VW dpf - plea for advice

[Nimrod103]

My son's Golf GTI (done just over 100,000 miles, and averaging 40 miles/day normal commuting), has been diagnosed as having a blocked dpf, because it is mucking up one of the sensors, apparently.
He has been quoted £1400 to replace, or £800 to clean the existing dpf. Is cleaning 100% guaranteed? Will a cleaned dpf last a long time?
I have no idea, I only drive really old diesels and petrol cars.

[redsturgeon]

My son's Golf GTI (done just over 100,000 miles, and averaging 40 miles/day normal commuting), has been diagnosed as having a blocked dpf, because it is mucking up one of the sensors, apparently.
He has been quoted £1400 to replace, or £800 to clean the existing dpf. Is cleaning 100% guaranteed? Will a cleaned dpf last a long time?
I have no idea, I only drive really old diesels and petrol cars.

AFAIK a Golf GTi is petrol engined and should therefore not have a dpf.

John

[Nimrod103]

My son's Golf GTI (done just over 100,000 miles, and averaging 40 miles/day normal commuting), has been diagnosed as having a blocked dpf, because it is mucking up one of the sensors, apparently.
He has been quoted £1400 to replace, or £800 to clean the existing dpf. Is cleaning 100% guaranteed? Will a cleaned dpf last a long time?
I have no idea, I only drive really old diesels and petrol cars.

AFAIK a Golf GTi is petrol engined and should therefore not have a dpf.

John

Maybe it's not a GTI, but definitely a 2 litre diesel.

[redsturgeon]

Maybe it's not a GTI, but definitely a 2 litre diesel.

Here is a useful summary from Honest John

https://www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/diesel ... e-filters/

About halfway down the page there is specific advice on VAG systems.

John

[bungeejumper]

Maybe it's not a GTI, but definitely a 2 litre diesel.

TDI, not GTI. There are quite a lot of them around. The same 2 litre engine is widely used in the Passat and the Sharan and the Tiguan.

From the mileage, I'll assume it's one of the Euro 5 series (late 2009 up until 2015, without a separate Adblue tank). Does that sound about right?

The £1400 price quoted is also about right, unfortunately. And 100,000 miles would be in the right ballpark for a natural DPF death. (Some die at 50,000.) Two questions, however:

1) Has the car had the dieselgate update done? If so, you might be able to screw a contribution out of VW (or the dealer) toward the new DPF; the official diesel fix is known to knacker both DPFs and EGR valves (oh yes, that's another £1,000 or so) because it doubles the amount of exhaust gases passing through the recycling system and they don't take it for very long before they fail again. The chances of getting a contribution will be significantly improved if the car had the update done very recently. Para 7 of https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/ ... ndriveable might be of interest.

2) Has the car been (ahem) "upgraded" in any other way? It's a popular sport among VW enthusiasts to remap the normal 140/170 bhp 2 litre engine so that it produces 196 bhp, 240 bhp or even close to 300 bhp. There's nothing particularly wrong with that, as long as your nerves can stand the extra wear on the moving parts (and you've declared it to the insurers....), but it might limit your options and would certainly need to be communicated to whoever was doing the DPF work.

Would I go for the £800 blast-through? Personally, not if I intended keeping the car for another three or four years. Although it might help if it came with a decent guarantee that didn't just cover the cost of the parts. Otherwise I'd probably curse and pay up for the official full replacement.

Good luck, anyway!

BJ

[Mike88]

If the car has been part of the diesel fix programme then it will be covered by the additional 2 year VAG warranty from the date the fix was done. My Audi has this additional warranty following the fix so presume VWs will be covered as well.

[vrdiver]

It might be worth posting on the Facebook Volkswagen Diesel Customer Forum (Emissions Scandal)* as they have helpful advice on how to push for a repair under VW's "goodwill" budget etc.

it's a closed group, but the admins process requests to join pretty quickly.

