OK, VWR intake installed today, with some entirely necessary tweaks and modifications to avoid being stranded from coolant loss.
Let's start with the positives.
I actually quite like it after sorting the installation issues. It's VERY VERY quiet, a tiny bit louder than the stock intake. No silly squawks, hisses, or Darth Vader dirty breathing noises, which for a daily car is very appealing indeed. Refinement is king. Shouting is annoying.
No loss of torque off boost and from 4000rpm onwards it feels like it's adding power. Perhaps not the masses of extra power claimed, but definitely feels stronger than stock. So that's a win
Now let's discuss the negatives, and there are a lot of them, so to quote Gaskings....'Pull out your sacks, sit back and enjoy'
Problem 1: With the intake pipe pushed into the Silicon elbow as far as it will go.....
.... this section of pipe is pushed hard up against the battery. You don't want parts that move touching parts fixed to the car because it wears things out and transmits knocks and noises into the cabin.
To rectify that, I chopped this much off the elbow with a surgical scalpel (you need something super sharp and thin to cut silicon properly). I used the clamp as a guide to ensure a dead straight cut.
Loads better. It's hard to see in the pic but there is at least 10mm clearance on the battery side now. Note the flex joint, which is not supplied in the kit. That is my own doing. It is absolutely key to this intake not breaking the coolant elbow off, or pulling the canister out of the air guide attached to the grille. VWR cannot be considered 'engineers' for ignoring such an obvious and vital component. Do they think engines remain completely still when accelerating and changing gears?
Problem 2: This fitting required for KO4 engines. You have to fit it yourself, and in exactly the right place. Inexcusable at this price point. It was sheer luck that I got it in the right place on first attempt, but I can imagine some people being less fortunate.
Problem 3: Maybe it was just mine, but I had to completely reprofile the MAF mount. As supplied, the MAF's weather seal wasn't even compressed when bolted down, which caused a huge air leak. I also had to file out the hole as the MAF wouldn't even slide in. Again, there is no excuse for crap like this on a £400 intake.
Problem 4: No provision is provided for securing the MAF harness. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if the harness flaps about from engine movement, it will eventually cause metal fatigue and snap one or more wires off at the plug
So a cable tie is the only quick and dirty solution here. I will figure out something better and more OEM looking. Why didn't VWR notice the fact VW rigidly clipped the MAF harness into the stock airbox for this very reason?
Problem 5: And now onto the most idiotic and well known issue - the coolant elbow clearance, or complete lack of. This is embarrassingly poor. I know it's just an rebranded ITG intake, but either way, zero f'cks given by both ITG and VWR that customers have had this elbow snap off.
Absolutely bugger all clearance, and it also rests on the radiator hose. Yet more abrasion related issues
And look how close it sits to the fuel pump bleed valve?? FFS, did VWR wear very dark sun glasses when fitting this to their development car??!
Also note the lack of clearance for the black plastic check valve. I already cut 20mm off the hose to get even this amount of clearance
I found a way to gain clearance.
If you fit the air guide plate as you would expect, i.e. with the 'lip' on top of the grille, you can't get the canister in far enough because it fouls the grille.
But if you fit the air guide like this, you can shove the canister in a further 10-15mm.
Which gives you a lot more coolant elbow clearance. This is more than enough room with a flex joint. The canister will not move. I gave the car some very hard acceleration forwards and backwards and the canister did not move from this position. Without a flex joint, the canister will almost certainly pull out of the air guide and snap the elbow off. Well done VWR
So in summary, it works great as a filter. Refined and effective at freeing power off. But as a retail product for DIY enthusiasts - costing over £400 let's not forget - it absolutely sucks. It is the worst fitting car product I have experienced in 23 years of modifying VWs. A product that can cause damage to people's engines should not even be allowed on the shelves. It truly is awful and a complete embarrassment to British engineering.
Because of these issues, I would not recommend this intake to anyone. However, if you are prepared to modify it in the same way I have, then I think it's worth considering because it does tick many boxes as a functional part.
