Cleaning up the Jetta

Hey I need some help here, I was having some Idle Issues and poor throttle response so I decided to open up the throttle body yestaurday to clean it up. Damn was it nasty! No wonder I was having Idle and throttle problems, It was lined with black sludge. I used degreaser and cleaned it up and so far everything is better, no rough idle, a hell of alot better acceleration response, and no more check engine light. Well after doing that I decided I want to clean up the engine under the valve cover cause I know it has sludge in there too, and since I dont leave my house so I can save some money up I have the time to do this. I want to know if you guys can tell me what I can use to clean it, I dont want to use the degreaser cause It will drain down where I cant dry it up, I was thinking something like those wipes that have that orange stuff on it to break down grease. Any help is welcome so thanks in advance.

Why would it have sludge under your valve cover?

If you want to clean the inside of your engine (combustion chamber), use seafoam.

i thought there was stuff in autozone and such called engine brite? idk if its suppost to go inside the engine though. i know that its a pretty nice cleaning foam though. google for the win!!!!

Why would it have sludge under your valve cover?

If you want to clean the inside of your engine (combustion chamber), use seafoam.

I guess it would be the combustion chamber, so seafoam huh? about how much does it cost and if I cant find it what else should I look for?

I guess it would be the combustion chamber, so seafoam huh? about how much does it cost and if I cant find it what else should I look for?
It's about $5, look for it at Autozone, Advance Auto Parts, NAPA, Pepboys, etc.

thanks

Is that stuff supposed to go inside the engine? Or just the outside to clean off all the grime?...

Seems to me, if you try to put some of that foam stuff into the combustion chamber it'd have a hard time starting, or running... why not just use some of that fuel additive stuff that cleans out the deposits?

Seafoam goes inside the engine. Just find a strong vacume source (like the brake booster) and and let it suck the liquid up. Cmon Stig, you've never heard of the Seamfoam stories?

... Nope...

Why would it have sludge under your valve cover?


Lack of oil changes on a regular basis usually causes that.

I want to know if you guys can tell me what I can use to clean it, I dont want to use the degreaser cause It will drain down where I cant dry it up

I would suggest just wiping up whats settin on top of the heads and not mess with anything else, becuase if you're not VERY careful, you'll end up breaking some of it loose that would be around your valve springs and then it'll fall down and go down one of the oil drain holes and then your oil pump will suck it up and stop up that filter on the pick up and you know what that means.

^^^ thanks for the advise, When I bought the car It had sludge in it already, but it ran fine, so I was like whatever. At the last oil change we put one of those cleaner additives and it got rid of alot of it, just want to clean up some more to keep the car in tip top shape.

No problem.

My Dad ran into that problem with his truck. It was AWFUL under the valve covers. He had switched the motor oil from Havoline (which is what the previous owner said he used) to Valvoline MaxLife becuase it was just literally drinking Havoline (he checked it once about 2000 miles after an oil change it wouldnt even touch the dipstick), and it slowed down the oil consumption, but after a couple oil changes, the truck started smoking BAD when you'd let it set and idle. Well, the Valvoline oil had started cutting away the sludge and some of it had actually stopped up all but one of those oil drane holes in the heads. He unstopped them, wiped up what sludge was settin on the heads and I think what was on the rocker arms, and left it at that. It still had sludge around the valve springs but he didnt mess with it, and it totally quit smoking, and went from using like a 1.5 quarts of oil to about a quart between changes.

the jeta isnt smoking or eating oil, just wanted to clean it cause after seeing how much sludge developed in the throttle body I cant leave the sludge in the engine be.

I want the car to last to about 100k cause by that time I would have enough to do a rebuilt but with stronger parts so I can mod it better or swap the motor for whatever 2.0t they have at the time. So right now the car is at 70K and since I dont drive it around like I used to the miles should be put on by a year and a half to two years.

Seafoam is the sh*t! I first heard about it on a BMW forum. So I used it in my friends BMW E30. It smokes like a bitch at first then it ran great. So I used it in my Land Rover and my gas mileage went up noticeably and it ran much better. I plan to run it through the P-Car once I fix a few other things.

Seafoam is the sh*t! I first heard about it on a BMW forum. So I used it in my friends BMW E30. It smokes like a bitch at first then it ran great. So I used it in my Land Rover and my gas mileage went up noticeably and it ran much better. I plan to run it through the P-Car once I fix a few other things.

Glad I got approval from a german driver. For the gas milage I dont know if it can get any better, I'm already clocking in at 400 mpt if I drive all hwy 300-330mpt in the city.

Glad I got approval from a german driver. For the gas milage I dont know if it can get any better, I'm already clocking in at 400 mpt if I drive all hwy 300-330mpt in the city.


Yea your car doesn’t sound that bad so you probably wont see much improvement gas mileage wise. My Land Rover had TONS of carb build up so I think that’s why I saw a big improvement.

yeah, glad it worked for you, as I said I just want the car to last and especially since my fiance is going to be driving it. And yes she will be driving a faster car then me, but at least I'm the one who made it that way and I told her, I am taking on some autocross days if I dont want to take the RX-8, but that will be after she learns how to drive stick very well.