Emission Control system warning light

bazzachazza

came on on my 09 A6 earlier. Manual says take it to Audi to get rectified. Quick Google says its one of a hundred issues and needs to be plugged into a computer to find out exactly. Its says its anything from loose fuel filler cap upwards. Car is diesel and has 88k on it. No power loss, car drives as normal. Light came on with 150k left in tank it had been fill to the top last time so I don't thing its a dirty diesel issue.

Any ideas hopefully getting it diagnosed tomorrow or monday.

bazzachazza

I also do long enough trips in it 50k journeys rarely take it for short drives 95% of the time the engine gets up to normal temps.

Fishtits

bazzachazza wrote: »

Quick Google says its one of a hundred issues and needs to be plugged into a computer to find out exactly.

I'd say for once Google is on the money...

Just hope that the guy that plugs in the computer also has basic diagnostic skills to interpret what he's reading... :rolleyes:

bazz26

Best get it diagnosed by someone with VAG-COM software. Is it still under Audi warranty?

bazzachazza

Out of warranty by 6 months:(. Got it checked and he said the warning lead to a diesel pressure sensor. He suggested it could be the DPF and I drove it high revs for 60k to clear that out, will see if it does. He said that I could still drive it it shouldn't be too much of an issue. Going to call Audi monday for an idea of the price it will cost.

-Corkie-

I was kind of thinking it was the DPF. If it is Joe Power can delete it alltogether from the car.

bazzachazza

-Corkie- wrote: »

I was kind of thinking it was the DPF. If it is Joe Power can delete it alltogether from the car.

Light hasn't gone off after a long drive at 3500rpm:(

-Corkie-

bazzachazza wrote: »

Light hasn't gone off after a long drive at 3500rpm:(

Best thing is bring it to Audi on monday and see what they say. If they are looking for stupid money for a DPF give Gary ITR a shout as he works along side Joe...:)

If he deletes the DPF you will have a few extra BHP aswell..:)

lomb

VAG 2 year warranties are a joke and a reason to not buy their cars. I would expect at least a 3 year if not 4 if purchasing a new car. Might encourage them to produce more reliable cars.

Hiace.

-Corkie- wrote: »

If he deletes the DPF you will have a few extra BHP aswell..:)

Does that not fck it for good, as it will never empty itself then ?

and in turn will that effect the Catalytic convertor ?

Also would turning it off, affect the emissions for the NCT ?

-Corkie-

Hiace. wrote: »

Does that not fck it, as it will never empty then ?

Also would it affect the emissions for the NCT ?

No they split the DPF and take the guts out of it and weld it back again like a first day job. They remap the ECU then and tweak it to allow for no DPF.

Nct is no problem as they are not intrested in the emissions of individual cars. I hope that sounds right.

Hiace.

-Corkie- wrote: »

No they split the DPF and take the guts out of it and weld it back again like a first day job. They remap the ECU then and tweak it to allow for no DPF.

Nct is no problem as they are not intrested in the emissions of individual cars. I hope that sounds right.

Cheers mate, just wondering, I'm no fan of DPF's, just another manufactures con job.

Row

If your getting a diesel pressure sensor fault then i can't see it been related to the dpf......with any fuel pressure problem its best start with the basics...e.g. Replace the fuel filter..:)
Do you get your diesel in the same service station...?

If you also have dpf problems then it may just need a forced
regeneration...this can be done with Vas diagnostic tool or any good up todate diagnostic equipment...Best of Luck with it.

bazzachazza

I'm driving my wife's company car as she is on maternity leave so she is driving mine. She filled it last from Tesco. I can't remember the last time I got it there. Most of the time I fill it in the local station unless I'm caught short. I generally only do long drives minimum 25k+ the odd time its shorter but generally not many. So I wasn't sold on the DPF idea either as my wife is doing long enough drives when she is out in it.

I will get the mechanic to change the filter and see if that helps. Thanks.

lau1247

OP i had a similar light came on for my a4 last month.. the car manual just said to bring to audi to do diagnostic..

car was driving fine also.. nothing to do with dpf..

turns out to be lambda sensor for me from the diagnostic.. the fault essentially caused it to run fuel mixture a bit rich which if i didn't get the sensor replace would cause more issue to the exhaust system in the long run.. luckily mine is still under warranty..

At the time when i brought it in I didn't have my service logbook with me. The cheek of the guy i was dealing (Audi Northside) with to charge me diagnostic cost while under warranty (car is still within 2 years). Surely he would have known from checking the VIN number. Mine is a uk import so it had 3 years instead of 2 years.. I think he assumed that it is on the third year and basically fob me off saying Audi (Ireland) would not honour the third year warranty and that i have to go to the north to get it fix or pay to get it done. Needless to say I walked away, went to Audi Waterford and everything covered under warranty (Needless to say i went back to Audi Northside to claim my rightful money back )

Sounds like you have the same issue I do. Is yours a uk import?? because uk import have 3 years warranty.. (might need to bring to the north, some irish dealer won't honour)

bazzachazza

No Irish bought. Will call Audi for prices tomorrow for diagnoses repair etc

bazzachazza

Booked it in with Audi on Thursday for them to diagnose the problem and price the repairs. Will ask for them to get Audi to provide a goodwill gesture towards the cost as whatever has gone wrong shouldn't on a car of it's age and Km's.

