I have a 2008 VW Passat with 25k miles. The car has been great, but the dealership is after me regarding some maintenance I don’t think I need, so wanted your opinion. They tell me I have to have my “intake” cleaned of carbon. This is a direct injection engine, so its just air going through the intake. Am I wrong, is there really carbon building up. I’ve had a lot of cars, this is a new one and they want $160. Now they want me to change my brake fluid. I can understand if the car is 4 or 5 years old, but its just two years old. They are after me when I go in for Oil Changes, they send me email and now I’m getting post cards telling me I’m not keeping up on my maintenance. What should I do.
Brake fluid change every two years is a good idea . Brake fluid does absorb moisture and deteriorate - if you don’t believe that look at the fluid that comes out of a brake bleeder - dark and nasty !
The intake cleaning cleans your wallet of cash - for that amount of money they ain’t doing any real cleaning !
Step #1 Read the owner’s manual. Follow the instructions.
Now having said that, I will make one exception: The intake can get carboned up. The general feeling of the TDI community is that they get carboned up if they are driven conservatively. They will tell you to drive it like you stole it. I did take out my intake out (not easy and you need to know a few tricks, but doable for an afternoon job.) I found only a light dusting of carbon. Now others doing the same thing (a get to gather) found a lot with about the same mileage.
If you are getting a build up, you will experience a slow loss of power. If power is what you are after, ahead.
If you want to read a lot more on the subject and get other opinions other than mine, check out WWW.TdiClub.com. It's free and anyone with a TDI should check it out.I might understand with a diesel, but mine is the 2.0L Turbo Gas engine. Do you think its necessary on the gas engine?