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Mk6 Golf and EGR valve issues

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  • Same again! My 2011 Golf 1.6 TDI Blue Motion suffered the Workshop/Yellow heater coil message. At only 27,129 miles!! Went into limp home mode. Called Peter Cooper (Southampton) Ltd in Shirley. Six day wait for diagnostic, although they supplied and serviced the car.

    Restarted car following morning and fault cleared. Drove 14 miles and fault re-appeared. Took car to Independent who looked at it immediately. Diagnosed EGR Valve/Cooler. 7.5 hours labour to fix and £333.89 of Genuine VW parts to repair (including VAT).

    Spoke to VW customer care who didn't give a toss. Their only concern was that it was "going out of the franchise!" Suggested I complained to the dealer principal at the franchised dealer but no contribution to repair. I suggested instead that I include this in the class action against VW for their cheat software which they also included in this car. The car has been great apart from this!
  • As someone who still thinks that the EGR valve is connected to the dodgy ('defeat') software it is interesting to hear the evidence given to the Transport Committee this week. VWs position seems to be that:-
    1. It is not actually a defeat device, and
    2. in any event, it does not increase NoX levels or reduce MPG, and
    3.There is no loss of value, so no compensation (in the UK), and
    4. The software, and in 1.6 models, the Flow Transformer will be replaced 'at no inconvenience to customers'

    Given this, I can't see VW putting their hand up to accepting that the EGR valves were faulty, or fixing them at no inconvenience to customers.
  • It is true that EGR valves do fail - what is difficult to understand is why with all their engineering expertise the VW engineers chose to locate it in a position that requires 6 hours of labour and the subframe to be lowered to replace it.

    The component that fails is a non service part and cannot be cleaned. It is not examined or inspected during routine servicing and given the position it is located and the cost of repair it is not unreasonable to expect it to last the lifetime of the vehicle.

    Given the fairly universal failure of this component I believe that there is a very strong argument that the EGR is not "fit for purpose" and that VW should be challenged to defend their design and engineering.

    I have raised the issue with the solicitors who are pitching for business in the compensation class action on the emissions and they are looking into it. Clearly if they are building a database of disgruntled Golf/Seat/Audi/Skoda owners who are paying many hundreds of pound to correct the fault then they could quickly collate a strong argument.

    VW are relying on the fact that the defect is not high profile, will not be the subject of a recall because it is not a safety issue and that they can fob of customers with a technical argument and a suggestion that they have just been unlucky - they can even come across as being generous by offering a bit of goodwill.

    I spent hours on the phone to VW Customer services who said the factory was aware of the issue but had not thought the issue warranted a recall and that my recourse was through the dealer - if the dealer believed that goodwill was warranted based on customer loyalty and a full service history then they would contribute 70% of the total cost.

    I have just parted with £540 to get the repair and the car was off the road for 3 weeks whilst I debated it. I was lucky as this is a second car and we could manage without it for a few weeks, but understand the imperative of others who just needed to get the work done.

    I feel sorry for all those people who will be buying golfs second hand thinking they are buying a reliable vehicle only to be faced with a massive bill which could render the car uneconomical to repair before it has reached the end of its useful life.

    I have gathered quite a bit of paperwork - including the invoice which is for the replacement of a "faulty part" and believe that the easiest route to flush VW and the dealerships out on this issue would be a claim in the small claims court arguing that the vehicle is not fit for purpose in the way it has been designed and engineered.

    I have a good contact with a qualified diesel engineer who spent 5 years working on EGR valves for Ford - he was flabbergasted when I told him of the issue - not that the valve had failed which is in his view inevitable, but the fact that they located it in the place that they did. I understand that it has something to do with temperature and working efficiency of the valve and the location by the exhaust manifold assisting this. He is willing to offer his testimony.

    For the sake of filling in some forms and £80 or so would anybody else (or MSE themselves) be willing also to submit claims. If there was a formal challenge in this way, VW would have to support their dealerships with some technical support to justify their stance.

    A similar thing happened with a Renault Scenic I had where the electronic dashboards failed and required a £1200 replacement - after some challenges and a bit of exposure on Watchdog they accepted the fault was with the design and manufacture and agreed to a fix at a cost of £100 including reimbursements to customers who had had to have the fix even if there was no service history.

    Anybody up for the challenge?
  • mark5
    mark5 Posts: 1,364 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Egr's are a problem on most diesels, my dads replaced a few on Mondeo's, a mate who's a mechanic and runs his own small garage says he replaces loads on various makes.

    How many egr valves have failed compared to number of cars sold and what's the driving style and maintenance of these cars?

    Few points about my dad,

    He does lots of short trips, a long trip is 10 miles to my house.
    He rarely gives his car a good long blast up the motorway.
    He puts supermarket fuel in his tank because it's cheapest and probably saves 50 pence per week.
    He likes to give the car short blips of power off the mark but doesn't keep it going just like half the cars parked outside the school when I walk to pick the kids up.
    If the manufacturer says his oil is good for 2 years, air filter 3 years, and diesel filter should last a lifetime it's what he goes by, never mind he paid £20,000 for the car if he can save £150 every other year by here it's great.

