[Vwdiesel] air filter housing (need hillbilly engineering)

[Dan Sloan]

I'd probably use plumbers strapping screwed to the bottom with several sheet
metal screws and/or pop rivits, wrapped around the front, and rigged to use
the top clips.

Or... You could use the same material (plumbers strap) and fabricate a
similar catch for the existing lower clips.  Reinforce the plastic with
strapping inside and out, and pop rivit in place.  

-- Dan 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com 
> [mailto:vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com] On Behalf Of Mark LaPlante
> Sent: Tuesday, September 06, 2005 1:18 PM
> To: vwdiesel at vwfans.com
> Subject: [Vwdiesel] air filter housing (need hillbilly engineering)
> 
> Folks,
> 
> It turns out the plastic that holds in the clips on the 
> bottom of my air filter housing is broken. The plastic seemed 
> very brittle, and I think I broke one side removing the 
> filter and the other side trying to get the spring clip 
> reattached. My local independent VW shop told me it is a 
> dealer only item and my dealer is worse than useless. (They 
> claim they can only get body parts for my car; they're 
> apparently clueless that many parts are shared among other VW 
> models and years.). I don't happen to remember off the top of 
> my head the newest VW 1.6 NA that would have had the same air 
> filter housing.
> 
> I found a few promising listings on car-part.com, but I think 
> it is quite a risk ordering a used part given that it may 
> also have weak or broken plastic holding the clips in.
> 
> I would rather try to find a way to make the housing I have 
> stay on, perhaps via a little hillbilly engineering.  The 
> best that I've come up with would be to weld some springy 
> metal to the bottom of the intake manifold bent up at 90 
> degrees with a gap just big enough to wedge the plastic 
> housing into, and then secure the top of the air filter with 
> clips as normal. I don't weld, but it turns out that I live 
> two blocks from an auto care shop that also does a lot of 
> metal work 
> <http://www.streetrodgarage.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=30>
> 
> Maybe that's overkill. I'd thought about binder clips but I 
> figured the vibration would make them fall off eventually.
> 
> Any ideas? Or anyone have a spare housing? I used to know a 
> web site for searching VW dealer part inventory across the 
> country, but I can't find it at the moment. The part number 
> is 068 129 613 A (my local dealer says that's a "bad part number").
> 
> Are all car brands as bad about parts availability for cars 
> greather than 10-15 years old?
> 
> Mark
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Vwdiesel mailing list
> Vwdiesel at vwfans.com
> http://www.audifans.com/mailman/listinfo/vwdiesel
>