Cage Mod - revisited

[octavia5]

See link for more details - http://briskoda.net/fabia-i/cage-mod-wow/94182/

Sure I have seen this detailed elsewhere but doing a search on the forum returns no hits, not even the above link??

Read about this some time ago and actually went and bought the grease from Maplins, then got sceptical so did not do the mod. Grease then sat in the draw for 3 months till I stumbled upon another post mentioning it so got out the grease.

I have a PD140 - Filled the MAF connector with the stuff and slowly pushed the connector back on, cleaned up the squeased out grease and away.

Definate improvement, smoother tickover and pick-up seems smoother and quicker - why did I not do this earlier, cos it seemed too good to be true - but it isnt - so thought I would give the mod a new thread and possibly bring it to a new audience.

Edited 9 September, 2009 by Octavia5
clarification

[T-1000]

Cheers for this seems to have worked wonders with my lumpy idle.

[dan_the_v8man]

anyone tried this on a PD170?

[Taxi 219]

Its worked for me too on both of mine

[octavia5]

In theory this mod should help all cars with a MAF and cetainly can't hurt

[swil00]

Gave this a go earlier on, seems to be a bit better now, but not sure if thats my imagination or not !

It does seem too good to be true though.

[dan_the_v8man]

hmm, might have to whip the silicone grease out when i get the passat back from the dealers then

[Stormchaser]

Done this too and it works a treat

[swil00]

Well, on the drive in this morning, I kept trying to tell my self that I was imagining things, but got to say it does run smoother now - especially when cold.

[Nick P]

I bought a tube of the Servisol silicone grease today from Maplin, but I've removed my MAF connector and it's spotlessly clean and free of dirt. The connectors are gold plated on my PD170.

Given thar there's no muck in there to leak current across and that the connections are gold plated, can there be any value to this mod for me? Is the PD140 / 105 / 130 MAF connector not gold plated?

[Genoa1893]

I gave it a try last evening, with another local brand of silicon grease (BTW the silicon based grease it was the most expensive of a whole group of different types of greases)on my PD170.

It didn't harm, for sure, even if my connector too was perfectly clean (at least at sight).

First I sprayed on both plug and receptacle some contact cleaner, then filled two times with grease.

Car seems a tad quiter, but time will tell...

[Stormchaser]

I bought a tube of the Servisol silicone grease today from Maplin, but I've removed my MAF connector and it's spotlessly clean and free of dirt. The connectors are gold plated on my PD170.

Given thar there's no muck in there to leak current across and that the connections are gold plated, can there be any value to this mod for me? Is the PD140 / 105 / 130 MAF connector not gold plated?

I have heard that if you have gold connectors then you don,t need to do this mod as no affect will happen.Its the older models that don,t have this.My PD105 has gold connectors but my MK1 PD100 had old style connector pins and i did get a result from this mod.

[Genoa1893]

Hi,

just thinking... given the silicon grease has insulation properties, it won't help better connectivity. BTW, gold plating is applied in order to avoid corrosion. So, if you have no gold plating the grease should prevent corrosion, but, even if you have gold plated connectors I wondered if it might eventually work in order to reduce some EMI eventually captated by the MAF connectors...? This way it might give some contribution to better fuelling.

It would be interesting to measure EMI/RF inside the engine bay...

Anyone? Chavdar, perhaps?

[Ali_Wright]

I bought a tube of the Servisol silicone grease today from Maplin, but I've removed my MAF connector and it's spotlessly clean and free of dirt. The connectors are gold plated on my PD170.

Given thar there's no muck in there to leak current across and that the connections are gold plated, can there be any value to this mod for me?

The grease is not there to improve conductivity between the male and female contacts, it is there to reduce the chance of tracking or leakage across the seperate connectors through an ingress of moisture or even damp air. By filling all the nooks and crannies with di-electric grease there is nowhere for the moisture and indeed air to go. The resistance of the grease should be alot higher than that of water or even air, this should result in a truer MAF signal being received at the ECU.

Has anyone greased their ECU connector too? - Oh, another job to do now!!

[Browny_37]

Basically your using silicon thermal heatsink compound for this mod?

[Nick P]

No, not the same stuff.

[Browny_37]

Didn't think so, but some of the dearer stuff i have says non conductive on the package.

[Genoa1893]

Has anyone greased their ECU connector too? - Oh, another job to do now!!

Was just wondering: where is it located?

TIA,

[Browny_37]

Its under the scuttle panel on the Mk2, cant remember if its below the wiper motor assembly though.

But when i had my cracked windscreen replaced this week it was clearly visable.

[Birdwell L&K]

Just done this mod, and taken the car on a 150 mile motorway run. The car does seem alot smoother and does seem to pick up quicker.

This mod works a treat....

[Basil]

Cage mod, 2-stroke oil "mod" - they both work. Results certainly vary but they do work, sometimes remarkably well.

[dan_the_v8man]

Didn't think so, but some of the dearer stuff i have says non conductive on the package.

if you want to try it i've got a large tube of silicone grease, your welcome to some of it

[Browny_37]

if you want to try it i've got a large tube of silicone grease, your welcome to some of it

Many thanks mate, im not entirely sure if to go ahead with it yet.

If i do i will be in touch

[Genoa1893]

Hi again Browny_37,

if I were you I would give it a try. I can confirm it doesn't harm

Ciao,

[Wardy]

This has reminded me, did this on my Fabia and noticed an improvement.

I've still got nearly a full tube of the stuff from Maplin from when I did the Fabia (I'm not gonna use it for anything else am I?!) so will give it a whirl on the 2.0T and see if it helps.

Steve