I'd been looking round for an induction kit for my MkIV GTi AUQ for a few months. It seems that the market is saturated with stuff from the bog basic to the mind-bendingly expensive. Now when it coems to induction kits, I'm normally a big K&N fan, I've used them for donkey's years on cars, motorbikes, 4x4s, vans, etc with no problems. However, K&N's Typhoon kit to put the intake down low out of the engine compartment was coming in at 320-odd quid direct. Having done a bit of research, I came up with a kit on eBay from a dealer in Bolton, only about 1/2 and hour's drive from where I live. Now this kit is to all intents and purposes a straight copy of the K&N Typhoon, obviously produced in China and selling at the ridiculous price of 60! Now normally I'm pretty cautious about stuff like that - I'm a firm believer in the old saying that if seems to good to be true, it probably is too good to be true. But for the sake of 60 it seemed worth a punt. So I ordered one and went to collect it. At first glance, everything seemed OK - all the pipework was nicely fabricated with decent welds and well polished up. All the parts required were present and correct. Nice big twin-cone filter. All good. So I set to and fitted it. Again, no real dramas and being used to doing stuff like this any little niggles were some overcome. Once fitted it was time for a test drive. All good still, no problems, throttle response was good, midrange seemed a bit smoother and lots of lovely induction roar. Jobs a good un. Except when I got home, there sitting on the drive was the actual cone part of the filter, having dropped off the spigot as I'd backed out into the road ...luckily I'd only driven a couple of miles but even so if any gravel or other rubbish had got sucked in to the engine, somebody could have been looking at a very expensive repair bill!! When I looked at the filter, the cone part had been held onto the spigot flange with two tiny dabs of adhesive which would have struggled to hold a postage stamp on an envelope. Needless to say I was straight back on to the supplier, who to be fair didn't argue and sent out a new filter straight away. Having said that I don't trust the new one to be any better, so I've ordered the equivalent K&N filter too just to be on the safe side. So the moral of this story is - you get what you pay for. I'm just glad that the filter dropped off where it did rather than 200 miles down the motorway. And in fairness, even with a K&N filter fitted I'll still have spent less than a thrid of what K&N themselves ask for the full kit! Be careful out there, kids - it's a minefield !!
