A Ton of questions! Upgrades, Performance and General!

[TwoToneAlex]

Hey Folks,

This is my first post on here, but am a member of quite a few other VW/Audi Forums, and have owned quite a few different VAG rides!
I have a 2003 VW Passat TDI 130 Estate, it's done 157K, I recently have changed the cambelt and serviced it, but I have other questions.

Being the first TDI I've owned, it's been quite impressive on acceleration pick up and economy, but I want to improve both, and generally service it or at least one of them!

- Cleaning the MAF, is it going to help with any of the above? It's probably not been cleaned.
- Cleaning out the EGR & Inlet Manifold, is it going to help with the above? Is it recommended to blank them off on these? If so, do I have to purchase a 'kit'?
- I've been offered a remap for £150, from a mobile tuner (no rolling road, is that a problem with remapping?), he reckons I should get 170-180BHP out of it, but I want to keep this thing reliable, and at 157K (serviced regularly by me for the last 15K since I've owned it) do you think it's playing with fire? It had a clutch replacement around 20K ago.
- Headlight upgrades? Mine are terrible, besides buying new/used units to replace mine, are there any good upgrades? I've heard people talking about the HID upgrades, as the '80% brighter' etc bulbs I've tried are useless.
- Airfilter upgrades such as the K&N/Pipecross options have mixed reviews, especially as they require the re-oiling which seems to be a difficult task to get right, any reviews on these and their advantages?

Any help on the above would be appreciated! Sorry for all the questions!

Thanks,
Alex

[Caxap]

Can only comment on lighting.

Halogen bulbs such as Philips extra vision (not extra power) or Osram Nightbreakers are cheapest way to upgrade.

Ebay pnp hid kits will be brighter but light spread wouldn't be improved. You will have brighter more reflecting hotspots than your standard halogen lights, as well as blinding all other oncoming traffic.

You could retrofit projectors and that would be cheaper than sourcing OEM bixenons lights. And if you do go xenon way, 4300-5000 is best for light perfomance.

[Doctle Odd]

A word about remaps. Avoid the guy coming to you with a laptop he will have maps but not a map written for your car. Go to a proper re-mapper he can delete the EGR at the same time, if you blank it you could have a CEL. I like night breaker bulbs they give a good light and don't cost the earth. If the headlights are badly scarred you can polish them for a short tern gain or replace them. Don't put aftermarket HID's unless you want to spend a lot of money. The cheapo kits are illegal and get on peoples ****.

[Caxap]

+1, for checking cleanliness of your lense. Ebay 3m lense kit for that, shat up lense and clean one make a big difference in light output.

But if you can source Osram Rallye 65w bulb, that will beat any halogen bulb hands down and probably match eBay hid bulbs in lumen output.

[scotty33]

I think cleaning the intake will be a good idea, made my 90hp tdi freeer reving up top, there was quite a bit built up in there, similar milage when I did it too.
Just polishing the lenses will probably help a lot, even if they don't look too bad.
I can't speak for remapping recommendations, but too much torque will give the clutch a hard time even if it is new. There have been a few group buy remap days, maybe read back and see who got good reviews?
MAF should not need cleaning, it is protected by the airfilter, oiled airfilters are bad for MAF sensor equipped cars as I understand it?

[Doctle Odd]

65w bulb for off road use, in a Passat?

[scotty33]

65w bulb for off road use, in a Passat?
As in any more than 60W would be illegal for the road in UK.