A B8 question to my former friends

[jimgironde]

I have been lurking over on the B8 forum over recent weeks. I got rid of my trusty 57 plate estate 140 TDI which I ran from new and now have a gleaming 66 plate 150GT Passat estate. The car is a week old and 300 miles on the clock and I have problems.

I do value the expertise of quite a few members on this section, expertise which I don't think exists over on the relatively new B8 forum, I could do with some advice.

From driving the car out of the dealers with 20 miles on the clock, there was hesitation in 1st and 2nd on acceleration that would last for a couple of seconds, felt like the brakes were trying to hold it back. I shouldered on with the car until today when it was getting worse, so took it back to main dealer and technician drove it and said yes he could feel it. It was booked in for the afternoon and I got a call from a master technician who told me the following.

He said diagnostics showed no problems but the system showed that the DPF had been regeneration all week and had completed today???? He had tested it and it was okay. I picked the car up and for a couple of miles it was okay and then it started hesitating again.

The car has only 300 miles on the clock, over 200 of these have been done on dual carriageways at 50 to 70mph.

Questions, what would cause the DPF to start regenerating with 20 miles on the clock, would it last for a week and would it cause constant hesitation in 1st and 2nd gears?

It goes without saying that no warnings have been displayed which the manual says should happen during regeneration.

The master technician has asked me to run the car for another 700 miles to bring it up to 1000 miles before I bring it back if the problems continue.

Any thoughts, answers and guidance would be more than welcome.​

[RichardSEL]

Reject the vehicle as not fit for intended purpose. Don't run it for another 700 miles, or at all. You don't know what faults you may be accused of adding in this period.

I rejected a B5.5 manual, one year old with 8k on the clock, all under VW's "famed" used car dealer warranty coz the clutch pedal was getting increasingly stiff. They swore blind nothing was wrong: "it's been standing, sir", etc. I was half expecting the "Ooooh! it'll ride up with wear, suits you, sir!" routine too.

Your hesitancy in running, would've shown up on pre-delivery check, so they know about it. This so-called "regeneration" is just a lie -- don't put up with it -- get outa there and away from them

[jimgironde]

Reject the vehicle as not fit for intended purpose. Don't run it for another 700 miles, or at all. You don't know what faults you may be accused of adding in this period.

I rejected a B5.5 manual, one year old with 8k on the clock, all under VW's "famed" used car dealer warranty coz the clutch pedal was getting increasingly stiff. They swore blind nothing was wrong: "it's been standing, sir", etc. I was half expecting the "Ooooh! it'll ride up with wear, suits you, sir!" routine too.

Your hesitancy in running, would've shown up on pre-delivery check, so they know about it. This so-called "regeneration" is just a lie -- don't put up with it -- get outa there and away from them

I have been with the main dealer for the last 15 years. I will be emailing the dealer principal over the weekend to reserve my right of rejection if they cannot fix the problem but want to try and understand what could cause these problems and in particular if anybody could shed any light on a DPF that regenerates on a car with 20 miles on the clock?

[RichardSEL]

I have been with the main dealer for the last 15 years. I will be emailing the dealer principal over the weekend to reserve my right of rejection if they cannot fix the problem but want to try and understand what could cause these problems and in particular if anybody could shed any light on a DPF that regenerates on a car with 20 miles on the clock?

It's gone beyond emails. You must write and post recorded delivery your rejection. Go further, return the vehicle and keys to their forecourt without notice.

There is no ash counter level that would trigger DPF regeneration after just 20 miles on a new vehicle

[zollaf]

just a thought, could it have been sat idling for a long time ?

[jimgironde]

When I picked the car up, the active info display when I got the hang of it, was showing the 20 delivery miles had been accumulated over 3 hours at something like 15mpg. So yes it is possible that the car, before I took delivery, had been idling on PDI?

[martin1810]

dpf regeneration is very complicated in these models. The ECU checks running time, distance traveled, fuel used, etc etc. From this information and sensor values the ECU decides if regeneration is needed.
Given all this you do really need to run the car for a few hundred miles to give the ECU some new measurements to base its calculations on. If it then tries to regenerate too often or for too long, there is a fault.

[itavaltalainen]

I have the same engine in my Golf. There is no way a regen would last 200mi, neither should it require one after 20mi....
Even if it did, you can only just about feel it accelerating.

There is a fault somewhere, even if not logged (yet). VWs master technicians are too reliant on fault codes, I can scan for codes myself. That's not what you need them for.

Sent from my D5503 using Tapatalk

[RichardSEL]

If the ECU's got no information to base a DPF regeneration decision on, then it shouldn't go into regen mode.
That it's going into regen now means that there is a fault not that there isn't.

Mind you, this is VW -- home to some of the most addled design thinking around. If past major design errors that've gone into production are anything to go by