Stainless Steel 032 121 065 D Coolant Pipe.

[Hoomart]

Sorry to have not personally contributed much info on this thread for quite a while, but Mac’s previous post is spot on.
I have been waiting for other parts to come back from various sources, but can now say that my engine is fully reassembled & ready to be refitted early next week.
Once in place, l still have to reconnect all wiring, cooling system pipework, front panel & associated components, plus crash bar & bumper cover, so it will still be another week or so before l will be able to really run the engine, assuming that no other issues arise.
Please bear with me on completing all this work, but l will post an update as soon as everything is finished.

Obviously the situation in Ukraine is very worrying & l have sent my personal support and thanks to ACS . l do hope they will be able to produce the final version of the coolant pipe in quantity & we await news of the availability of the slightly revised pre-production item.

The actual logistics of ordering & supply of the parts still needs to be established, but l am willing to consider being an unofficial transporter of the pipes into the UK in a similar way to Rickmeister does for Audi Tradition orders, if this will help. The method of payment & distribution within the UK still needs to be worked out, but for reference, l paid approx eur 30 for my pipe and approx eur 20 for delivery, which took about 10 days to arrive by DHL, just to give people an idea of the costs involved. I paid no import duties on this item, as the total cost were below the threshold for delivery into Luxembourg.

Anyway, let’s see how things progress on my car during the next 10 days or so & further news from ACS.

Best regards.
Martin

 

[NicM]

Fwiw I contacted ACS last week to get a feel for the supply status as a potential customer on the continent:
they promptly replied that P1216 aka death pipe is in stock, offered at €47 (€38 when ordering 10 or more) - which incidentally is less than I paid for a NOS one from Germany - and shipping to France would be €35 extra.


The issue of tolerances of rubber seals and their supply was addressed, though still under investigation as return from testing is expected.

I suppose this rubber seal issue should not be impossible to solve, even if the tolerancing question is a legitimate one as obtaining just the right amount of pressure, no more no less, is of the essence for a long lasting sealing of this hard to reached location...

I would be quite interested in a return from experience from someone on the forum having tested it (including careful measurement of the sealing area diameter at each end if available).

 

[Evripidis]

I am waiting for 3 different o-ring combinations to arrive through the post from 3 different aftermarket manufacturers. They all listed about the same tolerances on their catalogues so I will be giving them a go and see which one feels right.

The general consensus that I get is to dress them up with some sealant anyway, which has brought good results in the past.

 

[PlasticMac]

Fwiw I contacted ACS last week to get a feel for the supply status as a potential customer on the continent:
they promptly replied that P1216 aka death pipe is in stock, offered at €47 (€38 when ordering 10 or more) - which incidentally is less than I paid for a NOS one from Germany - and shipping to France would be €35 extra.

View attachment 135962
The issue of tolerances of rubber seals and their supply was addressed, though still under investigation as return from testing is expected.

I suppose this rubber seal issue should not be impossible to solve, even if the tolerancing question is a legitimate one as obtaining just the right amount of pressure, no more no less, is of the essence for a long lasting sealing of this hard to reached location...

I would be quite interested in a return from experience from someone on the forum having testing it (including careful measurement of the sealing area diameter at each end if available).

That's the ACS version of the standard VW. part, which is a stock item.
The part @Hoomart and I are working with ACS on is an FSI specific part, although probably OK for AUA and BBY.
It has a few differences to the standard part, which are the result of @Hoomart test fit of the prototype. I have also queried the correct seals to go with it.
Mac.

 

[NicM]

That's the ACS version of the standard VW. part, which is a stock item.
The part @Hoomart and I are working with ACS on is an FSI specific part, although probably OK for AUA and BBY.
It has a few differences to the standard part, which are the result of @Hoomart test fit of the prototype. I have also queried the correct seals to go with it.
Mac.

I don't know about the fitment of this "standard VW part", but it is listed under 032 121 065 D which is also the number I used for ordering the NOS OEM pipe I got from a German supplier...

 

[sixerj]

While waiting on final part and seal updates from Mac and Hoomart etc, I can chip in with info and post experience from Ukraine to UK

I purchase as much as I can from Ukraine to support regular businesses (I support units and other stuff directly as well, but for the purposes of the tape and plausible deniability lets skip over that).

Statements about import duties etc are correct and just standard post Brexit faff. It’s not the purchase price it’s fully landed costs you need to worry about to avoid additional duty. A €300 Porsche engine stand yoke turned into +£450 lump of metal once in the garage and my 1st post Brexit purchase knowing duty would have to be paid. Ouch and much butt hurt

Ergo 2x of the current pipes, plus the shipping cost example to France is circa £110, so just sneaking under the £135 radar

I have been caught out with incorrect customs paperwork (not UKR as a source) so once basket price is around £90 I get a bit wary

I think for the numbers of pipes coming over to UK it may be cheaper and easier for people to order direct considering the discount levels available verses shipping and the extra import duties

Expect DHL to be 1-2 weeks to the UK depending on how things are
Ukraine Postal service is excellent but is a little slower and seems cheaper (Dodo socks use them - about £7 to ship a box which admittedly is pretty light - see below), once in the UK it’s Royal Mail to the front door
Tracking numbers should always be provided as international but expect to use apps like like AfterShip if not an obvious carrier once exiting Ukraine. Note this is not a Ukraine thing just my experience with international shipping thing as some source country tracking sites don’t track outside of the source country so you need to figure out who is doing the delivery in the UK etc

I you wanted to dip your toe in the water with purchasing items from Ukraine I can also highly recommend Dodo socks as a starting point