I had a check engine light appear and was told by the mechanic servicing my car that the intake manifold runner control actuator has failed and is no longer moving the manifold so I need to replace it.  They initially ordered the wrong part because apparently, they didn't confirm the VIN.  The part needed is the Intake Manifold Vacuum Actuator 079133619C for Audi or VW.  This part has been discontinued and I have not been able to find a refurbished or used part.  I checked with Wolf, eBay, and ECS but had no luck. 

I'm looking for additional suggestions for a replacement part or alternative part number. Otherwise, I am told the solution is to replace the entire intake manifold for $2400.  That seems crazy for a part that would have cost a fraction of that amount.  Any assitance would be welcomed.

Welcome Joy and thanks for joining. 
Important bit first!
Please send some of your Florida weather across to this damp, drizzly and currently cold part of S. W. Wales. 
 

On to the issue:- 

I can see from LLL Parts of London U.K. that the part is indeed not currently available, but it might be well worth contacting them to see when (if indeed ever) it will be available, and if not in the very near future, if they know of any aftermarket supplier who may do this part.

By what I can see, it doesn’t seem to be a very complex engineered part, and I wonder if another readily available part ( particularly from the aftermarket route) could be suitably modified to do the job, with some minor-ish engineering. Might be worth considering. 
Perhaps you could let us know the outcome Joy. 
Kind regards,

Gareth. 

 

Did you get any further with this Joy? 

Hello Joy,

Just doing some system tidying up and wonder whether you can now update us please. 

No joy (sic) with this one Gareth.

I spoke to Audi North America and Audi HQ. While they both agreed the design was faulty, they returned to manual intake control versus vacuum control, and they never did a recall.  The parts are fairly poor plastic and will never hold up to the heat of the engine long-term, but there are no third-party or after-market solutions.  Audi recommended a full intake manifold replacement, which includes replacing the vacuum unit with manual. That is a $3200 part. This is a poor solution, so I searched salvage yards and every after-market company in the U.S. One called me back to say he located the part on a shelf out of inventory. The part arrived yesterday ($450 USD), and I dropped it off at the shop.  I am hoping to have the car back in a couple of days.