Car problems, advice please

Razorfish

Hi All,

On Xmas day on way to mass my car (VW Golf 1.6TDI, 2012) went into limp mode with coil light flashing and engine light remaining lit (manual says this is the Catalytic convertor). Drove it home (couple of mile) and not driven since. We are in Wicklow with in laws now.

If I were to book it in for a fix, would it be ok to drive it 30 minutes (35 km) to a dealer? Obviously towing would be better but would this short distance be ok in limp mode with warnings?

Any advice welcome. I don't have a OBD scanner.

Many thanks,

punisher5112

Razorfish wrote: »

Hi All,

On Xmas day on way to mass my car (VW Golf 1.6TDI, 2012) went into limp mode with coil light flashing and engine light remaining lit (manual says this is the Catalytic convertor). Drove it home (couple of mile) and not driven since. We are in Wicklow with in laws now.

If I were to book it in for a fix, would it be ok to drive it 30 minutes (35 km) to a dealer? Obviously towing would be better but would this short distance be ok in limp mode with warnings?

Any advice welcome. I don't have a OBD scanner.

Many thanks,

It could be glow plugs or dpf. What sort of driving do you do.

Razorfish

About 200 to 400 km per week depending on whether visiting relatives. Mostly about 200km per week.

punisher5112

Razorfish wrote: »

About 200 to 400 km per week depending on whether visiting relatives. Mostly about 200km per week.

Very short runs so.

The car needs more driving and also needs the nuts driven out of it on the motorway.

Its clogged and regeneration has probably never cleared a cycle.

bazz26

I think there is a DPF light on the Golf's dashboard if it were a DPF issue. My money would be on the EGR valve giving grief as they are a well known issue on that engine but you would need the fault code scanned and identified first.

ml100

Try it again the light may have gone out, happened to me about 3 months ago with the same car.
Stopped the car at the shops on the way home from work and when I started it it went into limp mode, drive it home, less than 2km, stopped it tried it again 15 minutes later, still limp mode, tried it again 2 hours later all was fine, that's about 6-7k km ago, nothing since.

Del2005

Razorfish wrote: »

Hi All,

On Xmas day on way to mass my car (VW Golf 1.6TDI, 2012) went into limp mode with coil light flashing and engine light remaining lit (manual says this is the Catalytic convertor). Drove it home (couple of mile) and not driven since. We are in Wicklow with in laws now.

If I were to book it in for a fix, would it be ok to drive it 30 minutes (35 km) to a dealer? Obviously towing would be better but would this short distance be ok in limp mode with warnings?

Any advice welcome. I don't have a OBD scanner.

Many thanks,

I'd be asking the garage you've booked into. Depending on the lights you could have already destroyed the engine, driving the few km after they came on, or it could be fine.

tossy

punisher5112 wrote: »

Its clogged and regeneration has probably never cleared a cycle.

I'd like a loan of that OBD scan tool you have, it's managed to diagnose the fault via the internet,remotely and wirelessly.....

Del2005 wrote: »

Depending on the lights you could have already destroyed the engine, driving the few km after they came on, or it could be fine.

:roll eyes:

Limp mode is the cars way of protecting the engine but allowing you drive on to get it looked at.


Orange light - fine to drive on.
Red light - Stop

Both the engine and glow lights are orange.

punisher5112

tossy wrote: »

I'd like a loan of that OBD scan tool you have, it's managed to diagnose the fault via the internet,remotely and wirelessly.....



:roll eyes:

Limp mode is the cars way of protecting the engine but allowing you drive on to get it looked at.


Orange light - fine to drive on.
Red light - Stop

Both the engine and glow lights are orange.

Ha ha funny chap.

I said it could be as this is quite common on them as they are a modern diesel and what's a diesel engines hatred of its short runs.

It could be many things of course but some of what I suggested and other poster on egr are good starts to keep car running well.

Limp mode can be a pain with such issues but if got in time won't be that costly.

Of course don't drive if red lights are illuminated or flashing as that is more serious but limp mode is fine and go from there.

Razorfish

Many thanks all. An update.

Left car in on Thursday morning last. It was the EGR that was causing the issue. Volkswagen gave 100% goodwill on the parts and I have to pay the labour. VW Garage admitted replacing a lot of these hence the goodwill.

punisher5112

Razorfish wrote: »

Many thanks all. An update.

Left car in on Thursday morning last. It was the EGR that was causing the issue. Volkswagen gave 100% goodwill on the parts and I have to pay the labour. VW Garage admitted replacing a lot of these hence the goodwill.

Great result.

Good tip try drive it hard every so often and have it up at 2.5 revs or more for some time to clear itself.

George Dalton

Good outcome alright. If you don't mind me asking, how much is it costing and how many hours labour are VW charging you for diagnosing and replacing the faulty EGR?

Razorfish

VW garage indicated 6 hours labour plus diagnostic. A total of about €600.

bazz26

Out of interest I wonder how much would it have cost to supply and fit a new EGR valve by an independent garage?

George Dalton

€750 for genuine VW parts Bazz. Looks like we might have to increase our labour time on them.

punisher5112

Could the valve not be cleaned?

Razorfish

I'm not sure re: cleaning but partner wanted to leave it into a VW garage so wasn't given much choice.

George Dalton

punisher5112 wrote: »

Could the valve not be cleaned?

