Mk6 Golf and EGR valve issues

randomguy82 · 19 December 2013 at 10:54AM

Hi all

Looking to see if anyone here has experienced a particular fault (which appears to be common after reading many car forums) with Mk6 (2009-2012) VW Golfs. The part in question is the 'EGR Valve' and literally, when it fails, the car will not move.
The engine turns over, no unexpected lights/warnings, gears are fine and basically, when you release the clutch while pressing down on the accelerator, the engine revs but the car does not physically move.

As you've guessed, I have the exact problem now and going back-and-forth between the local VW dealership and VW Customer Care to reach an acceptable decision on repair costs. The part itself is mechanical so not what I feel is usual 'wear and tear'. Being a Golf which is meant to be renowned for good engineering and having older Golfs where this has never occurred, I feel something like this should not fail 10 months out of warranty. Also, the part when now replaced is with a modified version which to me highlights there were issues with the original part.

Many may feel and say the EGR valve is not needed and can be bypassed; however that is not something I would like to do at present. I would simply like to see if others here have experienced the same problem and the outcome you have had; partial/full/no costs paid by VW?

Thanks all

motorguy · 19 December 2013 at 11:25AM

sanj82 wrote: »

Hi all

Looking to see if anyone here has experienced a particular fault (which appears to be common after reading many car forums) with Mk6 (2009-2012) VW Golfs. The part in question is the 'EGR Valve' and literally, when it fails, the car will not move.
The engine turns over, no unexpected lights/warnings, gears are fine and basically, when you release the clutch while pressing down on the accelerator, the engine revs but the car does not physically move.

As you've guessed, I have the exact problem now and going back-and-forth between the local VW dealership and VW Customer Care to reach an acceptable decision on repair costs. The part itself is mechanical so not what I feel is usual 'wear and tear'. Being a Golf which is meant to be renowned for good engineering and having older Golfs where this has never occurred, I feel something like this should not fail 10 months out of warranty. Also, the part when now replaced is with a modified version which to me highlights there were issues with the original part.

Many may feel and say the EGR valve is not needed and can be bypassed; however that is not something I would like to do at present. I would simply like to see if others here have experienced the same problem and the outcome you have had; partial/full/no costs paid by VW?

Thanks all

Valeo ones are around £250 and it should be simple to fit.

How much are VW looking?

Retrogamer · 19 December 2013 at 11:50AM

Is it a diesel or a petrol model?

randomguy82 · 19 December 2013 at 12:01PM

@motorguy - I have been told (and read in forums) that on the Mk6 then moved the EGR valve to the back of the engine and the way it is now located/setup, it means a) it's a job that will take 7.5 hours and b) they can't be 'cleaned' like older models to avoid having to replace.
VW initially stated £1220 inc vat (£360 part, £860 labour) hence my concern and am now trying to agree a (much) lower price

@retrogamer - It's a 1.6 diesel, 2009 model with 64k miles.

The car forums I have looked at have had some go at much lower miles and in warranty (therefore fully paid by VW), others at the 60k-70k mileage range and 3-6 months out of warranty with mixed outcomes.

motorguy · 19 December 2013 at 12:06PM

sanj82 wrote: »

@motorguy - I have been told (and read in forums) that on the Mk6 then moved the EGR valve to the back of the engine and the way it is not located/setup, it means a) it's a job that will take 7.5 hours and b) they can't be 'cleaned' like older models to avoid having to replace.
VW initially stated £1220 inc vat (£360 part, £860 labour) hence my concern and am now trying to agree a (much) lower price

@retrogamer - It's a 1.6 diesel, 2009 model with 64k miles.

The car forums I have looked at have had some go at much lower miles and in warranty (therefore fully paid by VW), others at the 60k-70k mileage range and 3-6 months out of warranty with mixed outcomes.

Bloody Hell, thats not good! :eek:

I've an Oct 2012 mk6 1.6 TDI...

randomguy82 · 19 December 2013 at 12:17PM

Not good at all motorguy

All I can say at the moment is, by having dealer service history they are considering 'goodwill', however, nothing has been fully confirmed yet.

I will be sure to post back the outcome once reached to help you and others out, however hoping others on MSE have gone through this process for some pointers/help.

I'm thinking it must be a matter of time before VW have to openly admit to this, however as (on average) 2009 cars should have done 5-10k less miles there may be limited people who have experienced this.

Retrogamer · 19 December 2013 at 2:13PM

Although not strictly a wear and tear item (although it does have moving parts inside) they usually become defective when they're all clogged up with soot.

When it is replaced, running it on a premium diesel will reduce the amount of soot that gets into it.
Likewise, if you put the foot down from low revs a lot (before the turbo has spooled up) then it floors the engine with fuel and chucks out more soot as well

motorguy · 19 December 2013 at 2:41PM

sanj82 wrote: »

Not good at all motorguy
All I can say at the moment is, by having dealer service history they are considering 'goodwill', however, nothing has been fully confirmed yet.

I will be sure to post back the outcome once reached to help you and others out, however hoping others on MSE have gone through this process for some pointers/help.

I'm thinking it must be a matter of time before VW have to openly admit to this, however as (on average) 2009 cars should have done 5-10k less miles there may be limited people who have experienced this.

Thats, yes i'd appreciate an update.

I'll be keeping mine service by VW as long as possible in case of stuff like this. I'm planning to run it to 100,000 miles and see how its going from there. If all is going to plan i'll run it on to 250,000 miles, but i dont have much confidence in high miles diesels.

motorguy · 19 December 2013 at 2:42PM

Retrogamer wrote: »

Although not strictly a wear and tear item (although it does have moving parts inside) they usually become defective when they're all clogged up with soot.

When it is replaced, running it on a premium diesel will reduce the amount of soot that gets into it.
Likewise, if you put the foot down from low revs a lot (before the turbo has spooled up) then it floors the engine with fuel and chucks out more soot as well

I do 25K miles a year, most of which is at around 60mph ish.

Should that keep things clear or should i be taking other action?

Retrogamer · 19 December 2013 at 2:50PM

It's not so much the mileage and the speed,

My EGR only works below 2000rpm, so if i put the foot down around those revs, no soot should get chucked into it.

A lot of people floor it at low revs on modern tdis due to the torque they have.
The ECU floods the engine with diesel for a moment to reduce the turbo lag and that's why you get the occasional puff of black smoke out of diesels.
Clean air filter and premium diesel reduce the black smoke / soot

Typical EGR valve on a diesel that's showing problems will look like this

bigjl · 19 December 2013 at 3:13PM

Sadly you are a victim of good PR.

VW and Audis are not as reliable as they are made out to be and do contain engineering issues such as this on occasion.

An EGR is a something that will need cleaned or replaced in its lifetime. This is usually outside the rsther pathetic warranty period which i think is the same as Audi at 3yrs and 60k.

A bit like the under engineered oil pump issue.

And clutch failure on older Veedubs due to the "kidney bean" shearing.

But such failures out of warranty rarely trouble the middle class motoring journalists that rave about VW and Audi.

Skoda have stuck with the older tech an awful lot till recently and they seem more reliable.

Hope you get it fixed.

VW should contribute but i doubt they will.

If this was British car the motoring press would be all over it.

Mk6 Golf and EGR valve issues

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