Evening all,

Thanks to the amazing Wiki guide (thanks mm289!), I'm in the middle of replacing the oil cooler on my 2012 TDV8. So far so good - plenum is off, nothing lost or broken (so far!).

I am amazed, disgusted and concerned by the amount of crud around the intake hoses. I have replacement hoses at the ready (I splashed out on the modified originals...) as one of the old ones was leaking and creating a delightful film of filth all over the right side of the engine. Surprisingly, that corner is the cleanest going into the intake manifold. The other three are horrendous to say the least.

Cleaning the plenum/throttle body/EGR pipe is not going to be a problem. I'm quite looking forward to that part, BUT, is there any way I can safely remove some of the hard, oily crud from the manifold openings, or am I best leaving that well alone to avoid it all falling down into the manifold and causing damage?

The EGR pipe is a solid mess of gunk at the throttle body end, but dry as a bone at the other end going into the EGR. I do have the legendary EGR exhaust manifold sensor error, so I'm guessing mine failed in the preferable position! I will get round to replacing that sensor one day. I had a good read through the guide here on the forum and am blessed with relatively small paws, and before beginning tonight's dismantling, was able to get decent access to the sensor. The first dose of WD40 is soaking in as we speak...

Oil cooler will be replaced tomorrow morning. It took me just under an hour to get the plenum off, including documenting my progress. Coming to YouTube soon...

Without this forum, none of this would be happening in my own garage. Many thanks for all your posts, help, ideas and more!

I'd have loved to have kept going through the night, but the Mrs was getting impatient and demanding it was bed time, so I'll be a good boy and do as she says...

Just hope I've got enough brake cleaner in stock for the de-gunk tomorrow!

More anon,

FMG -------------------------
2012 4.4 TDV8 Vogue
2001 Audi A2 1.4 16V
2019 Skoda Kodiaq (don't ask...)

Looking forward to reading all about this.😁 2012 Orkney Grey Westminster 4.4TDV8 with Ivory interior.........nice!
BMW R1200GS
Alfa Romeo Giulietta
Just one Montesa now, 349 White Wonder
Austin A40 Farina MK2
1975 Morris Marina 1.8TC

Always love this kind of read.
Be very careful of the top coolant hose!! there is a small coolant pipe goes into the water jacket of the oil cooler i went to service mine the other day and literally brushed it with my little finger and it snapped off now waiting for the assembly to arrive so i can replace it...... 2012 Vogue 4.4 TDV8 - Current
2014 Navara V6 - Gone
2004 Vogue TD6 - Gone
Grand Cherokee - Gone
Discovery V8 (LPG) - Gone
Discovery TD5 - Gone

Removal of the charge hose/throttle body connection was fine - no broken pipes. By the looks of it though, someone had already been in there previously to check various things - the brittle pipe has very obviously been changed recently.

I bought the car from someone who was having all sorts of dpf problems. There are stacks of bills for dpf-related work, but the car was running on its original donut hoses, 2 of which I have now found were cracked. Thank god they never knew about this forum, or they’d have changed the hoses, he’d have been happy and would never have sold the car. Lucky me!

I put 2200km on the car before starting this work on it and had no problems whatsoever. High-speed autobahn runs and a damn good thrashing definitely keep the dpf gremlins at bay, even with cracked hoses.

Looking forward to an airtight intake after all this is done, oh yes, and a leak-free oil cooler too! That’s what this job was supposed to be!  -------------------------
2012 4.4 TDV8 Vogue
2001 Audi A2 1.4 16V
2019 Skoda Kodiaq (don't ask...)