[V8] Another "freak"?

[dsaad at icehouse.net]

I took my bad cap down to my VAG mechanic friend to get his take on it. He took
one look at it and walked over to the trash can and pulled out a similar cap
that had arcing on all five towers, all the way around each. Not sure exactly
what car it came off (it was a VW or Audi though) other than it was a Bosch and
had a ground shield on it.
He said it is a common failure. It sure looks like Bosch has changed their
manufacturing process somehow. My OEM caps (which are now back on the car) show
no sign of this.
It looks like the dielectric value of the cap is too low, or it is too thin, or
both. The cure I suppose if you have to replace a cap is to leave off the ground
shield.


Just an FYI too -
he had some pictures of the intake manifold of a TDI motor. It was nearly choked
shut with deposits of some kind. He said it was from the EGR system. It costs
about $300 to R&R the manifold and have it cleaned out. Apparently this happens
at around 60K miles. Bummer. I was looking at one of these as my next commuter
car.

Dave

Quoting Jason Wilkerson <wilke_jb at yahoo.com>:

> I replaced both caps once - got them from an auto parts store but they
> were bosch.  Put them on and one lasted about 30k and the other 40k - they
> did the same thing you are describing.  Put the originals back on and all
> is well - literally had 150k (car had 185k) on them when I wrecked the car
> - ran like a dream with good gas milage to boot!
>
>                    Jason
>
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