Drilling a drain hole in the intercooler plumbing

JD_2012GolfTDI

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May 5, 2019
Location
CA
TDI
2012 Golf Kerma tuned
My mods are complete:
And first test:
Nice work! How long did you run the vehicle to get that much water out? what kind of daily temps have you been dealing with? How frequently do you plan to drain?
 
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jesus_man

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2005 Jetta (gone), 2002 Passat (gone), 2009 JSW (VW bought), 2010 JSW
So during the install, I drained out what I could. Then a couple days later I drove the kids to school and was 2 miles from home when I pulled over and opened the valve. My car spends the nights outside and we are seeing lows around freezing give or take 5 degrees and highs in the 40-50's during the day. We are quite humid here, which exacerbates the issue.

The very next day as I ran an errand into town, the car wouldn't accelerate. So I opened the valve and drove 20ft before it ran normally. I got about the same amount of fluid. It was a rainy couple days. I've opened it since and haven't gotten any.

I will say that I have a small breather hole drilled into the top of the bottle and if the car is idling high, there is enough pressure to purge the system. But It seems as if spirited driving will be the best at flushing out the intercooler.

I am looking forward to trying to see if there are conditions that cause the water collection to be worse or better. It has been dry weather the past few days so I before the next weather system moves in, I will open the valve again.
 

JELLOWSUBMARINE

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jesus_man

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See post 422. I am experimenting.
 

jesus_man

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Thanks! I know its helping my car and if it helps someone else, then I am all for it.

Emptied out the system yesterday and didnt get more than a couple drops. Weather is still rain-free. Light rain and snow over the weekend so we will see if that has any affect.
 

joesaiditstrue

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Illinois
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2013 Jetta Sportwagen 2.0L DSG
Is there a comprehensive step by step to do this mod? Just picked up a 2013 and it's been getting very cold here and this has me worried.
 

jesus_man

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Is there a comprehensive step by step to do this mod? Just picked up a 2013 and it's been getting very cold here and this has me worried.
Are you asking me? Quite simple really... I could walk you thru it.
So we've had a nice winter storm blow in and I was out in it running errands. My car sat outside during some temps in the teens. When school resumed, I took my kids to school, but waited there to help a friend. During that time, what must have been froze in my intercooler thawed and it began to run rough. So I opened my valve and drove to the fuel station. At the station I found more water, but it was a nasty black color. Didn't seem to be oil, so I can only hope when it froze, the ice scrubbed some areas and that is why it was black this time.

So far, it seems the water issue arises when precipitation falls from the sky. I don't think I am sucking water past the air filter, but perhaps it's just humid enough that I am just getting a mist, that then condenses when the engine cools.
 

IXLR8

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Cushing, ME
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12 Passat Platinum Gray, 02 Golf Black, 01 Jetta Black
I had several rough stumble starts the end of November. My car has been down since then waiting for parts and time for me to fix some other issues. Yesterday I pulled hose to IC and several oz's of water came out along with a few chunks of ice. Heated up plumbing to melt remaining ice and to make hose more flexible. It was 11dF when I was working on it. I drilled a 0.056" hole in the plastic 'pipe', cleaned up drill shavings in pipe and buttoned everything back up. Runs fine, hopefully I won't have any more rough start issues.
 

Reinhen

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Apr 23, 2019
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Maine
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2011 Sportwagen
I had considered drilling a hole after the 2nd rough start last winter but I bought the "Winter Front" from IDParts instead. After putting that on it never happened again, with the added bonus of slightly quicker warm-up times.
 

Samcar222

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Excited to hear of the 'catchcan' results. Anyone have a full upper and lower ID parts 2010+ sportwagen front $$? I misplaced mine and am about to pick up a '13 sw tdi and am slightly panicking.
 

SilverGhost

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I don't know why this didn't occur to me much earlier, but is there a pressure relief valve that would close at several PSI and/or by a check valve to prevent back flow? At low or no boost times the water drains, but it shuts when boost climbs.

Jason
 

PRY4SNO

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Edmonton, AB
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2013 Touareg Execline
I don't know why this didn't occur to me much earlier, but is there a pressure relief valve that would close at several PSI and/or by a check valve to prevent back flow? At low or no boost times the water drains, but it shuts when boost climbs.

Jason

I bet Swagelock makes one.
 

SilverGhost

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Basically a PCV valve. Low boost would be same operating regime as low vacuum (hard acceleration, WOT) - this would allow the most flow to drop out any water/crap. High boost would be same operating regime as high vacuum (idle, close throttle coasting) - this would limit/stop flow. And backfire prevention would serve similar purpose at one way check valve.

Basic principles are there, just need a valve tuned to the actually operating ranges of on/off boost pressure.

Jason
 

jesus_man

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I am finding out that the majority of the water in the system seems to come from sitting in humid and cool weather. Or at least, when there is a large temperature differential causing condensation. Last week we had a rain storm that dumped 8" of rain over the course of 36hrs. It was a nice day before the storm and anticipating the weather, I purged my system on my last errand of the day. Next morning, the engine chugged as I drove down the driveway. Opened the valve and again, the sputter went away and the car ran normally.

I had initially thought that the moisture was being sucked in thru the air filter. But I believe the issue to really be more of a presence of humidity and condensation.

Now I wish I could find a small electric valve to replace what I have so that I could purge the system while on the go.
 

JELLOWSUBMARINE

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I am finding out that the majority of the water in the system seems to come from sitting in humid and cool weather. Or at least, when there is a large temperature differential causing condensation. .
That plus the fix has reportedly increased the EGR to reduce more NOX emissions, exaggerating the temp. differential.

Now I wish I could find a small electric valve to replace what I have so that I could purge the system while on the go.
That would be cool running off some sort of moisture sensor
 
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turbobrick240

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2011 vw golf tdi(gone to greener pastures), 2001 ford f250 powerstroke
I am finding out that the majority of the water in the system seems to come from sitting in humid and cool weather. Or at least, when there is a large temperature differential causing condensation. Last week we had a rain storm that dumped 8" of rain over the course of 36hrs. It was a nice day before the storm and anticipating the weather, I purged my system on my last errand of the day. Next morning, the engine chugged as I drove down the driveway. Opened the valve and again, the sputter went away and the car ran normally.

I had initially thought that the moisture was being sucked in thru the air filter. But I believe the issue to really be more of a presence of humidity and condensation.

Now I wish I could find a small electric valve to replace what I have so that I could purge the system while on the go.
There isn't going to be any appreciable external atmo. condensation building up while the car sits for a day or a week or two. What's probably happening is the moisture already in the intake is condensing and gathering in the intercooler/piping when the car cools down.
 

jesus_man

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Well, I have found the limitations of my drain. Assuming, rather poorly, that the moisture was being ingested while driving during high humidity and inclement weather then condensing and collecting in the piping, my system would work great. But, as in the case today as I am headed out to get the kids from school and the car won't start, the valve located above the drain won't do me any good. I had just purged the system on my way home from the school run this am. The car sat in the garage for 6 hrs and in that time, gathered enough water to cause a no-start issue. Thankfully I have a backup vehicle! I am guessing there is just shy of 1 cup of water here:

The weather has been sunny, but the high was in the low 30's, which is about 25* less than yesterday.
So, I need to think about how I can drain the water when the car isn't running. Not sure my tubing is large enough for a gravity drain. Maybe I can route my existing tubing and valve to a location that is below the intercooler piping and see if it will gravity drain.
Meanwhile, I have a call into my dealership to see what is being done. I'm getting rather close to throwing in the towel on these TDI's! The bandaid fix isn't doing us any favors.
 
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