is it worth tuning a car with 120,000 mile on it?

[pav911]

Hi Folks,

I've recently bought a 2010 A4 Allroad 3.0 TDI. I was thinking about getting doing a few choice mods (not BobbySingh level) to get a bit more power and better drivability. The thing is it's got 120,000 miles on the clock so is there any point spending money on engine mods? I'm thinking on the effect on reliability of an engine with that many miles on.

Also, what other things should I get checked out before spending any money on engine mods? I'm going to find out if any of the suspension components need replacing and that's where the money is going to go before any mods. Anything other areas I should look at?

Thanks
Pav

 

[MuPPeT_ON_TouR]

120k is nothing in these 3.0 as long as long as they have been properly serviced.

But with 120k on the clock you will probably get a better performance boost getting it properly cleaned out rather than modified. It will be full of black sludge.

 

[pav911]

120k is nothing in these 3.0 as long as long as they have been properly serviced.

But with 120k on the clock you will probably get a better performance boost getting it properly cleaned out rather than modified. It will be full of black sludge.

Hi. thx for the response. what do you mean by cleaned out? I've seen this advertised a few times: https://www.terraclean.co.uk

 

[MuPPeT_ON_TouR]

Mine with just 80k on the clock.

 

[MuPPeT_ON_TouR]

Full strip and the intake cleaned and valves walnut blasted.

 

[MuPPeT_ON_TouR]

Then EGR mapped out and swirl flap delete then remap.

 

[MuPPeT_ON_TouR]

Terraclean and magic hydrogen wash thing will only clean the exit side after the valves. It's the intake side that needs sorted mainly caused by the EGR valve making the engine eat its own s*!@. Exhaust should go out the back and not come back in.

 

[pav911]

Full strip and the intake cleaned and valves walnut blasted.

Do I need to go to a specialist to get this work done?

 

[MuPPeT_ON_TouR]

You can do it yourself but only if you know what you are doing.

The intake manifolds are easy enough but walnut blasting is a specialist job due to the equipment required and the risk of spraying nuts through an open valve into the engine.

 

[Owyn]

Did you notice any improvements when it was all done?
Mines getting on for 120k so may benefit, although the dumb *** gearbox can blunt any improvements in the engine.

 

[Sherv]

I really wanted to get my A4 3.0 tdi wallnut blasted at 96k before mods & remap but I got quoted £480 up here in Scotland which is way out my price range. Got a carbon clean on my old A3 a couple of years back but as Muppet said above it can't be compared to a proper wallnut blast, just a pity it's so expensive.

 

[RS4B5]

Go for it but like said above get it cleaned my 530d had a new intake manifold and new boost pipes mainly because they flew off after the map it had 187k when mapped and I sold at 192k still pulled very hard raced b7 3.0 TDI on the way back when I bought it it was a lot of fun

 

[rum4mo]

I really wanted to get my A4 3.0 tdi wallnut blasted at 96k before mods & remap but I got quoted £480 up here in Scotland which is way out my price range. Got a carbon clean on my old A3 a couple of years back but as Muppet said above it can't be compared to a proper wallnut blast, just a pity it's so expensive.

Always good to actually know how much it costs to get the inlet side blasted clean, if I ever think that I need to get that treatment done on either of my TFSI/TSI engines.

 

[MuPPeT_ON_TouR]

Quoted £600 for walnut blasting, 3.0TFSi supercharged S5.

 

[aqibi2000]

Quoted £600 for walnut blasting, 3.0TFSi supercharged S5.

Relatively low cost business to get into

 

[pav911]

Relatively low cost business to get into

You better have good liability insurance though. I’m gonna look for somewhere in London to get this done.

 

[bobby singh]

120k is fine.
As long as turbo and dpf is in good condition the mileage is almost secondary.

Cheers

 

[pav911]

I'm thinking of getting this done as there's a dealer nearby:

https://bgprod.co.uk/nexus/article/bg-powerflow

Has anyone had experience of this service?

 

[MuPPeT_ON_TouR]

The problem with all fuel based cleaners is they only get the combustion and post combustion side of the GDI system. They are not snake oil in so much as most of them probably do what they say they do to one degree or another but NONE of them clean up the black sludge crap in your intake system caused by EGR valves and the PCV system.

When you open up your intake system and look at your valves and pipes and scrape off the black sludge crap with a screw driver you will understand the ONLY way to clean it out is physically. I moved away from diesel for this reason.

 

[pav911]

Sounds like the walnut blasting is the best way to go. I'm going to give these guys a call:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WALNUT-B...-CARBON-CLEANING-DECOKE-SERVICE-/322792613169

 

[MuPPeT_ON_TouR]

They look good. I will save that link.

 

[Retroman]

Large diesel engine on 120,000 should be perfectly OK with a good service and something like a stage 1 remap. I suspect some of the information above may be mixing inlet decarbonisation of direct injection PETROL engines (a known problem) with DIESEL engines. Carbonisation of modern diesel engines (inlet system) is not such a problem because it is cleaned by the high pressure EGR cycle.

At 120,000 it may be worth focusing on the state of the DPF. As implied above, fuel additives can be a waste of time in trying to decarbonise direct injection petrol engines (inlet system) and removing residual ash from diesel DPFs.

 

[MuPPeT_ON_TouR]

Not really sure what the high pressure EGR cycle is. My previous pics(see above posts) are of my pipe that was attached to the EGR valve. It most defiantly needed de-carbonised as did the rest of the intake system and that was just 80k on the clock of mainly motorway miles with various potions and snake oil run through the system. Run a couple of searches on "3.0 TDI carbon". The D stands for direct and the diesel suffers even more than the petrol systems because of the EGR vavle. All direct injection systems suffer because there is no fuel added before the intake system to wash the inlet valves.
They are now moving to dual injections systems for precisely the carbon build up reason. One direct injector coupled with one pre-valves to combat the carbon, you will have 2 injectors per cylinder.

EGR valves take gases full of oil vapour from un-burnt diesel and other crap and feeds it back into the engine for emissions and other reasons and forces the engine to eat its own S*!%.

 

[MuPPeT_ON_TouR]

Not sure on the Millage for this car but it is a horror story of how bad a modern diesel cokes up.

https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threa...-egr-cleaning-refurbishment-help-info.209076/

 

[Owyn]

To be fair, no diesel system has fuel at the inlet valve, the direct bit means straight into the cylinder rather than into a swirl chamber.
The HP egr system cleaning the inlet is a new one on me though, would be interested to hear how it achieves this .

 

[pav911]

I've not had a chance to get the car walnut blasted yet, but decided to go for the Revo stage 1 map anyway. I'm really pleased with it. It's not added mind blowing performance but just filled little bits of torque here and there that make the car much more enjoyable to drive.

i was thinking of getting an air intake, but not sure it'll make much difference. The Milltek exhaust sounds nice so might go for that next. i need to read up on the difference between a cat-back exhaust system and a full one.

I think i might have caught the modding bug. my poor wallet. still, it's cheaper than buying an RS4.

 

[MuPPeT_ON_TouR]

Cat back system is just what it is. New exhaust from the cat (catalytic converter) to the tips.

Full system can replace the catalytic converter with an expensive high flow one or remove it all together, problems come MOT time if no cat.