RSaltinot

Recently my WX developed a problem where the car was hard to start, wouldn't idle, and ran rich all the time with huge clouds of black smoke coming from the exhaust. To make a long story short, it ended up being that the air flow sensor plate was too high. I went in to the airbox to adjust the clip on the spring by bending it a little, which is how the Bentley says to do it.

Well, the clip broke with just a little pressure. I think it was already fatigued and had been hanging by a thread previous. Probably why the plate was out of adjustment in the first place.

The above is nothing new to us CIS guys, right? So I go to the local dealer and have the order a new clip. Yep, it's a spare part, 035 133 478 A, and Audi wants $13.55 for this paper clip. Well I was told that there are none in stock and none in the country, but I can have one "red labeled" to the US for an extra $25. OK so now I'm looking at around $40 for this thing and the junk yard is looking more attractive now. I said nevermind and left.

A few days later I was still feeling disgusted. I put my thinking cap on.....This clip was probably the same on all Bosch CIS cars and Porsche does a great job of supporting their older cars so..... I looked up the clip on a CIS 924, which was super easy because Porsche makes their fiche available on their website, BTW. I picked up the phone and called the dealer one exit down the road. I asked if they could get the part. The parts guy says, it isn't in dealer stock and there aren't any in the US. He then offered to have it shipped here in 5 days for the cost of $20. "Hmmm, that's $5 less than Audi", I thought. He goes on to tell me that he can put it on a parts order and it will show up in about 5-6 weeks for no extra charge. Now I'm thinking, "why doesn't Audi offer this?" I then asked him what the cost of the actual part was........$1.02!!! I said "get me two on the slow boat".

Fast Forward to last week...
I picked up my clips and installed one on my car. Problem solved.

The Porsche clip appears to be made of a higher grade of metal than the original WX part. See the pic for the Porsche number.
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/10045/dsc03122.jpg">

stevenmurray

$102 you mean $12?

RSaltinot

I corrected it. Thanks.

Mike Desi

I should have been smart and ordered two, but while I was installing it, it snapped. I was a little annoyed.

RSaltinot

...and it would disappear into the frame rail.

Do you still need one? I can send you my spare. Lemme know.

85urq

I ended up stealing one off a 5KT, the spring was thicker than the urq's.

stevenmurray

That should earn me $34x5 = $170.

Actually Porsche and Benz are walking distance from my job but I have to drive 60 minutes round trip to get Audi parts. I have to source more parts from Porsche and Benz.