-Corkie-

bazzachazza wrote: »

Booked it in with Audi on Thursday for them to diagnose the problem and price the repairs. Will ask for them to get Audi to provide a goodwill gesture towards the cost as whatever has gone wrong shouldn't on a car of it's age and Km's.

I done a good bit of reading about it on various forums and its only 50/50 that its a DPF problem after. An exhaust sensor was another mentioned that went. I had that problem on a Passat before.

bazzachazza

Guess we will find out on Thursday, must remember to bring something sharp so I can hack off an arm and a leg.;)

-Corkie-

bazzachazza wrote: »

Guess we will find out on Thursday, must remember to bring something sharp so I can hack off an arm and a leg.;)

Or better still some Vaseline..
:pac:

bazzachazza

-Corkie- wrote: »

Or better still some Vaseline..
:pac:

Gulp :eek:

911s

-Corkie- wrote: »

I done a good bit of reading about it on various forums and its only 50/50 that its a DPF problem after. An exhaust sensor was another mentioned that went. I had that problem on a Passat before.

Very common fault in VAG diesels, small sesor for exhaust pressure gives problems, 10mins & approx €50 parts

R.O.R

911s wrote: »

Very common fault in VAG diesels, small sesor for exhaust pressure gives problems, 10mins & approx €50 parts

+1

Was checking through the history of a few A4's yesterday and there was an issue with one, similar to the OP. Had done 188,000km in 2 1/2 years, so was practically all long distance and shouldn't have been a knackered DPF.

Car was driving fine, no loss of power at all (picked it up myself and it was mint condition, except for the EML light).

Turned out to be a DPF sensor which cost less than €200 to fix, including a full Valet.

Fingers crossed it's the same issue.

bazzachazza

Thanks for the replies. Fingers crossed its something small, cheap and quick to fix.

lau1247

So what's the damage bazzachazza?

bazzachazza

lau1247 wrote: »

So what's the damage bazzachazza?

Not Thursday yet will know tomorrow morning after visit to the proctologist :eek:

Oh I will keep you updated, partly as when I did my searches on Google half the time problems come up and after they ask the question they don't bother to reply when they get it fixed and say what was wrong.

tweaf1

Had this happen to my 09 A6 170 last month, it was the DPF sensor and my dealer got Audi to contribute 70% so it only cost approx €70 and they repaired it there and then - happy days!

Hope you have the same outcome.

bazzachazza

Great. Any chance you could PM me the dealer so at least I can throw that into the mix if it comes out as that.

bazzachazza

And the winner is..........

-Corkie- wrote: »

An exhaust sensor was another mentioned that went. I had that problem on a Passat before.

Exhaust sensor. They weren't getting Audi to contribute until I asked them to then they said they would apply and hopefully they hadn't thrown the part out. They said they would get back to me. Disappointed that I had to ask and surprised it wasn't offered in the first place, they just assumed because it was out of warranty that it was a done deal.

-Corkie-

Glad you got sorted Bazza. Garages are very tough that way, you will have to fight your corner to get justice.

In fairness a car like the A6 should be coming with a 3 year warranty.

bazzachazza

-Corkie- wrote: »

In fairness a car like the A6 should be coming with a 3 year warranty.

Couldn't agree more, if you want to call yourself a PREMIUM car manufacturer then you should be saying to your buyers "We believe in our cars therefore we offer a 3 year warranty". Same goes for BMW and Mercedes and you shouldn't be made buy add on warranties.

Hiace.

bazzachazza wrote: »

Couldn't agree more, if you want to call yourself a PREMIUM car manufacturer then you should be saying to your buyers "We believe in our cars therefore we offer a 3 year warranty". Same goes for BMW and Mercedes and you shouldn't be made buy add on warranties.

No excuse for not having a seven year if kia can do it.

They have some cheek asking the money they do for the the plastic BMW/VAG badge on the front.

muckeyw

Just done one of theses on a a6 aswell if it doesn't go out after driving it at 3500 it needs a new pressure sensor and then the sensor needs to be adapted just finished one tonight it's a common problem on that engine

bazzachazza

The fast moving mechanics sorry Audi technicians threw out the faulty part so they can't make a good will claim.

