DIY: SAI Delete on CBFA Engine

Since October of 2010 I had been curious about deleting the Secondary Air Intake (SAI) from my GTI. The SAI is factory installed on 2008.5+ GTI's located in states with more strict emissions standards. So the specific engine we're referencing is the 2.0T TSI CBFA.
In summary, the SAI system serves to pump additional fresh air into the exhaust to warm up the cats. Apparently this aids in reducing emissions. Oh well...

Why do this mod:
Some people have been asking WHY bother removing this system from your car. Honestly, there's really no legitimate reason aside from wanting to clean up the engine bay a bit more.
There are no performance gains to be expected from the SAI delete!

Side effects:
The SAI Delete has been done on two cars thus far and has NOT resulted in any negative side effects. The SAI Delete may cause a Check Engine Light (CEL) to illuminate on your dash. Please keep in mind that because the SAI Delete is a relatively new modification for the TSI, so information is still forthcoming. :thumbsup:


Tools needed:
T30 Torx wrench/bit
basic sized metric ratchet kit

Parts needed:
-Solenoid Secondary Air Valve gasket - Part No: 06J131120B - You can reuse the one you already have if you prefer.
-Integrated Engineering 1.8t SAI Blockoff Plate: http://www.intengineering.com/18t-SAI-Blockoff-Plate-p8914932.html


Parts being removed:
-Solenoid Secondary Air Valve - Part No: 06J131097D
-All associated tubing, brackets, and bolts
-Secondary Air Pump - Part No: 07K131333A

Onto some pics...
Here's an exploded view of the oem airbox and SAI system.


Here you can see the 'Solenoid Secondary Air Valve' in the very middle of the screen, and the small intake for the SAI located slightly down and to the left.


And here's a close up of the 'Solenoid Secondary Air Valve'. This entire assembly will be removed eventually.


DIY Steps:
I'm going to skip the details of some steps because assuming that you're doing this mod, you already have a decent understanding of the steps leading up to the SAI Delete.

Step 1: Remove the intake at least up to the MAF. It's not necessary to remove the stage II of your intake.
Step 2: Remove the battery and battery tray
Step 3: Disconnect the three sensors pertinent to the SAI system. Two are located on the Solenoid Secondary Air Valve, and the other is located down by where the SAI tubing routes behind the driver's side fog light.
Step 4: Behind the Solenoid Secondary Air Valve, use the T30 torx wrench to remove two screws which are on brackets integrated into two separate lines, at least one of which is a coolant line. This will allow the lines to flex, enabling you to access the two rear screws which bolt the Solenoid Secondary Air Valve onto the engine block.
Step 5: Using the T30 torx wrench, carefully remove the three screws that bolt the Solenoid Secondary Air Valve onto the engine block (two at the rear above and below the lines mentioned in Step 4, and one at at the front and oriented slightly higher). Remove the Solenoid Secondary Air Valve and the associated gasket.






Step 6: Use the Integrated Engineering Blockoff Plate and oem gasket to cap off the hole in the engine. Do NOT use the o-ring that comes installed on the 1.8T Blockoff Plate application.


I reused the oem gasket to create a better seal because the 1.8T Blockoff Plate doesn't match up perfectly, nor is it intended to. It's only off by about 2mm though. Going to communicate with Integrated Engineering on developing a piece that mates up perfectly on the 2.0T. I drew the black circle that you see on the Blockoff Plate just to illustrate where the hole on the engine is in relation to the Blockoff Plate.

But then I installed the Blockoff Plate upside down... ha ha
Essentially the hole is slightly off to the RIGHT of the two screws used to bolt down the Blockoff plate. (So opposite of how I have it bolted on.)


Step 7: Replace one of the screws that originally removed in Step 4. It's pretty obvious which one, because only one can be replaced at this point.
Step 8: Removing the SAI tubing by reaching inside the bumper on the driver's side, as if you were accessing the fog lights. The fittings for this tubing is the same as used on the PCV lines, so have fun with that.


Step 9: At this point the engine bay is looking much cleaner, and yes -- you can stop here if you want, but there's still the Secondary Air Pump located behind the driver's side fog light (that you just disconnected the tubing from in Step 8 and the sensor from in Step 3. I'd recommend that you continue, because this is by far the easiest and most painless step of them all...
The best way to access the two inboard bolts on the Secondary Air Pump is to jack the car up on the driver's side and remove the rock tray.

Remove the two 13mm inboard bolts.

Access the third 13mm bolt through the removable covers you'd use to access the fog lights. (Sorry the area was too tight to take a picture of, but you can see where it's removed in the pic above.)

The picture below shows the orientation of the Secondary Air Pump, bracket, and bolts.


Step 10: Put everything back together and admire your work.



Post or PM me or Ian/XEms with questions. And stay tuned :thumbsup:

what's the benefit of this?

there is no benefit

Dave always has the craziest mods lol in for more

jian3979 said:

why you removed it? is it better for the engine??

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Ian/XEms said:

I can hopefully answer. Dave is making his engine bay as clean as possible, removing anything un-necessary like the SAI. We did mine this morning and with those 2 extra pipes out it looks much better(our XE car has the BSH intake and I don't have a breather filter for that secondary intake, it just looked lame with a pipe that connected to nothing floating in the engine bay). Also, I think i found a way to get the air pump out without removing the bumper, I just need to put the car up and take off the plastic shield underneath and I should be able to get to it.
As for the CEL, I drove ~50 miles and didn't get a CEL, then later I got in my car and had a CEL, so I'm going to figure that out.

