3.0tdi manifold issue

[franki68]

had the engine warning light on for a while,it diagnosed as an issue witht the manifld,the indy garage I used said they can change the flaps which they did but it made no difference,the light comes back on,only solution is to replace the manifold ,obviously with a mere 60k on the clock Im not happy,but they said it was a commmon issue ,is this right ?

would it be feasible for the part that detects the issue to be faulty ?

[shtu]

It's very, very rare for the manifold motors to fail.

What is more likely is that the garage replaced the flap -linkage-, which is a sub-£10 part that can be fitted in minutes to one side, takes a bit longer on the other.

See post 4 on here, http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?...

However, that's not the whole problem.

The flaps inside the manifold are all attached to a common axle that runs in plastic bearings. These wear, a lot.

There are two repair options, both available on eBay,

a repair kit of axle, bearings and linkage, http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Audi-VW-2-7-3-0-TDI-V6-I...

and a complete exchange manifold with an improved linkage, http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/REINFORCED-INTAKE-MANIFO...

Compare the costs of the two - when I did mine, there was relatively little difference in price between the two options, so went for full manifolds from that seller.

edit - take some solace in the fact that this is basically the only real weakness of this engine.

Edited by shtu on Thursday 13th November 13:10

[franki68]

thanks for that,I've gone for the manifold .

[shtu]

If you are a competent DIY spannerer, these can be swapped in an afternoon. There's a how-to on the same forum I linked to earlier.

edit - the most awkward bit was dropping the fuel pipe washers into the depths of the engine bay. They're not magnetic. Putting them back involved putting a cable tie around the banjo bolt to hold them on, screwing the bolt partway in, then snipping off the tie.

Edited by shtu on Thursday 13th November 16:21

[Lost soul]

As an owner of an A5 3tdi can someone tell me what the symptoms of this fault are , I have not heard of it before ?

[Dr G]

Yellow engine light on. Fault will normally be intermittent beforehand and now throw an engine light.

In terms of discernible performance difference not a lot.

The repair can be done for £300 at a specialist (both banks).

[Lost soul]

Dr G said:

Yellow engine light on. Fault will normally be intermittent beforehand and now throw an engine light.

In terms of discernible performance difference not a lot.

The repair can be done for £300 at a specialist (both banks).

thanks Dr , I do not even understand what the problem is , all I can make out is that some flap in the manifold fails ? so if there is no noticeable difference what happens if you keep driving it ? not that I would I am just curious

[franki68]

Lost soul said:

thanks Dr , I do not even understand what the problem is , all I can make out is that some flap in the manifold fails ? so if there is no noticeable difference what happens if you keep driving it ? not that I would I am just curious

apparently you just get slighlty worse consumption.
However the issue for me is that if the warning light is on ,then lets say another issue occurs ..how do you know ?

[Lost soul]

franki68 said:

Lost soul said:

thanks Dr , I do not even understand what the problem is , all I can make out is that some flap in the manifold fails ? so if there is no noticeable difference what happens if you keep driving it ? not that I would I am just curious

apparently you just get slighlty worse consumption.
However the issue for me is that if the warning light is on ,then lets say another issue occurs ..how do you know ?

good point about the warning light , ok so its not a leave at side of road and recover type problem

[shtu]

Correct. I drove mine for six months+ with the light on.

Oddly, the one problem that was somehow linked to the manifolds wearing out was standing-start performance.

Pre-repair, even with the fault cleared and the car behaving, there was a significant delay when moving off from standstill, that went away when the car was put into "S" on the gearbox.

With the replacement manifolds fitted, this delay went away and hasn't returned.

I'd got into the habit of using "S" at almost every T junction. I haven't used it in months now.

[Lost soul]

Well it sounds like a relatively inexpensive fix , even if it is a pain in the arse