Doesn't matter I will be making a goodwill claim personally with Audi when I get my invoice photocopied. Also can't wait for my phone call from MRBI for the usual post service questionnaire. They will be scoring very low points.

bazzachazza

Well I made my goodwill claim pointing out my poor personal experience. Audi's response has been to offer me a €250 voucher for a service and the dealership will be reimbursing me as well. A happy ending that I am satisfied with.:D

-Corkie-

Great stuff. Thats what I like to hear...:)

cbraid29

I had the same problem with my opel corsa, the emission light came on ,however a freind of mine said it was the spark plug which was unplugged

cablegrey

bazzachazza wrote: »

Well I made my goodwill claim pointing out my poor personal experience. Audi's response has been to offer me a €250 voucher for a service and the dealership will be reimbursing me as well. A happy ending that I am satisfied with.:D

How did you go about making the goodwill claim!??? And what would be my chances of actually gettin any joy, I know its a year and a half later like. I'm having a similar problem with an 08 A4 74000mi on the clock the dealers are looking for €200 bobs to diagnose and I don't want this to cost a mint.

bazzachazza

cablegrey wrote: »

How did you go about making the goodwill claim!??? And what would be my chances of actually gettin any joy, I know its a year and a half later like. I'm having a similar problem with an 08 A4 74000mi on the clock the dealers are looking for €200 bobs to diagnose and I don't want this to cost a mint.

My car was ONLY 6 months out of warranty yours is 3 years out of warranty so I would say zero chance to be honest. Mine complaint was on the basis that the car was only 2 and half years old and shouldn't really have had the issue that soon. Plus Audi South didn't even attempt to make a good will warranty claim on my behalf and when I asked them they said it would depend on whether they still had the faulty part to return to Audi. It wasn't even 24hrs later and they claimed the part had been dumped and removed, all very convenient.

So I made a two pronged claim to Audi Ireland directly and told them the full story and they coughed for the lot.

I had got an Indy to plug my car in and he couldn't diagnose the issue immediately as he didn't have the list of codes for the exact part failure.

I think €200 is a bit steep for a diagnostic I think Audi south only wanted €70 or €80 for that.

Good luck

borgator

bazzachazza wrote: »

Quick Google says its one of a hundred issues and needs to be plugged into a computer to find out exactly. Its says its anything from loose fuel filler cap upwards.

Hi probably not gunna use this account again but I'm gunna confess to my own stupidity here.

Bought an A4 today from a work friend and took it out, as everyone does with a new car. Put some fuel in and realized abut 3 miles down the road i had the emissions warning light on. From the quote above I'm sure you can all understand where I'd gone wrong....(In my defense it was the lanyard that connects to the cap that was trapped in the threads and preventing it from sealing properly) however thanks to Bazzachazza's post, something clicked in my head that it was most likely the problem, easily corrected.

May I ask if Bazzachazza could share the page of fault codes, so that other users which may have replicated this or other very simple errors (made by other simple people) could be identified rather than going to a garage for the more expensive and ambarasing diagnostic option. Just leaves some room for self correction before forking out on diagnostic equiptment.

Many thanks to all for input to this thread though, I'm sure its helped others

Yeager101

Good conversation here. I have a petrol 2.4 V6 Sline tip tronic. The engine light came on after I bought it. There seems to be nothing wrong with the car at all to drive, no overheating. I can not seem to find the fault causing the light. Has anyone experience of dropping an A6 C6 car in for this to any audi dealerships? Cost involved? I read that its probably the torque convertor and it costs about $2500 (from a US thread) to replace this.
Is that the same as anyones experience?
I fear that I might be getting low MPG because of this fault. I put a full tank in and have so far gotten 250 miles on 3/4 tank. I think I should be getting about 300miles on a 3/4 tank or more.
Anyways, Foster motors want €160 to investigate it further. Frascati motors want €50-€100 to do a check on the car.
Some advice would be good, or any details of good independent guys who know their Audis.
Thanks all
Yeager

Bombadillo

Hi all - great thread.

I have a 2008 audi A3 tdi. In the last few weeks I've had two engine lights show up. An initial check diagnosed a problem with pressure sensor and glow plug fault. Having had these replaced last week, the garage (not audi direct) tell me that there is a problem with the DPF filter which is 80% full of soot. For a manual regeneration they quoted c. €500 which they tell me may or may not work. If unsuccessful they're talking about having the filter removed, cleaned and welded back in (this was my interpretation anyway!)
Having driven the highroads and byroads of Wicklow at 3,000 rpm the DPF light is still lit so it looks like the problem isn't going to fix itself!

Does anyone have any experience of having this problem rectified (out of warranty) and if so, what cost is reasonable.

Cheers!

bazz26

You can get it removed and mapped out from the car's computer for less than €500. Plenty of places offering this service these days.

Bombadillo

Cheers,

Managed to get a cheaper quote for a manual regeneration (c.€100) so think I'm gonna go with that. Failing that it will be re removal and remap job!