[GTIGUY1992]

I had my charge pipe come apart at WOT, finally, at ~60K miles lol. I've been expecting it- just dragging my feet since it's 100+ F here in Texas. Failure was in the same location as everyone else (see first 2 images).

I bought the VSRF pipe and what a PAIN to install (see last 3 images)! Working by myself it took me a good 8ish hours of struggling spread over a day and a half. I could not get the upper pipe installed on the throttle body until I laid flat on my chest across the engine and pulled on the pipe. Getting to those silicon coupler clamps was also awful, overall I'd consider this design a solid 2/5 for ease of install. Are all the other mfg pipes this tough? I know most follow the same basic design, but yeesh.

[samsamdar]

Never really had any issues with my CP from protuningfreaks - you can put a bit of oil on the O-rings to make it a lot easier to slide the CP onto the throttle body and onto the intercooler

[GTIGUY1992]

Originally Posted by samsamdar

Never really had any issues with my CP from protuningfreaks - you can put a bit of oil on the O-rings to make it a lot easier to slide the CP onto the throttle body and onto the intercooler

That's what I ended up doing, had to use a little grease on the O-ring itself and it did finally slip on.

Never heard of that company until today and I have to say their CP looks pretty different to most out on the market. But I think it would be a lot easier with that large silicon portion- all the rest have very small silicon couplers.

[vrooooom]

FTP. no issue.

[mike@x-ph.com]

Originally Posted by vrooooom

FTP. no issue.

+1

[Joebie]

MAD went on with some cussing, but no more difficult than I expected. Without sounding too arrogant I'd like to call myself a somewhat seasoned shadetree mechanic. Its been a while but I remember doing alot of it from the bottom, including the clamps. There was a nice line-of-sight on the clamp bolts from the bottom.

I did have a problem with fitting the MAD charge pipe to MAD intercooler, but it was unrelated to general install difficulty and solved easily. I also installed the intercooler at the same time so I may have had more parts off the car than OP did, which probably made things easier.

When you pack a turbo I6 into a car the size of a golf cart things just naturally become cramped and hard to work on. Its just BMW life.

[allinon72]

I personally don't have a very good opinion of VSRF...I can't help but view them as the "AEM" of the German world. Perhaps a more quality brand would require less fighting to install. That wrinkle coating is a dead giveaway

[vrooooom]

Originally Posted by allinon72

I personally don't have a very good opinion of VSRF...I can't help but view them as the "AEM" of the German world. Perhaps a more quality brand would require less fighting to install. That wrinkle coating is a dead giveaway

I second.

[mike@x-ph.com]

Originally Posted by allinon72

I personally don't have a very good opinion of VSRF...I can't help but view them as the "AEM" of the German world. Perhaps a more quality brand would require less fighting to install. That wrinkle coating is a dead giveaway

Is AEM not considered a good brand in Germany? Its got a solid reputation here

[GTIGUY1992]

Originally Posted by allinon72

I personally don't have a very good opinion of VSRF...I can't help but view them as the "AEM" of the German world. Perhaps a more quality brand would require less fighting to install. That wrinkle coating is a dead giveaway

I'm not a fan of the design at all, but a powder coat is pretty industry standard. It's got clean welds and smooth grinding as well, the machined tolerances are decent (good fit on the MAF sensor & keyways), and cleanup was decent- no sharp corners or burrs.

But the design was just bad IMO. I had the intercooler off, and airbox off to give me plenty of room.

[Boostedphil698]

ER products for the win. This install is even harder on an Xdrive car.