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Carbon clean in Boston area?

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yuev87

New member
I've been dealing with random misfires for the last few months but it's really gotten worse lately. It got bad enough this morning that my CEL came on and I saw that I'm getting random misfire and cylinder #2 misfire.

I'm still under CPO warranty, but I called Wellesley VW and Gallery VW who both said that if it was carbon related, it would not be covered. Wellesley quoted me $1100 and Gallery quoted me $900 for the carbon clean. They'd do it for around $200 if my intake manifold was bad but since my I don't have any IM related codes, I don't have my fingers crossed.

So I'm just wondering, who here has gotten a carbon clean locally for a decent price? I see a lot of posts about indy mechanics doing a walnut media blast for around $300 - $400 but I was wondering if anyone has gotten something similar around Boston?
 
A

AccelaSX

Ready to race!
yuev87 said:
I've been dealing with random misfires for the last few months but it's really gotten worse lately. It got bad enough this morning that my CEL came on and I saw that I'm getting random misfire and cylinder #2 misfire.

I'm still under CPO warranty, but I called Wellesley VW and Gallery VW who both said that if it was carbon related, it would not be covered. Wellesley quoted me $1100 and Gallery quoted me $900 for the carbon clean. They'd do it for around $200 if my intake manifold was bad but since my I don't have any IM related codes, I don't have my fingers crossed.

So I'm just wondering, who here has gotten a carbon clean locally for a decent price? I see a lot of posts about indy mechanics doing a walnut media blast for around $300 - $400 but I was wondering if anyone has gotten something similar around Boston?
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Banchwerks in Providence, RI do walnut blasting for $400. Not exactly local to Boston, about 50 min drive.

Stay away from Wellesley VW, they got terrible over the last few years. Coastal VW is the friendliest to tuners.
 
Aqualung

Aqualung

Passed Driver's Ed
I can confirm the $200, I just had it done for that price at Colonial VW in Westborough...but it was in conjunction w/ my intake manifold being replaced (under warranty) as you note.

You may want to call Minuteman VW in Bedford, they seem to be pretty reputable, don't know their pricing, however.
 
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yuev87

New member
AccelaSX said:
Banchwerks in Providence, RI do walnut blasting for $400. Not exactly local to Boston, about 50 min drive.

Stay away from Wellesley VW, they got terrible over the last few years. Coastal VW is the friendliest to tuners.
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I'll have to check out Banchwerks. I've heard good things about Northeast Autobahn as well.
 
S

SyDiko

Ready to race!
Banchwerks is my go to Shop for installs needing a lift and I believe they do all maintenance to VW vehicles. To give you an idea of trust and customer respect, I used to drop my car off with a check (they have a private gated area) and pick it up the next night knowing my car would be perfect. This went on for about a year, until I went in and met the team in person for a last minute coilover adjustment before a meet.

However, Kaizen and Speedlife (both up in the northshore area) are also reputable and might do carbon cleanings. A buddy had work done over at Kaizen and I had some exhaust work done over at Speedlife. Give em' all a call!
 
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fatty@golfmk6.com

fatty@golfmk6.com

Go Kart Champion
Have you changed your spark plugs recently? That may fix your misfiring issues.
If I were you I would wait until an Intake Manifold CEL comes on and save some coin. Mine came on around 80k miles and got it replaced + carbon cleaning for $220 at a dealership.
 
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yuev87

New member
yuev87 said:
I'll have to check out Banchwerks. I've heard good things about Northeast Autobahn as well.
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I just called Northeast Autobahn and they were VERY reasonable. I'll report back once I have the work done but I spoke to the owner for about 10 minutes who seemed really chill and helped diagnose everything over the phone to try to save me from having to do the carbon clean if it wasn't needed.
 
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yuev87

New member
fatty said:
Have you changed your spark plugs recently? That may fix your misfiring issues.
If I were you I would wait until an Intake Manifold CEL comes on and save some coin. Mine came on around 80k miles and got it replaced + carbon cleaning for $220 at a dealership.
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Spark plugs are about a year old. I changed them around 40k miles and I haven't had any issues other than the cold start misfires. Once the engine is warm, it runs great.
 
Y

yuev87

New member
So here's an update on everything:

After dropping off my car on a Thursday night, Max at Northeast Autobahn insisted on doing diagnosis of the misfire before just doing the carbon clean. It didn't misfire in the morning when he started it up and we opted to leave the car with him another night to see if it would do it. 10AM Saturday morning, I get a message from him that it misfired, he swapped the coils around and the misfire followed the coil.

He saved me from my own stubbornness. Can't recommend him enough.
 
O

olisjk

Passed Driver's Ed
yuev87 said:
So here's an update on everything:

After dropping off my car on a Thursday night, Max at Northeast Autobahn insisted on doing diagnosis of the misfire before just doing the carbon clean. It didn't misfire in the morning when he started it up and we opted to leave the car with him another night to see if it would do it. 10AM Saturday morning, I get a message from him that it misfired, he swapped the coils around and the misfire followed the coil.

He saved me from my own stubbornness. Can't recommend him enough.
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Max is the shit. Was just there last week, wouldn't go anywhere else. Is your gti carbon steel grey?
 
fender177

fender177

Ready to race!
Aqualung said:
I can confirm the $200, I just had it done for that price at Colonial VW in Westborough...but it was in conjunction w/ my intake manifold being replaced (under warranty) as you note.

You may want to call Minuteman VW in Bedford, they seem to be pretty reputable, don't know their pricing, however.
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Glad OP got squared away without a major ordeal. Just wanted to comment that I've been to minuteman VW in Bedford for a brake job, and I would not recommend them because of their pricing. They wanted over $1,100 for a full break job. Granted, it was a full brake job, but that price was absurdly high and I opted to do it with a buddy's help for much cheaper. Seems to me they don't have a very honest service department.
 
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