VW using water-cooled intercooler in intake manifold, potential problems?

[gregk24]

Im sure some of you fellow VW fanboys are on the VW Vortex FB page. A post came up recently showing the water cooled intercooler on the 1.4 TSI leaking. The problem is, the intercooler sits inside the intake manifold. Ill post some pictures for reference. My concern is, would the leaking coolant not be sucked right up into the combustion chamber? Some of the comments simply said tightening the bolts stoped the leaking, but if this is an internal leak it seems it would be funneled right into the engine, no? Someone correct me if I am wrong.

Leaking water-cooled intercooler.

New intercooler

Here you can see where the intercooler slides into the intake manifold.

 

[gregk24]

Additional images showing how the intercooler sits in the intake manifold

 

[Trav]

Sure its going into the engine how can it not? But unless it was totally blown out the leak will most likely be like a heater core leak, usually small and would probably not hydrolock the engine, still cat damage is a possibility. If the leak get bigger then sure it could toast the engine.
Tightening the bolts to stop the leak is not possible, any seal in that area is to prevent air leaks not liquid. Its like curing a heater core leak by tightening the housing bolts. It is still leaking it just isn't getting on the carpet.

 

[LazyDog]

Having my first Jetta or VW product, I am amazed of what the engineers of VW products do. It appears that there aim is brake the KISS rule/ keep it simple stupid. The other intent is to set a certain life span on their cars like 10 years and it goes to the junk yard.

I am sure they can come up w/ some benefits of why they did this

 

[Greasymechtech]

Idiocracy is alive if some clown thinks you can fix a core leak by tightening the bolts

If your intercooler leaks, you need a new one.

This VW fanboy is not on FB, the homepage to moronic thinking.

 

[RooflessVW]

Having my first Jetta or VW product, I am amazed of what the engineers of VW products do. It appears that there aim is brake the KISS rule/ keep it simple stupid. The other intent is to set a certain life span on their cars like 10 years and it goes to the junk yard.

I am sure they can come up w/ some benefits of why they did this

This setup is common supercharged cars.

 

[RooflessVW]

I bet the pistons are clean!

Tightening a bolt may stop the external leak, but it is still leaking internally and should be replaced.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

BMW had this problem on a few S55 (F8x M4/M3). The intercooler would develop a small leak rather than fail catastrophically. Think of it as carbon cleaning while on the go. haha.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Having my first Jetta or VW product, I am amazed of what the engineers of VW products do. It appears that there aim is brake the KISS rule/ keep it simple stupid. The other intent is to set a certain life span on their cars like 10 years and it goes to the junk yard.

I am sure they can come up w/ some benefits of why they did this

For street use one obtains better thermal efficiency with a liquid cooled intercooler rather than air cooled. Just like a radiator.

 

[benjy]

water cooled intercoolers are superior to air, especially when stopped as air intercoolers heat soak! VAG volkswagen auto group is always pushing technology BIU IMO everything is more complex than needed. i own a 2001 Audi TT i traded a 2001 jetta 1.8T in with 200 thou on it less tech less issues!! a little less mpgs + power but CHEEPER in the long run if you keep your vehicle a long time, NO DI + surely NO SLUSHBOXES of any type that the computer controls NOT you + that is why manual trannys are rare these days.

 

[gregk24]

Sure its going into the engine how can it not? But unless it was totally blown out the leak will most likely be like a heater core leak, usually small and would probably not hydrolock the engine, still cat damage is a possibility. If the leak get bigger then sure it could toast the engine.
Tightening the bolts to stop the leak is not possible, any seal in that area is to prevent air leaks not liquid. Its like curing a heater core leak by tightening the housing bolts. It is still leaking it just isn't getting on the carpet.

Thanks Trav. That is exactly what I thought, but no one seems to understand.

 

[LazyDog]

This setup is common supercharged cars.

Ok, thanks for pointing this out!

 

[JoelB]

Reading what may go wrong on your new car is like googling health ailments.

Just drive it and maintain it. Issues like these usually can't be prevented and aren't worth worrying about for 80k miles or however long it takes to fail.

 

[gregk24]

Reading what may go wrong on your new car is like googling health ailments.

Just drive it and maintain it. Issues like these usually can't be prevented and aren't worth worrying about for 80k miles or however long it takes to fail.

Certainly, I’m sure the failure rate is low. We love the car. Maintain and drive is all you can do with anything.

 

[bdcardinal]

That looks similar to how the intercooler was mounted under the supercharger on 99-04 Lightnings, 03-04 Cobras, and 07-14 GT-500s. The only issue was they would get packed with carbon/sludgy stuff on higher boost applications and you had to take it off and blast 3-4 cans of brake cleaner through it.

 

[2EHA]

This setup is common supercharged cars.

lines go to a radiator on the front of the car

 

[2EHA]

That looks similar to how the intercooler was mounted under the supercharger on 99-04 Lightnings, 03-04 Cobras, and 07-14 GT-500s. The only issue was they would get packed with carbon/sludgy stuff on higher boost applications and you had to take it off and blast 3-4 cans of brake cleaner through it.

oil in the intake plays a big part. a catch can helps reduce it