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kool - post your findings when you figure it out, dood

Will do, it'll probably be tomorrow will post here, with pics.

Just did it, just want to add, because I got, I guess excited to take the pump out? haha Anyway if anyone else does this, undo the nut that you get to through the foglight hole in the wheel well first. I had to take the car off the jack to do it, then put it back up to take the pump out and put the undertray back on.
PLus look at all this weight i saved! /sarcasm

Not a fan of this, at all. SAI is one of the best emissions control inventions ever, and dramatically reduces NOx and CO emissions with ZERO cost to performance. Its downright asinine to 1) remove and 2) advocate the removal of this device just to make your engine bay look cleaner. And seriously, do you think anyone else will ever notice?

I'm hoping that you just don't realize why SAI is used. The VAST majority of harmful emissions produced by cars occur during the first few minutes while the cat's get up to temp. And by VAST, we're talking upwards of 90% in some situations. The SAI is there to speed up the heating process. This modification will significantly extend the amount of time required for cat's to heat up, and will result in, ballpark, 5-20x times more NOx and CO emissions.

Basically, you're now pumping out more toxic gas than an 18-wheeler semi. And for no reason, at all. Great job.

Not trying to start an argument, honestly, but what if you are running catless? Then doesn't it really not make a difference? Also, didn't know how much of an impact it had.

Ian/XEms said:

Not trying to start an argument, honestly, but what if you are running catless? Then doesn't it really not make a difference? Also, didn't know how much of an impact it had.

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Yes, you're right. If you're catless already then doing this isn't doing too much harm. However, SAI still serves to clean up some unburned fuel. Most cars nowadays run pretty close to stoich except when under heavy load. Under heavy load, SAI is still doing a lot to clean up the mess your rich mixture is creating.


Basically, until your cat's get up to temp, they don't really do anything. Normally, the first 5 minutes or so of driving you're basically running catless. By doing this mod, you're extending that 5 minutes to much longer. If you never commute more than 10~15 minutes, this mod is just as harmful as going catless.


But running catless is retarded. The difference between a high flowing well designed cat and going catless is like 3whp, imperceptible. The difference in the quality of the air we all have to breathe is much more significant.

Although I am not catless, I'll be buying my downpipe may be, Dave is catless though. But now isn't my engine producing just as much pollution as a CCTA engined GTI?

Ian/XEms said:

Although I am not catless, I'll be buying my downpipe may be, Dave is catless though. But now isn't my engine producing just as much pollution as a CCTA engined GTI?

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I can't say for certain as I'm not privy to VW's engineering designs, but I suspect that the CCTA either has a different SAI system, or uses some other method of catalyst heating.

Asinine my ass

dbduke said:

Not a fan of this, at all. SAI is one of the best emissions control inventions ever, and dramatically reduces NOx and CO emissions with ZERO cost to performance. Its downright asinine to 1) remove and 2) advocate the removal of this device just to make your engine bay look cleaner. And seriously, do you think anyone else will ever notice?

I'm hoping that you just don't realize why SAI is used. The VAST majority of harmful emissions produced by cars occur during the first few minutes while the cat's get up to temp. And by VAST, we're talking upwards of 90% in some situations. The SAI is there to speed up the heating process. This modification will significantly extend the amount of time required for cat's to heat up, and will result in, ballpark, 5-20x times more NOx and CO emissions.

Basically, you're now pumping out more toxic gas than an 18-wheeler semi. And for no reason, at all. Great job.

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dbduke,
I understand why the SAI system is employed on these cars. In the DIY I actually gave a little bit of detail as to the purpose of it.
I also understand that you're upset. Rightfully so when you feel passionate about something. But let's clarify that in no way am I "advocating" removal of the system. Advocate means, "to support or urge by argument; to recommend publicly." Admittedly, I am informing others of how to go about removing the system if they so desire, but I am surely not urging anyone to.
If you're really passionate about emissions, dbduke, then you'll spend you time attacking all the forum members who've gone catless... Because I guarantee there are more catless exhausts than deleted SAI systems. (Except for the fact that 1.8T drivers have been doing this for years OBVIOUSLY... So don't forget to go protest that crowd too.)
And yes -- I am catless, so this system was already making negligible differences to my GTI's emissions. Oh, and by the way... I have a Vent to Atmosphere catch can too.
Anyways, I can see that you've already conceded the fact that you don't know, so before you go attacking us on the forums, why don't you do some research on the CCTA engine and inform us what kind of additional emissions control systems it employs. Because to my knowledge it doesn't have anything else, but I'm not purporting to be an expert here, so please let us know.

Dave! said:

Anyways, I can see that you've already conceded the fact that you don't know, so before you go attacking us on the forums, why don't you do some research on the CCTA engine and inform us what kind of additional emissions control systems it employs. Because to my knowledge it doesn't have anything else, but I'm not purporting to be an expert here, so please let us know.

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The "additional" emissions control systems don't have to require any additional hardware at all. ECU control of AFR and catalyst light off is another way to speed up catalyst heating, and I'm willing to bet ECU management of AFR is different on the two types of engines while the catalyst is heating, precisely because of the presence/absence of the SAI. I also bet you'd get a CEL if you weren't running a test pipe file. Now I can't prove any of that because the information is not available to me. But I don't have to. Irrespective of whether the two engines have different emissions standards, you're still advocating a pointless and poison-producing modification.


And if you don't think posting up a detailed DIY on how to remove an emissions control device is tantamount to "advocating" it, then you're kidding yourself.

Awwwwe