Cleaning the valve wouldn't help in this case. Also access is very difficult so even if there was a small chance that cleaning would fix the issue it probably wouldn't be worth taking the risk in terms of labour cost versus chances of success.

There are 3 separate issues with these disastrous valves:
1. Coolant leaks from the cooler, which may or may not contribute to:
2. Electrical failure of the actuator
3. Mechanical wear on the lever mechanism of the flap

Cleaning isn't going to do anything in any of those situations. It is possible that carbon buildup could be a factor in the latter 2 scenarios. So in theory preventative cleaning may help. However given the location of the valve this isn't a viable option. And in any case by the time the fault code is logged the damage is done and the only thing to do is put the old one in the skip and fit a new genuine VW part. Any other approach is a a waste of time and money.

punisher5112

George Dalton wrote: »

Cleaning the valve wouldn't help in this case. Also access is very difficult so even if there was a small chance that cleaning would fix the issue it probably wouldn't be worth taking the risk in terms of labour cost versus chances of success.

There are 3 separate issues with these disastrous valves:
1. Coolant leaks from the cooler, which may or may not contribute to:
2. Electrical failure of the actuator
3. Mechanical wear on the lever mechanism of the flap

Cleaning isn't going to do anything in any of those situations. It is possible that carbon buildup could be a factor in the latter 2 scenarios. So in theory preventative cleaning may help. However given the location of the valve this isn't a viable option. And in any case by the time the fault code is logged the damage is done and the only thing to do is put the old one in the skip and fit a new genuine VW part. Any other approach is a a waste of time and money.

Thanks for that so is it a vw wide issue?

That's a bit silly they didn't put in place for access because we all know it will need to be done.
I guess like anything these days its design is working off the idea that one must go back to dealer to replace.

George Dalton

Razorfish wrote: »

I'm not sure re: cleaning but partner wanted to leave it into a VW garage so wasn't given much choice.

In your case it worked out well for you because you got decent goodwill and had the issue fixed properly for less money than it would have cost you elsewhere.

On the face of it you saved about €500 (cost of parts). Digging a little deeper you saved €150 (cost of main dealer goodwill vs independent full cost) However, looking a little deeper again at the big picture I would say:

To get the goodwill you must have had a full VW service history.

If this assumption is correct then if you add up the outlay involved in maintaining this VW history past the expiry of the VW warranty compared to using a good independent I would say you have spent far more than €150 extra.

In other words you put the money into the "goodwill" pot before you claimed it back. That's how these things work. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

punisher5112

Now it is done nows the time if you plan on keeping her to keep it from happening again so give longer runs, drive it hard at times and try and avoid the tiny trips.

Toyotafanboi

What does Daltons charge to supply and fit one of these?

Based on that goodwill gesture, i'd say your car is high mileage OP?

George Dalton

punisher5112 wrote: »

Thanks for that so is it a vw wide issue?

That's a bit silly they didn't put in place for access because we all know it will need to be done.
I guess like anything these days its design is working off the idea that one must go back to dealer to replace.

It is a complete epidemic. Seems to be sorted with the revised parts supplied from 2013 onwards though. We have never had a repeat failure of a genuine EGR on these engines and we have never seen a 2013 or newer car suffer EGR failure.

I don't buy into the whole theory of designing things so that only the dealer can replace. It is far more likely that ease of assembly during manufacture is the answer.

The pre 2010 CR engines had the EGR cooler at the rear of the engine under the turbo and the EGR itself mounted at the front of the engine on the intake manifold. They do give some problems but aren't overly expensive and can be changed quite easily.

Then from 2010 onwards VW adopted a combined cooler and EGR valve assembly which is located where the cooler was on the older engines, under the turbo on the rear of the engine. Obviously this saves time and money while the engines are being assembled.

However the design was either too complex and/or too cheaply made, leading to the issues I outlined above. The part itself is more expensive due to it's extra complexity and the location meant that labour for replacement was multiplied by a factor of 6 compared to the older design. You can guess the rest...

George Dalton

Toyotafanboi wrote: »

What does Daltons charge to supply and fit one of these?

Based on that goodwill gesture, i'd say your car is high mileage OP?

€750 for genuine VW parts, anything else is a waste of time.

I doubt the OP's car is high mileage or VW would have told them to jog on and not offered any goodwill at all....

punisher5112

I hear you George its good they have sorted it.

I'm sure you have noticed the low mileage ones give more trouble.

I was lazy and done the can spray job yesterday on the Mondeo and by god does the engine run smoother the smoke pumping out the rear while I sprayed was unreal.

corglass

punisher5112 wrote: »

I hear you George its good they have sorted it.

I'm sure you have noticed the low mileage ones give more trouble.

I was lazy and done the can spray job yesterday on the Mondeo and by god does the engine run smoother the smoke pumping out the rear while I sprayed was unreal.

Where exactly did you spray this magic liquid? Into the air intake?

What brand was it?

punisher5112

corglass wrote: »

Where exactly did you spray this magic liquid? Into the air intake?

What brand was it?

Correct into air intake just unclip air box and squirt 1 second bursts into it.

Engine will rev up itself each time but that's it working.

Paullimerick

How safe is this "magic liquid". Got a Ford smax 1.8 diesel that I always said was smokey. But mechanic I use says it's grand out