Need some advice B6 PASSAT owner.

[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?

[Martin]

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

I would expect it to handle an APR stage 2 tune - just don't tow a boat and get carried away

[passat08]

Nah won't be towing anyrhing. Do u get much body roll? Looking at sway bars for mine but not sure which yo get etc also the control arms help aswell?

[Unkonwn_User]

There is nothing unusual about this at all - however it's more common on tuned cars

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)

I ran the car fully warmed up on 4500 rpm + for around 20 minutes and the big plumes of smoke is HEAVILY reduced. I think it would have been the exhaust build up from the previous owner never ever accelerating to redline (family man who barely drove anything but highways).

The car is at Quickspede Mechanics North Sydney.

Ive noticed the idle is a bit louder than I would like.. Is this common too sounds a little like it has no oil, I check the oil once a week due to this?! I had a Nissan S15 before with Variable cam's that would make similar sounds... So im worried its something Cam related. He is going to do the 120 000k's service and check the engine noise today... Probably will bring up the Valve cleaning as well but im going to give that a miss and shop around.

[brad]

You can hear the injectors rattling away at idle. maybe it's this?

[Unkonwn_User]

UPDATE:

The mechanic said there is a definite noticeable top end noise. A tick that comes and goes (as I noticed).

He said theres no error codes and he doesn't know what it could be without opening up the head which is 1K+ and will be adding a high quality oil + viscosity additive to see if it goes away.

My question is, is this a common thing on the 2.0T? its a louder idle tick than you'd expect from a german car. He said he doesn't reckon it would be a cam follower. Its not a injector type noise. Its a strange top end ticking.

There was also a small oil leak and noticeable dodgy idle from the carbon build up (my power and fuel economy is still good so ill leave it). Other than that nothing.

Ill probably take it to my own mechanic for the 120000k's major service and get him to do a compression test while we're at it.

Appreciate any contributions on the possible cause for the noise? Passat guru's!