Carbon Cleaning Quick Solution?

[audifan22]

So my b8 s4 has 110k miles and I plan on keeping it until 5 to 10 years, but never had a carbon cleaning and am reading how important it is.

Looking for an indy shop I came across a website advertising carbon cleaning for all cars...Carbontek https://www.carbontekusa.com/ but was unable to find any mention or reviews on the forum. Would this process accomplish the same goals or have no effect for our car?

[Russpilot]

So my b8 s4 has 110k miles and I plan on keeping it until 5 to 10 years, but never had a carbon cleaning and am reading how important it is.

Looking for an indy shop I came across a website advertising carbon cleaning for all cars...Carbontek https://www.carbontekusa.com/ but was unable to find any mention or reviews on the forum. Would this process accomplish the same goals or have no effect for our car?

I don't know. I looked at their site and I think it sounds sketchy. My opinion is that physically cleaning the carbon off via the walnut shell method makes more sense than saying that they are cleaning it off without being able to verify. Kinda "snake oil" sounding to me. They hook something up to your car and run it a bit and then say "It's all clean now" without being any possible way to verify if they did anything at all. I'm sure it is cheaper than actually opening up the engine and doing it physically, but you also know for sure with verifiable results. Just my 2 cents.

[Ford Prefect]

I’d ask them specifically what carbon deposits are being removed. I didn’t see anything specific. As far as we know they dump in some sea foam and call it good.


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[SteveYem]

For what it's worth, I had my intake valves carbon cleaned via walnut shell blasting at ~55k miles and the tech told me that they didn't actually look too bad before he started. Within 10k miles before that I had run a can of the CRC GDI IVD cleaner through the intake. Of course I have no idea whether the CRC stuff helped to mitigate the carbon issue, but I'm offering it up here as food for thought.

[rsfpc05]

For what it's worth, I had my intake valves carbon cleaned via walnut shell blasting at ~55k miles and the tech told me that they didn't actually look too bad before he started. Within 10k miles before that I had run a can of the CRC GDI IVD cleaner through the intake. Of course I have no idea whether the CRC stuff helped to mitigate the carbon issue, but I'm offering it up here as food for thought.

Steve, this product caught my eye. I know you need to shoot it past the MAF, but do you need someone pressing the gas pedal to open up the valves? I thought I read something like that but not sure. Seems simple if you just need to pass it by the MAF

[kelseysautobody]

Steve, this product caught my eye. I know you need to shoot it past the MAF, but do you need someone pressing the gas pedal to open up the valves? I thought I read something like that but not sure. Seems simple if you just need to pass it by the MAF

Our cars don’t have a MAF

[stoked_S4]

If you go with walnut blasting option go to a shop that does this regularly and not once a year. $1000 was quote I got in NJ. Read some horror stories here when I was researching this topic.

I had this done past summer around 40K mark https://www.islandsportworks.com/intake-carbon-cleanings/ I saw some black smoke come out from exhaust during the process.

That is the other option besides DIY.

[SteveYem]

Steve, this product caught my eye. I know you need to shoot it past the MAF, but do you need someone pressing the gas pedal to open up the valves? I thought I read something like that but not sure. Seems simple if you just need to pass it by the MAF

I had the intake tube off and sprayed it directly into the throttle body while my wife kept the engine at 2000 rpm.

[rsfpc05]

I had the intake tube off and sprayed it directly into the throttle body while my wife kept the engine at 2000 rpm.

Thanks!

[rudyr]

I had the intake tube off and sprayed it directly into the throttle body while my wife kept the engine at 2000 rpm.

Did the same, the product works great. This thread reminded me to order another can and run it again. $15 and 5-10% improvement on the stated MPG displayed shortly after running it.

[AudiS4SD]

If you go with walnut blasting option go to a shop that does this regularly and not once a year. $1000 was quote I got in NJ. Read some horror stories here when I was researching this topic.

I had this done past summer around 40K mark https://www.islandsportworks.com/intake-carbon-cleanings/ I saw some black smoke come out from exhaust during the process.

That is the other option besides DIY.

Quick side-question: Did you like the shop and happy with their service? I recently moved to the area and looking for a good indy shop. I'm at 88k miles and not sure if/when I need to do the carbon cleaning.

Here's the estimate I got. Maybe this will help the OP for comparison:


https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20191114/44cf6813d4e65fca42b79e05aa9c3530.jpg

[stoked_S4]

Quick side-question: Did you like the shop and happy with their service? I recently moved to the area and looking for a good indy shop. I'm at 88k miles and not sure if/when I need to do the carbon cleaning.



Only been there once. My cousin runs a mechanic shop off the Parkway nearby and he recommended islandsports as an indy Audi specialists. Their prices seem good. I got a good price quote for DSG service for next time less than $500.

Not sure when you need carbon cleaning but 88K is up there if never cleaned before. I asked the tech about how he feels about DIY cleaning using off the shelf products and he told me about a GTI guy who recently messed up his engine doing that. He brought the GTI there for them to fix after trying DIY. The tech said most of those DIY products end up loosening the particles which end up in engine as big chunks. You can contact them and pick their brain. They did my APR tune as well same day before cleaning.

[AudiS4SD]

Only been there once. My cousin runs a mechanic shop off the Parkway nearby and he recommended islandsports as an indy Audi specialists. Their prices seem good. I got a good price quote for DSG service for next time less than $500.

Not sure when you need carbon cleaning but 88K is up there if never cleaned before. I asked the tech about how he feels about DIY cleaning using off the shelf products and he told me about a GTI guy who recently messed up his engine doing that. He brought the GTI there for them to fix after trying DIY. The tech said most of those DIY products end up loosening the particles which end up in engine as big chunks. You can contact them and pick their brain. They did my APR tune as well same day before cleaning.

Thanks. Yea, I'm not sure if I'm sitting on a potential big issue or if I can wait. I found another thread about Audi possibly covering the secondary injection ports due to carbon buildup, but I think it's only partially related to what we're discussing here.

If this is something that absolutely needs to be done, the Indy shop above is close to $1400 to do the service. At that point and for this mileage, we start getting into a cost analysis. What else could fail as I approach 100k? However, I do have the extended "Platinum" warranty through Audi through 120k. Perhaps it's all covered...

[TC_S4]

It's not necessary to do the intake carbon cleaning unless you have issues or error codes. I used CRC intake valve cleaning, it doesn't clean spic and span the valves but I do noticed some improvement. I waited the thermostat fail and did the carbon cleaning + the trio (Thermostat, water pump & PCV). You'll save lots money on labours, if you find an honest shop. Do not go to the dealer, they basically charge you as 4 separates jobs and gives you 20% discounts on labours, which is pocket change.