Emissions Warning Light

[rictic68]

Got a 55 plate A6 2.7tdi SE.
Would be a Saturday afternoon and everyone is closed so can't get fault codes read until next week at the earliest but the Emissions light came on for half an hour and having been parked up at the chip shop for 10mins has gone out and so far not reappeared.
Read the manual as nothing else I can do and can't think of anything else but a motorway drive for 1/2hour over running at 2000RPM to try and clean it.
Not noticed any loss of power or balck smoke and will check the pipes leading to the DPF tomorrow.
Any other ideas of things to check in the meantime or why something might be intermittent.

[Hyper-Remaps]

whats your location? if local, would come out and take a look. Just check your oil level and water. A run on the motorway cant do any harm..

[SuperCharger28]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

But your swirl flaps / intake manifold runners are probably gone. Same thing happened to my 2.7 TDI 2008 Le Mans. But you must get the codes read to be sure. The warning light comes on if the tolerances wear to above +-2% in the rod endings. And apparently it makes no difference getting them fixed or not as they default in the open position. So worst thing that can happen is engine can be a bit rich at idle. No loss in economy or power. Just a bloody annoying light on the dashboard.

Had mine "fixed" from an audi dealership only to find out they scammed me.

You can read more about it by searching for "swirl flaps" or take a look at my posted threads to see what i'm on about.

Hope its not the swirl flaps - My motor was only under 60,000 miles and the right hand side still went

[Guest 2]

The engine light could mean any number of problems, a fault code will pinpoint the problem.

[rictic68]

whats your location? if local, would come out and take a look. Just check your oil level and water. A run on the motorway cant do any harm..

Thanks for getting back. Decided on a trip from Leeds to Manchester on the M62. Thought I could stretch its legs. Ha. 50mph limit just about 3/4 of the way. Not pleased. That said no sign of the dreaded emission light all day. After the replies about the swirl flaps etc I'm thinking about chopping the car in asap and getting something newer (ideally b4 the light comes on again) otherwise I'll need a second mortgage. Thanks for your offer of help.

[Guest 2]

Thanks for getting back. Decided on a trip from Leeds to Manchester on the M62. Thought I could stretch its legs. Ha. 50mph limit just about 3/4 of the way. Not pleased. That said no sign of the dreaded emission light all day. After the replies about the swirl flaps etc I'm thinking about chopping the car in asap and getting something newer (ideally b4 the light comes on again) otherwise I'll need a second mortgage. Thanks for your offer of help.

As I said above, get a fault code scan done before you sell/change etc.

You never know, it could be something simple.

[SuperCharger28]

rictic

On my a6 the light constantly came on and off aswell. I found that driving it hard would turn off the light for a while but the pesky bugger always returned - it can't really do any damage to the engine but the light is bloody annoying.

get it scanned though

[JimC64]

I had " emmissions workshop" message appear on my wifes Passat some time ago.

We looked at various issues, the EGR valve kept coming up in htreads as being clogged, so we took that off and cleaned it up ( it wasn't as bad as some have said theirs was - but we had it off so cleaned it anyway )
At this point, kinda fumbling around tbh I also checked the air filter ( supposedly changed at previous services - looked to be the original, bloody filthy!! ) so changed it out.
The dash light went out for a day or so, then came back.
I did more research here on this forum and found numerous complaints about the coolant temp sensor. I checked and found I could buy one from Ebay for £6 delivered and my mechanic took £10 to fit it in around 15 mins.....problem solved many months ago and the dash light has never returned.

I only post this to confirm what A6 Chris says.....it could be something very cheap and very simple.
Get the codes if you can, do as much research here / elsewhere as you can and I'm sure you'll get to the bottom of it soon

Good luck

[rictic68]

Thanks for the replies. Should be getting the codes read tomorrow afternoon at work (providing the guy remembers his gear). The light hasn't reappeared since Saturday. Interesting about the water coolant sensor.

[JimC64]

Hey there,
here's the link to my thread on this for my wifes passat ( it has a few links within the link, may be helpful )


https://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/s...p-dash-message

Good luck my friend and hope to hear

Jim