VRD


*https://www.facebook.com/groups/955027937948541/

[bungeejumper]

If the car has been part of the diesel fix programme then it will be covered by the additional 2 year VAG warranty from the date the fix was done. My Audi has this additional warranty following the fix so presume VWs will be covered as well.

That's sort of true, and sort of not. The main reasons why DPFs and EGRs fail shortly after the VW diesel fix (and I mean sometimes within a few hours!) is that the DPFs and EGRs have probably been getting a bit middle-aged anyway, and that the sudden doubling of the exhaust gases pushes them over the edge and they quickly fail.

"Werll", says, VW, "it's not our fault, is it? I mean, yer DPF was getting a bit crumbly, wasn't it? We've given you a two year warranty on the remapping and suchlike, but we're not going to pay to replace that old DPF can of yours, 'cos it was nearly shot when we stressed it and it failed."

So back comes the furious pushback from the customers - "My car was all right until you lot got your hands on it", etc. And in the end, they've reached a compromise. The dealers of the world have effectively negotiated a compensation scheme from VW (and funded by VW) that doesn't officially exist. And you're in with a decent chance of getting a cash contribution if you make enough noise - the dealers are on your side!

That's because the dealers are as cross with VW as you are. It's easy for us to forget that dealers are just independent businesses too. They've got a lot to lose if you switch brands because VW have p1ssed you off and damaged the brand that they want to sell to you, so they have an incentive to see fair play for you.

None of the above may apply to the OP, of course. But don't shell out for a new £1400 DPF until you've tried making a fuss. You never know, you might be surprised.

BJ

[Mike88]

If the car has been part of the diesel fix programme then it will be covered by the additional 2 year VAG warranty from the date the fix was done. My Audi has this additional warranty following the fix so presume VWs will be covered as well.

That's sort of true, and sort of not. The main reasons why DPFs and EGRs fail shortly after the VW diesel fix (and I mean sometimes within a few hours!) is that the DPFs and EGRs have probably been getting a bit middle-aged anyway, and that the sudden doubling of the exhaust gases pushes them over the edge and they quickly fail.

BJ

My 2 year warranty following the fix comes direct from Audi and presumably VWs as well. The additional warranty has nothing to do with the dealers. The warranty letter I received came direct from Audi's HQ.

[bungeejumper]

My 2 year warranty following the fix comes direct from Audi and presumably VWs as well. The additional warranty has nothing to do with the dealers. The warranty letter I received came direct from Audi's HQ.

I'm quite sure it does. And rightly so, since it was VW/Audi that forced the accursed dieselgate fix on its customers, and not the dealers.

But I'll bet you a fiver that the Audi warranty won't pay out for a DPF or an EGA that fails after the update, unless it was very new indeed at the time that the fix was done. It would be like Audi changing the steering box and then being expected to provide the owners with new tyres because they happened to be part-worn at the time. Ain't gonna happen.

Actually it's worse than that. The dieselgate fix is an unholy collision of new software and old components that were never designed to take that sort of a heavy gas-load in the first place. It's a horrible botch that will continue annoy the owners until the last of the 09/15 diesels are finally scrapped. Let's hope that the Euro 6 models are faring better. I for my part decided not to buy a VW this time round, because although I liked my old Passat, I also thought that VW/Audi needed some time to get their heads sorted out, and their customer relations in particular.

BJ

[Mike88]

My 2 year warranty following the fix comes direct from Audi and presumably VWs as well. The additional warranty has nothing to do with the dealers. The warranty letter I received came direct from Audi's HQ.

I'm quite sure it does. And rightly so, since it was VW/Audi that forced the accursed dieselgate fix on its customers, and not the dealers.

But I'll bet you a fiver that the Audi warranty won't pay out for a DPF or an EGA that fails after the update, unless it was very new indeed at the time that the fix was done. It would be like Audi changing the steering box and then being expected to provide the owners with new tyres because they happened to be part-worn at the time. Ain't gonna happen.

