David Lock

My friend's daughter has just bought a Scirocco from a dealer and after about a week there was a DO NOT DRIVE warning light on dash. Took it back to dealer to fix under Warranty and was given the third degree about where she had been driving it. Cutting a long story short dealer said exhaust filter was blocked and might need replacing. This can happen if car spends all day in traffic without a good run to burn off carbon. Upshot is garage want car in for 3 days to fix. Daughter needs car for work. Dealer said she was too young for courtesy car (22).


I told my friend it didn't take 3 days to fix and to threaten garage with Trading Standards. Anyone know more than I do about how long it would take to put a new filter in? 2 hours max?


Thanks, David

peter zippy reid

iTrader: (25)

They wont replace it they will either force a regen or get someone in to do a regen

peter zippy reid

iTrader: (25)

And if she is like me with no motorway driving it will just clog again

Brun

If she spends all day in traffic then a diesel is simply the wrong car for her.
If it's clogged after a week then I would say it's been on its way well before she collected the car.

David Lock

No she used it for mixed town and country. That was the first thing I asked. I agree with you that it was about to fail when she bought the car. Since it's rpm that count why don't town only drivers run around in 2nd gear for ten minutes or so to clear the filter out. What do London's black cabs do?


Can you take the filter out and bin it or will that mess up engine settings?


Even a regen can't take 3 days?


David

Brun

Guess mode on:

Ali B will be able to answer better than me but I'm pretty sure that engine speed is not the only criteria which must be met with some cars. I'm sure a speed of 40mph over a sustained period must be achieved for a regen on my BM for instance.
I guess the black cabs don't have a dpf????
DPF's can be removed/blanked but will require a remap I would think!

Guess mode off.

bigredrob

Did she explain to the vendor that the car would be used for "short/low speed, journeys?.....was she .."miss sold" the car, ie did not suit her needs....

David Lock

Sorry I don't have those details but she probably said it was mostly for daily commute which was an out of town A road journey. dl

Shane

iTrader: (6)

I believe it's all about getting the DPF hot enough to burn off the crap that builds up in the filter. Friend had a Leon TDI that he did short commutes in and that would need frequent regens by taking it on a long drive (you should get a warning light long before it says do not drive), I've had my Passat diesel since April and haven't seen the light come on once but then I commute 90 miles a day.
As above, you can have them removed and mapped out, most places cut them open, remove the innards and weld them back up to fool the MOT tester.
Did she buy from a VW dealer, if not I expect the dealer is going to get it sent away to be reconditioned rather than fit a new one as it's a lot cheaper, hence he'll need it for 3 days.

jukebox

I had one in my Transit, Lots of bother, Had it removed, And van remapped , No more bother.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

If the car is driven up to 30mph, with engine up to temperature(at least 30mins). The filter should regenerate. Rpm is around 2000rpm. That's with the CACB / CAGA of engines. Really it's the time and distance driven with a warm engine that is important. Also fuel level and service now messages...VAGs don't regen if driven around with low fuel or if it needs a oil change.

Any engine fault minor or major will prevent active regeneration and possibly cause excessive soot production causing the filter to block and give you problems. It may not illuminate a fault light (although most VAGs do). The fault needs finding and fixing before the filter is replaced.

The filter will only require replacing if it is blocked due being driven too far with the warning lights on the dash or if the catalyst (inside the filter) is degraded and cannot raise the temperature enough.

The DPF can be removed to be manually cleaned out but is awkward to remove on the VAG 1.6 and 2.0 common rail engines and it's a 50:50 chance it'll work.

3days is a fair time scale to assess diagnose and fix IMO. As the car should be test driven to ensure it is regenerating, as well as the time to replace the filter and diagnose/fix any related contributory faults. "On the job" time maybe several hours (what gets billied), but there are overhead and off-job hours to factor in so it will always be longer than the quoted labour hours.

Bear in mind a good garage maybe a busy one with other customers with pre-book work taking priority, I know that's not the customers problem but I empathise with the repairer when a customer drives in wanting them to drop their tools on current work to fix their car straight away. If it's non-VW garage, and they use VW parts, which all come from TPS (VAGs parts supplier), their delivery network is random at best where it can take 24hours (or more) for delivery. The other point is if the garage is not related to the dealer, the dealer is their customer and sometimes they haggle on price in return for more work..obviously that impacts job priority in relation to work that has been pre-booked directly by other customers the garage may deal with. I know that's not your problem, but it's a inside perspective of what I have to deal with and will explain why a job takes longer than what you would imagine (I currently have four WIP jobs on the go...one needing to be done last week, and I'm the only skilled guy in the workshop as everyone else is on holiday -no pressure LOL ).

Ignore the above if it turns out the garage is a bunch of clueless Cowboys and you are being told rubbish and half-truths by the dealer that been repeated over the Internet the world over; In which case get a refund...but they must be given one chance to fix it first though.

Littleted

Yeah Dave all the advice is spot on, if she doesn't do motorway miles then id look at Petrol.
I had this exact same issue with a Diesel Zafira, luckily for me mate worked at Vauxhall so we did Manual Regens in the street The CAR revved to 3000 4000 RPM for 5 to 10 minutes to do it, the whole road behind the exhaust had melted away , I still had to replace the EGR valve at cost £130 quid fitted Dealer wanted over 300. Luckily i never got to a sooted up DPF.

My Dad also went through 2 EGR valves on his Astra Diesel due to him pottering around town.

Since then I've never bought them i always get wife petrol, i myself just don't so the miles to warrant Diesel issues anymore, can't do with the hassle and costs, Normally you'll find these won't be covered either as there a consumable or so Vauxhall say, so warranty won't cover it...

If its new challenge the sales manager that the advice given wasn't good, salesmen should warn about this and some actually do in some garages, but sadly some just wanna shift a car..

David Lock

Well hats off to you Mr Ali and Mr Ted for very helpful replies. I now have a much clearer idea of what is going on. If it were my car I think I would return it for full refund but it's not up to me. Pity the damn things were ever invented but I guess they keep the air cleaner.


Ironically I know the answer to this, a tried and tested science, but no one is prepared to take it seriously.


Thanks a million chaps. Ali you have pm if these is room in your in box.


David

David Lock

ALi-B,

Hi Ali, Can't get a pm through to you. Could you mail me with an address that works please. david@broquet.co.uk

Thanks, D

hodgy0_2

yes, I spoke to an AA man about this DPF issue

he said the AA have the kit to do a manual regen, but members have to sign a disclaimer about any possible damage to their driveway


I would imagine the AA would not be allowed to do one of the public highway - due to the damage to the road surface

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Sorry David

PM box was full...cleared it now

David Lock

Cheers Ali, D