Keith Harley of KMH Motors

Dana B

Active member
Joined
Jun 22, 2012
Location
massachuttess
TDI
2003
Keith thank you for the great job you did on our jetta tdi the dealer could not find the problem 'you spent 10 min. on it and found the problem and fixed it. I am so glad we found the tdi club and the mechanics your the best!!! I was wondering for cleaning the fuel injectors what product would you suggest to clean them? Thank you again for the great service and professionalism. Dana B :)
 

k_harley

Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Location
Lowell, MA
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI, 2005 Audi S4, 1997 Audi A4 Race car, 2004 Passat TDI 6MT 4motion
Wow, just found this by accident, glad to hear I was able to save the day (and the TDI).

I like seafoam for fuel system cleaner for the older TDI's personally.
 

JB05

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Oct 20, 2005
Location
Il.USA
TDI
Golf,2005,anthracite blue
Which problem was fixed? Was it the gelled fuel or the MAF?
 

k_harley

Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Location
Lowell, MA
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI, 2005 Audi S4, 1997 Audi A4 Race car, 2004 Passat TDI 6MT 4motion
IIRC, I think this guy had a turbo replaced to fix an underboost problem by dealer or other independent shop. Well, still no boost....

What I found in my highly productive 10 mins I spent diagnosing it is that it did not have any vacuum to the turbo...or other items in the engine bay.

I knew what this was. Got my thin dentist pick, pulled the small hose off the brake booster nipple and let her have it.

The small nipple on the boost was clogged with rust particles and dirt that most likely was sucked in by the failing vnt on the old turbo.

yay!
 

TornadoRed

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 3, 2003
Location
West Des Moines (formerly St Paul)
TDI
2003 Jetta TDI wagon, silver; 2003 Jetta TDI wagon, indigo blue; 2003 Golf GL 5-spd, red (PARTED); 2003 Golf GLS 5-spd, indigo blue (SOLD); 2003 Jetta TDI wagon, Candy White (SOLD)
IIRC, I think this guy had a turbo replaced to fix an underboost problem by dealer or other independent shop. Well, still no boost....

What I found in my highly productive 10 mins I spent diagnosing it is that it did not have any vacuum to the turbo...or other items in the engine bay.

I knew what this was. Got my thin dentist pick, pulled the small hose off the brake booster nipple and let her have it.

The small nipple on the boost was clogged with rust particles and dirt that most likely was sucked in by the failing vnt on the old turbo.

yay!
Shouldn't the weak brakes have been a clue for the dealer techs? Even if they didn't know much about TDIs?
 

k_harley

Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Location
Lowell, MA
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI, 2005 Audi S4, 1997 Audi A4 Race car, 2004 Passat TDI 6MT 4motion
Shouldn't the weak brakes have been a clue for the dealer techs? Even if they didn't know much about TDIs?
No, brake booster is fed by main hose, not nipple going to N75, N18, etc.
 

TDI love

Active member
Joined
Nov 22, 2012
Location
Houston, TX
TDI
02 Jetta
The best way to clean the fuel injectors is to use biodiesel. Biodiesel is a natural solvent that cleans the entire fuel system. It removes gunks and clogs created by impurities in diesel. Before biodiesel was sold as a fuel, it was sold as cleaning agent to mix with diesel. The scientific name for biodiesel is methyl esters which is a natural solvent.

You can mix any quantity of biodiesel to your diesel. The higher the better. Make sure you have an extra fuel filter because all the gunk that it unclogs gets filtered in the fuel filter. So eventually you will have to change the fuel filter. You can get biodiesel at almost any major city. Just do a search.

In Houston, biodiesel is about $0.25 cheaper than gas! Yes gas! So I rather just fuel my car with biodiesel as it cleans my engine and I save money!

Biodiesel also burns much cleaner than diesel.
 
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TDI love

Active member
Joined
Nov 22, 2012
Location
Houston, TX
TDI
02 Jetta
I thought I should also warn you that if you have been running diesel in your car for 100,000 or more, your intake manifold is clogged with a thick build up of soot from the petroleum residue. At 100,000 miles your car is due for a regular maintenance of cleaning this crap. However, if you use biodiesel it cleans the manifold of this thick nasty gunk.

Many times people bypass the EGR because of this. Using 100% biodiesel prevents this.

The downside is that if you been running over 100,000 miles with diesel and just started using B100 (100% biodiesel) it will clean the intake manifold and leave a nasty gunk, dissolved as oil in the intercooler. Your car may start choking and become difficult to start. To fix this, just undo the right front tire and find the tubes leading to the intercooler. Disconnect the tube and collect the nasty oil that collects from the cleaning of the intake manifold. Do this at least once a month until you find no more collection of oil.

This cost me $1000 to clean manifold then another $600 to find the collection of oil in the intercooler from the cleaning from the B100.
 
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coolvdub

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 10, 2011
Location
SoCal/Bullhead City AZ
TDI
2001 Jetta TDI/2013 JSW
Please help me understand how bio diesel cleans the intake manifold. I thought it was a dry manifold. Correct me if I am wrong. Just thinking out loud right now.
 

VeeDubTDI

Wanderluster, Traveler, TDIClub Enthusiast
Joined
Jul 2, 2000
Location
Springfield, VA
TDI
‘18 Tesla Model 3D+, ‘14 Cadillac ELR, ‘13 Fiat 500e
I thought I should also warn you that if you have been running diesel in your car for 100,000 or more, your intake manifold is clogged with a thick build up of soot from the petroleum residue. At 100,000 miles your car is due for a regular maintenance of cleaning this crap. However, if you use biodiesel it cleans the manifold of this thick nasty gunk.

Many times people bypass the EGR because of this. Using 100% biodiesel prevents this.

The downside is that if you been running over 100,000 miles with diesel and just started using B100 (100% biodiesel) it will clean the intake manifold and leave a nasty gunk, dissolved as oil in the intercooler. Your car may start choking and become difficult to start. To fix this, just undo the right front tire and find the tubes leading to the intercooler. Disconnect the tube and collect the nasty oil that collects from the cleaning of the intake manifold. Do this at least once a month until you find no more collection of oil.

This cost me $1000 to clean manifold then another $600 to find the collection of oil in the intercooler from the cleaning from the B100.
No offense, but you need to do a little research on how this stuff actually works so you can avoid being ripped off in the future. $1000 to clean a manifold is ridiculous and $600 for an intercooler cleaning is nothing short of highway robbery. I really hope whoever did this work is not on the TDIClub Trusted Mechanics list. :eek:
 

roadhard1960

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2004
Location
Covington, Ga.
TDI
2003 Jetta wagon GLS 5 speed
I agree with VeeDubTDI. Intake manifold is the last thing before air gets in the head. The intercooler is 3 feet before that and downstream. Oil in the intercooler comes from leaky turbo and crankcase vent. Some say driving car hard once in a while blows that oil out of the intercooler.

Another by the way observation from others. The low sulfur diesel seems to eliminate intake manifold clogging. It will not clean dirty manifolds just as B100 will not clean an intake but it will not contribute to increased deposits.
 
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