drow Posted December 17, 2006 Report Share Posted December 17, 2006 Alright fellas. Forgive my complete ignorannce of all things engine related but I've decided to replace the OE paper filter with a (lightly) oiled K&N unit. I know, I know.. it could knacker me MAF but for a bit more torque and a nicer sound i'm willing to give it a shot. However.. I had a quick butchers (30 secs) up her skirt earlier on and couldn't find the airbox in which the filter sits!? It's probably blatantly obvious to anyone else but I didn't want to take the engine cover off and start getting my hands dirty until I knew what I was looking for. Anyway, if anyone knows or can direct me i'd be most grateful. Cheers! P.s. 2006 2.0T Quattro S-Line SE in Dolphin. (no Mods... yet) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maersk Posted December 17, 2006 Report Share Posted December 17, 2006 Don't waste time and money. You will not liberate much more power and will almost certainly NOT filter as well as the OEM unit resulting in as you say MAF problems and accelerated wear to internal engine components such as rings and bores and turbo compressor vanes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drow Posted December 17, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2006 Cool, thanks for the info Maersk. Have you had personal experience of the failing MAF issue and increased internal engine wear as a direct result of using an aftermarket air filter?. I've had a good look around the many VAG fora and there seems to be a 50-50 split on those that say do and those that say don't. I've also read that over-oiling the filters is likely to be the main issue with the MAF although they come very lightly oiled from the factory so I'm thinking this shouldn't be an issue As the first minor mod on the way to getting it re-mapped (at around 10k) I was hoping this one would go down well. Would you recommend anything for improving induction rather than an oiled element or would you leave it as stock? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S3ENVY Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 I'd steer well clear of K&N if I were you! They're fine on old-skool cars however they're not suited to today's electronically advanced engines. Lightly oiled or not, you don't want to see the mess a K&N can make of your intake! I had two filters specially made for me by Pipercross which contain no additive and use a special foam for VAG engines. Go for this route if you have to, it'll give you the induction noise you're after and won't stuff-up the MAF! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maersk Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 I'll go with that, Pipercross...............................................................................................................................if you really, really must. Use the money for another tank of gas!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gren Posted December 18, 2006 Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 Not sure about the 2.0T but there are a few reports of the 1.8T actually losing power by moving to K&N. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drow Posted December 18, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2006 Thanks for the input guys. I've had a quick rummage around on K&N's site and have found this rather interesting link http://www.knfilters.com/faq.htm If you havea read of #6 it seems pretty conclusive although it would, coming from K&N, wouldn't it! Well, i've gone and fitted it anyway and apart from a 20 min jaunt around some quick B roads around here, there's not much to report. A bit of an induction noise over and above the noise beforehand and (what could be psychological) a bit of an increase in throttle response (and I mean a bit). I'm heading past Silverstone in the next couple of days and i'm going to see if the guys at Weltmeister can fit me in for a dyno session. At £65 (+VAT) it seems like a pretty good deal. Has anyone out there used Weltmeister for any VAG dyno tuning before? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S3ENVY Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 Give it a week or two and your MAF will be coated in red oil and you'll be down on power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gren Posted December 19, 2006 Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 Think it'll be fine. The problems arise when (and if) you need to re-oil. Reading through the FAQs are interesting..... power gains up to 4bhp. So maximum gain of 2% ..... far less than : - turning the aircon off - choosing the right fuel or even from the right garage - it being a rather chilly day (?) Then again if you like the noise then its a cheap mod. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drow Posted December 19, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2006 Yeah, I thought the FAQ's were an interesting read too. K&N have obviously been prompted into action by threads like these which is def a good thing! I have a 250 mile journey to tackle later today so I should get a better feeling of any increase/decrease during that. She's full of Tesco 99 and it's freezing here today so lots of lovely dense air to induct. Will post more later on arrival but here goes nothing!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drow Posted December 20, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2006 Well, 246 miles, 6 Motorways and countless jams and the car feels torquier and dare I say it a little bit more responsive! As soon as I arrived I had the MAF out of it's housing and carefully inspected the body thoroughly. NOT A HINT OF OIL. The majority of the journey was at 80-90mph so, if any contamination from the new K&N unit was to be seen, I'd have expected to see it after this trip. As it is, there's nothing. In fact the MAF looks spotless. So, feel free to make your own conclusions but I reckon (until there are any problems) that this is a relatively cheap and worthwhile mod!! Will post more if there's any future issues with anything relating to induction/mixture but, for the time being, Result! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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