3.2L FSI, Can Seafoam clean carbon deposit on intake valve?
 

This guide is for information purpose only based on my experience with 2006 A6 Quattro with 3.2L FSI engine, VIN No. WAUDG74F96N03xxxx . Use them at your own risk.
I have no personal interest in any of products or companies I mentioned.
Please check the parts numbers with Audi dealer to make sure you get the latest level to fit your car’s VIN No.

I am not a fan of any additives or enhancers for oil or gas. I read about Seafoam in BMW E46 forum and VW forum.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=4518993&page=1

After I discovered how much carbon deposit was left on the intake valves after 58K miles, I wanted check if Seafoam can clean the carbon deposit on 3.2L FSI engine. If Seafoam can clean the mess, I want to use it before every oil change.

Here is the thread I wrote about cleaning carbon deposit.
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho....php?t=2764902

While I was cleaning the intake valves, I purposely didn’t clean one of intake valve on #3 cylinder.
I used Seafoam for twice in 2 days. I used both methods: sipping the Seafoam liquid in a cup and spraying Seafoam Creep through the vacuum connection in the front and purge valve hose in the rear shown in this picture.
Attachment 79853

I used total of 6 oz Seafoam fluid and ¾ can of spray.
I do not recommend the sipping method. I stalled engine once, and my heart dropped for a while. Spray was much safe to use. The reason I used the liquid foam of Seafoam was I wanted make sure I did everything I could. And I did twice in two days.

Attachment 79854
Attachment 79855
Attachment 79856
Attachment 79857

Sorry about one out-of-focus picture. It is time to buy some decent digital camera with macro zoom and high ISO.

Although I was kind of expecting it, the result was disappointing.
As seen in the picture, it didn’t clean the carbon deposit enough for my satisfaction. Considering I had to use dental picks to break apart the nasty deposit even after soaking them with cleaning fluid for 30 minutes, I guess I was expecting too much from Seafoam for more than 50K miles and 3 years of baked deposit. However, I felt it was a little easier to clean this valve after Seafoam treatment then other valves I cleaned before.

I encourage Audiworld members to try their favorite cleaning fluids and methods to come up with a good solution. It is very easy to check the end result. 3.2L FSI is great engine to verify all kind of different claims on carbon deposit cleaning because it is so easy to pull out the upper intake and check the valves.

Interesting. Which vacuum port did you use for the sipping method?

So what are we all supposed to do about the carbon deposits on 4.2 / 3.2 FSI cars?
 

Is there really nothing we can all do about this except wait until it gets bad... then pay 1500 bucks or whatever to have it removed / cleaned? (out of warranty)

What is everyone with the R8's and A8's and S6's with this problem doing?

Our 2005 A6 3.2 is starting to run rough for a few mins on cold mornings and I'm prety sure its these deposits.

Come on AUDI !

According to my SA the carbon deposits get bad when you granny the car around. So using a better quality fuel such as Chevron with techron, and Shell with that nitrogen detergent in it as well as putting your foot in it every so often goes a long way towards preventing this issue and helping clean out some of that too.

Can we tell the police we were cleaning the valves too? lol

This is the same warning we've been given.

The other day I was driving around and noticed some smoke from my exhaust as I hit the accelerator 'hard'. Basically flooring it for lack of a better word.

After seeing his thread about cleaning the intake valves I decided to buy a can of BG44K which I had used last year and was told that they place I bought it from offers a 3 step treatment for $109 doing basically what AudiBug did. I may look into that after checking out the cleaning thread again to see how hard it is to take it apart and check the valves before and after.

I am a bit skeptical about some of these fuel potions that are dumped in the tank. Since this is a DI engine, these potions won't hit the rear side of the valves since the fuel is spritzed directly into the cylinder.

Shell has supposedly begun to address this issue with their "nitrogen enhanced" fuel and the specific needs of these DI engines.

My 3.2 FSI engine used to stutter a hint during the first 5 warm-up minutes. The dealer did not notice anyting, so I did not get much help from them. After some heavy googling I came across the carbon buildup issue, and I tried some small amounts of water - 3dl via the vacum port using a thin tube. I did not notice any change, so I opened up the upper part of the engine and verified that I had carbon buildup, ref. attached picture.

I cleand the valves manually the best I could using a "carbon cleaner" from STP. I did not dare to remove the gas pipes, so it was difficult to get to the valves. A toothbrush and a thick plastic tube turned out to be helpful. When finished, I felt that the engine was a thad more powerfull.

Unfortunately the engine still suffered from some tiny hesitations when cold. I changed to new front lambda sensors, new coils and installed new spark plugs, but the problem was not solved until I asked the dealer to upgrade the ECU to the lates version. (The ECU was upgraded from "4F1 910 559 D" to "4F1 910 559 N") My partial O2 lambda values are now down from +10% to a more normal 2%, and the enging stuttering is gone. Moreover, the engine is stronger, a feeling that is backed up by the fact that mass air flow g/s meassured in VCDS has increased from 195 to 213 g/s.


The ECU upgrade is perhaps off topic, but could it be that they have managed to address both carbon build up and rough running at the same time? Probably not.

Best regards
hmkauto

hmkauto, I just had the same ECU program update. I had my 3.2 clean twice already due to misfiring and rough idling in the morning causing the CEL to light up. Both times, it would idle fine in the morning for about 500 miles or so, and then the misfiring will progressive get worst. Its been about 1000 miles since the ECU program update. I am crossing my fingers hoping Audi finally have this problem fixed once and for all.