    Diesels need good regular maintenance, decent fuel, warming up before being abused and long runs not school runs and trips to Tesco. My Golf seems to take about 25 miles on the motorway before its warmed up properly, at this point the mpg for the trip seems to shoot up.
  • I did have a look into the Small Claims Court option, but was put off by the needing to get some expert evidence (i.e. from an engineer), but I aim to look at it again.

    Agree entirely with the most recent comments, e.g. why put the EGR valve in an inaccessible place, unless you assume its to last for the lifetime of the car. Also, the replacement valve is a different part number, so suggests the VW know its no good. When I spoke to VW Customers Services, the told me that they did not know how many VWs needed an early EGR replacement, something I challenged, as surely they must have stock control systems in place. But they assured (albeit not very convincingly) me they did not have the information.

    I have also tried (as have others) to get some traction with consumer programmes, e.g. Watch Dog and You & Yours (Radio 4), and would suggest that if those on this thread have not done this so far, doing it now might be worthwhile.
  • My local mechanic services my mk6, 2.0 tdi every 9 months (12,000 miles) oil/filter and air filter I fill her up at the local BP garage and no problems in 3 years, Its on 82,000. I ran an older shape 2002 to 140,000 with no problems. I do 22 miles to work and back every other day, return trip to Liverpool once a month about 450 miles. My Mrs uses her for a few trips here and there as well.
  • baz8790
    baz8790 Posts: 111 Forumite
    edited 1 February 2016 at 11:03PM
    The used car warranty expires on my 2012 1.6 tdi golf tomorrow!

    It has full VW service history but is due a major service in the next month.

    I was planning to do the service myself but after reading this I might be better off paying the £300 for VW to do it for the goodwill gesture incase the EGR valve does fail.
  • mark5
    mark5 Posts: 1,364 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    baz8790 wrote: »
    The used car warranty expires on my 2012 1.6 tdi golf tomorrow!

    It has full VW service history but is due a major service in the next month.

    I was planning to do the service myself but after reading this I might be better off paying the £300 for VW to do it for the goodwill gesture incase the EGR valve does fail.

    Probably a good idea, what sort of use does it get and what fuel and servicing intervals do you use.
  • baz8790
    baz8790 Posts: 111 Forumite
    mark5 wrote: »
    Probably a good idea, what sort of use does it get and what fuel and servicing intervals do you use.

    20 mile commute Monday to Friday and every second weekend it's a 40 mile trip to pick up and drop off my son, plus other occasional use.

    I have done almost 20k in the year that I've had it.

    It's serviced every 10k miles and a mix of asda and shell fuel.

    I think I'm going to get the VW service then look into selling and going back to a mk4 tdi, the mk6 just doesn't fell as well put together
  • Hi all

    You can add another victim to the list, I have a 60 plate VW Golf 1.6 TDI. My woes started in about September, limp mode would occassionally appear but would resolve itself if the car was restarted. However the problem has worsened recently to where the issue will not reset if I restart the engine.

    I've actually learned to live with limp mode and even managed to complete a 200 mile journey in limp mode, getting up to 75mph on the motorway. Over the Christmas period, I was visiting family up North and decided to take the car to my previous VW dealership where I bought the car for a diagnostic as I had a few consecutive days off work. They quoted me £1300 (inc VAT) to undertake the repair and blamed usual wear and tear for the issue, stating it was not a common problem. I referenced many of the comments on here, and they didn't seem to care or believe it was a design fault. As usual they also did a free "health check" on the vehicle which as I'm sure most people know was a business development activity for them. The salesman came back in total with about £3000 worth of repairs (inc £200 to replace a seatbelt!)and when we agreed that the trade in value (with no EGR issue) would be about £4,000, he couldn't understand why I wouldn't want all of the repairs done!

    Frustrated, I decided to take the car away and speak with VW customer services as per others on here. (Interestingly, as soon as I got in the vehicle a third engine management light appeared and was the start of the fault never resetting). During this time I had driven the 200 miles back home, and near to the VW dealership where most of my services and minor repairs such as brake fluid change (horrendous prices) are undertaken. I suggested that due to paying over the odds for VW quality and peace of mind, perhaps this dealership could provide some goodwill. To my amazement, as it's a different franchise to the Northern one, this dealership will not accept the diagnostic report from the other dealership and want to undertake a new one. After various phone calls they agreed to wave a fee for this but still want to do a diagnostic before quoting for a repair. The issue I have is that the car is booked in tomorrow for the diagnostic, but the MOT is due the following day, I'm unsure if this issue will fail the MOT but obviously it's quite concerning and may weaken my bargaining position.

    I'll let you know how I get on and whether they offer any goodwill
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