Today I took off my front passenger side fender lining and replaced it with one from a new Turbo S New Beetle, which has a vent molded into it for the intercooler to breathe easier. I don’t know why VW didnt incorporate this into the original design, but I can only assume that it was only deemed a definate gain, for the 180hp tuned 1.8T engine. Now, the fact that the engines are identical sauf some tuning and a few minor tweaks, in my mind makes this a no brainer, and a need-to-do modification. The cooler air gives my turbo a bit more of a surge when it kicks in (a bit earlier), and should give it a little more of a life span now as well. I took it out testing and I could feel the turbo spooling up a bit sooner than usual (just a touch), and spooling up harder than normal (noteable difference). Also lately though, I’ve noticed my clutch is on the way out! So extensive “testing” of the new performance gains was not possible at this time. Oh well… Here are the pictures on how I did the install. In chronological order below, they should be ratherself explanitory.     First you jack the car up and remove the wheel. This is not totally required, but if you don’t you’re just giving yourself more obstacles to get around. I useda 2-1/4 ton hydraulic jack instead of the spare tire jack, to get the car plenty high enough. After you have good access in, you remove the stock liningby taking out the 14 torx screws. I chose to dust out the inside of the fender when the lining was out, but I don’t suppose that’s necessary. Now you see theintercooler (silver box in the front of the fender) that we want air to flow through easier. You simply have to screw the new fender in the old one’s place (samescrews, same locations), and voila. Done. The vent should line up over the intercooler just fine. As you put in more screws, the remaining holes line themselvesup more and more.     I took a few extra pics, of the two linings to compare, and of my brakes which I noticed have lipped rotors (I’ll need to change those sometime soon probably).

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