What's this for ?

[BondandBigM]

Not really had a proper look around mine until the weekend, It goes I drive it 

I noticed this little red anodized gizmo spliced in, anybody any idea what purpose it serves or what it is ?

[The Mighty Elvi]

Air bleed???

 

[Santiago]

Expensive air leak. 

Also known as 'Ecotek valve'.  Search away...

[The Mighty Elvi]

Expensive air leak. 

Also known as 'Ecotek valve'.  Search away...

Ah...snakeoil!

 

[BondandBigM]

Interesting, some of the blurb and tests say it works and others say it's rubbish. 

Now this might just be me but the one thing that crossed my mind just as I got the car a fortnight ago and not even having noticed the gizmo was that the throttle response felt much sharper than the other VW GTi's I've had. Can't comment on the fuel consumption as they were always pretty good on juice so long as they aren't thrashed about and I just came out of a 7.3lt truck that even on a good day only did about 12/15mpg so anything would seem economical after 6 or 7 years of that.

[Santiago]

Remove it and see if there's any change?

Do join the pipes together carefully where it was though, or you risk total loss of servo assistance to your brakes if your joint fails.

Bit of a dodgy thing to sell for DIY installation by Joe Public, when you think about it like that. 

[BondandBigM]

Having just had a look on their page at the setting up instructions it seems that by winding the top of it right in it closes it off so I'll try that the next time i go out and see if it's my imagination or not. 

[cняis]

I had one on an old rover of mine and the thing would make an awful noise when lifting off the throttle 

Cant say it made any difference on fuel consumption.

[Santiago]

Looking at the photo again; hasn't that been installed on the wrong side of the non-return valve (yellow bit)? 

Never seen the instructions for one of these, but I'd have thought it would be better on the other side of the valve, so as to not affect the vacuum level in the servo if it malfunctions? 

[BondandBigM]

Looking at the photo again; hasn't that been installed on the wrong side of the non-return valve (yellow bit)? 

Never seen the instructions for one of these, but I'd have thought it would be better on the other side of the valve, so as to not affect the vacuum level in the servo if it malfunctions? 

Well spotted !!!! Never really thought about it, it should be fitted as you describe, best plan is probably just to take it off all together and replace the original hose with a complete one.