Actually it's worse than that. The dieselgate fix is an unholy collision of new software and old components that were never designed to take that sort of a heavy gas-load in the first place. It's a horrible botch that will continue annoy the owners until the last of the 09/15 diesels are finally scrapped. Let's hope that the Euro 6 models are faring better. I for my part decided not to buy a VW this time round, because although I liked my old Passat, I also thought that VW/Audi needed some time to get their heads sorted out, and their customer relations in particular.

BJ

Even if you are correct the fact this warranty is available will help out the original poster assuming the vehicle in question is eligible and has had the fix. Unfortunately the OP did not state how old the vehicle in question is, only the mileage.

[MonsterMork]

Please note:

DPF cleaning, by way of removal, cutting open, sorting the innards, then welding shut again, will fail your MoT unless you have documentary proof (such as a proper receipt from the company doing the repairs) that is provided to the MoT Tester at the time of testing and is to their satisfaction that it is a kosher job (and not some dodgy photo-shopped effort downloaded from the tinterweb). A DPF which has obviously been tampered with (such as evidence of welding) is otherwise a Reason For Rejection (ie: fail).

MM (MoT Tester)

[Mike88]

Please note:

DPF cleaning, by way of removal, cutting open, sorting the innards, then welding shut again, will fail your MoT unless you have documentary proof (such as a proper receipt from the company doing the repairs) that is provided to the MoT Tester at the time of testing and is to their satisfaction that it is a kosher job (and not some dodgy photo-shopped effort downloaded from the tinterweb). A DPF which has obviously been tampered with (such as evidence of welding) is otherwise a Reason For Rejection (ie: fail).

MM (MoT Tester)

You can also clean DPFs by injecting cleaning agents. Even Halfords autocentres do it. Failing that the DPF can be removed and soaked with a cleaning agent. Of course complete replacement will be far more expensive. I hadn't heard of the solution proposed above but have to have regard to your professional knowledge. It's good to have an MOT Tester onboard.

[MonsterMork]

You can also clean DPFs by injecting cleaning agents. Even Halfords autocentres do it. Failing that the DPF can be removed and soaked with a cleaning agent. Of course complete replacement will be far more expensive.

Yup, wot he says, and is perfectly fine from an MoT perspective as it is not being physically tampered with and leaving evidence of such. As long as your car still passes it's emissions test, that is!

The main reason DPFs (and previously catalytic converters) are getting cut and shut is, as per the OP suggests, they are getting clogged and not being able to regenerate, leading to bastid huge expense replacing them. They are being MoT failed now because of, yes, you guessed it, the EU, in this case part of the new rules and regs brought in by EU Directive 2045/16 (I think!), which is partly (but certainly not wholly) down to reducing emissions and making better environmental conditions and so on - a DPF wot has been gutted leads, in most cases, to increased emissions of unpleasant gases and particulate matter, and will generally fail an MoT.

MM

[MonsterMork]

Oh, and another thing:

Removal of, or evidence of tampering to, an EGR valve is now a Reason for Rejection (ie: fail). Chap on my annual training course a couple of months back damn near crapped his pants when given this news ......

For them wot don't know, an Exhaust Gas Re-circulation Valve is part of your emissions system, and is a common modification to cars by da yoof to get at least another eighth of a horsepower out of their mum's hand-me-down 1 litre Corsa shitbox.

It is also a common modification to many other diesels due to the cost of them and the fact that they regularly go phut. And the fact that it can often be beneficial to mpg figures and make no noticeable difference to emissions when tested. Go figure It is supposed to make emissions better but seems to have no benefit other than to actually make you use more fuel than you should

Nudge nudge wink wink: if your EGR valve has been removed, but is underneath an engine cover and can't be seen unless the cover is removed fear not. Testers are not actually allowed to remove engine covers during a test, so can't tell if it ain't there and so can't fail you on it. But I didn't tell you that, right?

MM