I'm very pleased to announce that I took mine off for cleaning the other day (using the instructions on vectra-c). It was replaced under warranty about a year ago, has done about 18k since. Others have reported them failing completely after fewer miles than this.
The valve half was (as expected) sooty. Not blocked, and functioning fine, but it had a good furry coating inside it, some of which had bonded hard onto the metal. The valve still made a nice metallic tinging noise when closing though.
However, the solenoid part (where people seem to get the problems) was spotless. I mean 100% clean - the interface between the two halves was clean, shiny metal - like chrome. Not a grain of soot has got through the gap between the valve plunger and the casing.
My take on this is that the design revisions have been to stop the soot getting through to the solenoid. They have worked.
The manufacturing date stamped on mine was 2009, I think it was March but not certain of the month.
Regarding Pierburg's comments about it not being their fault... Well they would say that wouldn't they?
EDIT: Or has it just not yet had time for the seals to wear out? Perhaps it works perfectly for 90% of its life, then the seals break down and it rapidly packs in. Who knows.
The valve half was (as expected) sooty. Not blocked, and functioning fine, but it had a good furry coating inside it, some of which had bonded hard onto the metal. The valve still made a nice metallic tinging noise when closing though.
However, the solenoid part (where people seem to get the problems) was spotless. I mean 100% clean - the interface between the two halves was clean, shiny metal - like chrome. Not a grain of soot has got through the gap between the valve plunger and the casing.
My take on this is that the design revisions have been to stop the soot getting through to the solenoid. They have worked.
The manufacturing date stamped on mine was 2009, I think it was March but not certain of the month.
Regarding Pierburg's comments about it not being their fault... Well they would say that wouldn't they?
EDIT: Or has it just not yet had time for the seals to wear out? Perhaps it works perfectly for 90% of its life, then the seals break down and it rapidly packs in. Who knows.
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