How Dirty is my intake at 115K miles?

[Jeff_Duncan]

How Dirty is my intake at 115,000 highway miles? I have never cleaned it since the car was new. I'm procrastinating, so please motivate me!

 

[Joe_Meehan]

I cleaned mine at about half that mileage and frankly they were just dusty. I don't think anyone has figured out exactly why some clog up quickly and some never seem to.

The only way I know of finding out is to take it apart and once you are there you might was well clean them even if they are just dusty.

 

[greengeeker]

Here is mine at 120k:

I'll check it again at the next timing belt (160k) and probably plan on cleaning it then...seems fine for now.

 

[ibanix]

Mine was about the same as the above (or slightly worse); that was at only 60K miles.

 

[Geo-1]

I am at 56K and the anti shudder valve is sticking but I.M. is relatively clean.

 

[bogievw]

Disconnect the hose leading from the turbo to the EGR valve. Use a mirror and a flashlight and you can see it for yourself. No guessing necessary.

 

[Jeff_Duncan]

Joe did you notice an improvement in performance and fuel mileage?

J

 

[Joe_Meehan]

Joe did you notice an improvement in performance and fuel mileage?

J

No. There was no change.

 

[Jeff_Duncan]

Well, thats not very motivating!

 

[bogievw]

So Jeff, are you just looking for someone to validate your procrastination?

There is no good answer to your question. Your intake may be clean or it may be dirty, it depends on a lot of factors. The only way to know is to look for yourself. If you find that it is indeed dirty then cleaning it will improve performance and mileage.

Joe's wasn't dirty so cleaning it had no effect (not surprising). I'll add my result to Greenskeeper's and Ibanix'; at 125K it was filthy, 60-70% clogged.

 

[richieracket]

I just did my own the other day. I've been cleaning everyone else's and procrastinated on my own (sound familiar). the jetta has 102k on it and looked very similar to Greenskeepers. i knew it needed the cleaning cause the revs after 2500 rpm were slowing down. so i bought one of those $99 specials on ebay, brand new intake, and threw it on. except for a little grinding down (see post "$99 intake manifold on ebay), it works great and the revs pull hard now right through the complete rpm range. don't think my fuel economy is going to be much if any better as i've been averaging about 45.
do it!! do it now!!! you'll feel better knowing a chunk of carbon is going to fall down and hold a valve open, and , well, you know what happens after that. ENOUGH MOTIVATION???????

 

[cerickson]

Just do it

Get the CinciTDI dvd and it will be "exceedingly" easy...

This was mine: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=152378