[Vwdiesel] air filter housing (need hillbilly engineering)

[David Cook]

Hi Mark-

I know this post is a few days old, but here is how I
did it on my first Rabbit that was simply missing the
clips:

I just used four long zip ties.  I had to connect them
in pairs to make two really long zip ties, but the
could be run between a couple of the intake runners
and around the housing and held it on very securely.

David

--- Mark LaPlante <laplante at mac.com> wrote:

> 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
> 


David Cook
Red '86 Cabriolet Diesel Powered
Red '90 g60 Corrado 
Brown and White '78 Westy Campmobile "Bear"
and others in various states of disrepair
Pictures here: community.webshots.com/user/superdave5599

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com