and controlling the fuel supply accordingly.
At full throttle a lot of cars go open loop and the ECU gives the fuel directly from a predefined map.

When we go stage 2 we use a different down pipe to get a bit more gas flow, mainly from the hi flow cat
The stock cat is 800 cell - the hi flow cat has 200 cells
This just enables better flow (does not alter the fuel supply)

Our Octavia's have the same 2L TFSI and TSI engines used in the Passat range
The performance down pipe we use is a Jetta upgrade item

[Martin]

asked if it has a noticeable rougher idle etc

Go to Repco and buy a bottle of fuel injector cleaner - Nulon/Repco/LiquiMolly
There is a normal version and a heavy duty version
Fill the tank with fuel - put the correct dosage into the tank
(If using the heavy duty cleaner don't do a lot of hard driving at full throttle)
Once the tank has been consumed you should notice the idle is now smoother
Do this every 4 or 6 months

[passat08]

Hey mate I have a 2008 passat have stage 1 apr, carbonio air filter and thing goes hard for a wagon next step is dump pipe which in process doing. Only issue and worry I have is the gearbox if it can hold that much power as I don't have the dsg.

[Martin]

The manual gearbox is strong enough - no question about that
It's the small DSG clutches that are the weak link, the manual clutch has no issue
(APR Stage 2 is just over the torque capability of the DSG clutch but I'm not having any problems)

[passat08]

I don't have the manual gear box I have the tiptronic but non dsg. You got any pics your ride Martin

[Martin]

Hmmm,
Numerous cars are sold as "Tiptronic" but they are not the real Tiptronic,
They are just a torque converter auto with a little bit of electronic control
I think the Passat "Tiptronic" is actually a ZF auto with torque converter

Here is my humble Octavia



I've done some carbon wrapping of the dash

[Lucas_R]

Hi guys,
1) on full acceleration i noticed theres big black plumes of smoke behind me. Especially when i first did this. I assumed the previous owner never gave it much of a boot and it has gotten slightly better. However I called a specialist and he said its probably due to carbon build up in the valves (asked if it has a noticeable rougher idle etc) which it does.

He advised me this will cost $1000 to walnut blast clean.... wtf?? I did some research and found out its common on Direct Injection engines to have a carbon build up..

Should i get this done?

Unless you undertake the work yourself, i would expect around the $1000 mark to be acceptable for cleaning the carbon on the valves. At 115,000km you would have a considerable amount of buildup.

As you are in Sydney, you should ask Seb at Euro Revolution for a quote on the carbon cleaning. He does it too. He might be cheaper than your $1000 quote? He uses a chemical cleaning process rather than the walnut blasting technique. Both techniques achieve the same outcome.

2) The cars now on 120000k's after a mega road trip. Im toying with the idea of doing an APR stage I chip or something similar. This boasts 180kw power. Im concerned about doing it at these kilometres. I don't want the car to be something to redline all the time, but would be nice to compensate for the weight a little more.

Get the carbon cleaning maintenance done first (i would also suggest replacing the divertor valve and ignition coils as these are common failure items on a tuned car) before getting it tuned. Although APR are the more well known tuner here in Australia, they are also the most expensive. Being in Sydney, you have access to Revo, GIAC, Bluefin etc etc, ranging from around $700 up to about $1,200.

3) A friend was telling me installing a down pipe might be a good idea to lean out the fuel (by having less restrictions near the turbo) to prevent the carbon build up issue escalating (he's done this on his mk5 gti).

Anyone played with the down pipe on their passat?

I wouldn't spend money on an aftermarket down pipe without a tune first. You can actually DIY "hi flow" your stock down pipe by removing the catalytic converter that is right up near the turbo (i did this just recently), leaving only the second catalytic converter which is under the car. This removes quite a bit of restriction in the stock down pipe design.

[passat08]

Nice car Martin. So what does it mean for my transmission? If the specific tiptronic u said?

[Martin]

Your transmission is a high quality torque converter auto - ZF make good units
But it's the commercial Tiptronic, fun paddles, not the real Tiptronic system

[passat08]

I don't have paddle shift on steering wheel. So what do u think power trans could hold? When got the Apr tune they never done on the tiptronic on dsg so not sure what could hold

[brad]

1) on full acceleration i noticed theres big black plumes of smoke behind me. Especially when i first did this. I assumed the previous owner never gave it much of a boot and it has gotten slightly better. However I called a specialist and he said its probably due to carbon build up in the valves (asked if it has a noticeable rougher idle etc) which it does.

He advised me this will cost $1000 to walnut blast clean.... wtf?? I did some research and found out its common on Direct Injection engines to have a carbon build up..

Should i get this done?

If it's build up on the valves then plumes of black smoke won't be happening because it's before the combustion chamber & the crap on the valves will be more like bitumen - black, sticky & tar-like.

You may have build up in the combustion chamber & exhaust. Try running on one of the brand name 98ron products - they all seem to claim they have high detergent levels. Maybe also try a bottle of Nulon Total Fuel System Cleaner (one of the better ones IMO).

Inlet build usually presents as a rough idle when cold.

If you really want to clean out the inlet then get some Nulon Foaming Inlet cleaner, take out the inlet manifold air temp sensor, spray in 1/3 of a can into a hot (turned off) engine & let it sit overnight. Start up the next day, get it hot again & spray into a running engine. Mahe sure you secure the little pipe or it will blow into the inlet. Use up the other third. Switch off then use up the remainder & let it sit overnight.

There are other ways to clean the inlet as well using spray bottles & water.

2) The cars now on 120000k's after a mega road trip. Im toying with the idea of doing an APR stage I chip or something similar. This boasts 180kw power. Im concerned about doing it at these kilometres. I don't want the car to be something to redline all the time, but would be nice to compensate for the weight a little more.

Especially with the above carbon build up issue, I need some advice on getting it chipped or will it cause more problems (seeing as right now the carbon build up isn't causing issues, i just made an observation and the workshop sounds like its trying to milk me).

$1k sounds around the money. It's a time consuming job.

Don't let that stop you getting a tune. Plenty of equally good products beside APR.

I've had a tune on my 1.8tsi for 75,000km (now at 125,000km). No tune related issues.

3) A friend was telling me installing a down pipe might be a good idea to lean out the fuel (by having less restrictions near the turbo) to prevent the carbon build up issue escalating (he's done this on his mk5 gti).

I can't see how this would affect the issue. It's a direct injection engine & you can lean it out until the cows come home & it will still get inlet build up.

Nothing wrong with a DP for other reasons though. Decide first because DP means you can probably get a stage2 tune as well.


The best preventive will be a catch can.

Excuse my ignorance but is it the TSFI or TSI engine (where is the oil filter - top left facing up or lower middle facing down?)

Your in Sydney. What mech are you going to?