VAG-COM : Exhaust Gas Warning Lamp

[mlakhi]

Hi Guys

I have a VW Passat 2.0 FSi 2005 model (B6). The Exhaust Gas Warning Lamp comes on for a few days and says on, then occasionaly upon engine start will turn off. A few days later it re-appears for up to a week and then upon engine start may decide to switch off.

VW have said the VAG-COM error code is "Variable Misfire" and have sugested checking the oil pressure.

Apart from that, the car drives like a dream.

Any thoughts on this guys as VW appear to be guessing and for a seemingly well running car, this could turn out expensive.

Help appreciated.

[Dragonfall]

Any Luck with this?

I now Have the Identical problem and my VW dealer says " we can change a manifold for £600... and it MIGHT do the trick!

[mlakhi]

Hi Dragonfall

I took my car to this place.

http://www.motorcontinental.co.uk/

Pretty goold folks and half the price of VW themselves. The said VADCOM was definately not the authorised diagnostic set for VW. It actually can screw the on board computer up completely as the firmwares are often wrong.

They use the authorised kist which costs in excess of 20k. It came up with 3 components which it said to replace. One was the fuel pump and two others which escape me.

Total was £410 but they claimed part of that back off my AA insurance which I took out when I bought the car so it came to £118 for me.

Still costly but it has fixed the car a dream. 3 months later no light, no problem and the car is puring.

Definately NOT THE MANIFOLD!!!!!!

Good luck.

Mo

[Dragonfall]

Thanks for that, will give them a bell.

Its a sad state of affairs when you have no confidence in you VW dealer.

[VAGMAN54]

vag.com may not be offical vag but its a good piece of kit and the operator screws up the ecu not the vag.com .....i will put mine against any dealer computer to diagnose a fault with codes and actual data and have 100% confidence in my answer....and i agree with dragonfly "some" dealers have a vote of no confidence with lots of people.......

[VAGMAN54]

like there write up on diagnostics and its a poor man that relies on just a code what about us real boys who use codes,data.oscilloscopes and years of knowledge to keep up to date with modern complex vehicles ?? lots of people use there local specialists first because of one thing.......................yep................... ...............knowlege .....................something money just carnt buy not even 20k

[mlakhi]

I do agree with all of you. If you can see past the fake smiles and Burton suits, or maybe the marble floor and neatly cultured pot plants of your local VW authorised dealer, you may just get a glimps of the school leaver who is working on your vehicle.

One thinks they are getting a highly trained mechanic. WRONG in my opinion. Each dealership only has a couple of those and they for sure are not bothering themselves with my car. They normally have there head under the A8's of this world keeping the company car fleet owners happy.

Local specialised dealers can offer a lot more. VAG-COM itself does not cause the issue, it's the operator I agree. But at least using the official kit takes one possibly problematic variable out of the picture.

Good luck. Let us know the outcome.

[paul b]

The previous owner of my Skoda sent it to a "Skoda specialist" in Croydon, Derby. Anyone who knows the area probably knows who I mean.

Yep, so much of a specialist that they spent £3k on con-rods, pistons, injectors, crack test, fuel pump etc etc when the problem was blown oil seals on the turbo. Fixed myself, took all of 10mins thinking to diagnose.

I would say you would usually get a good mechanic at a dealer. Some independents are bad, some are good, you just have to find a good one and keep in his good books and continue to use him/her.

[bearthebruce]

And to add to the debate about whether or not VCDS (VAG-COM) is as good as the factory tool, in North America, the factory techs from VW carry VCDS. The ports of America use - VCDS. In a test conducted in March by DEKRA in Germany, VCDS scored 316 points out of 320 points. No other aftermarket scan tool came close to that score on any car!

The shop that stated that VCDS is not the same as their 20K tool is correct. The price is nothing like their tool. The speed and ease of use far out performs their tool. And, VCDS does not presume to be smarter than the technician using the tool by provided misGuided Fault Finding.

If the shop prefers the factory tool, that's fine. But before they condemn another tool, they should at least try it. If they can afford a 20K tool, a 0.5k tool should be really easy to justify!

To the original poster, why did you bring this up in a forum for users of VAG-COM? What was your agenda? Are you trying to tell users that VAG-COM is not a tool to use for repairing their cars? I'm curious as to what your point really was.

[VAGMAN54]

slap it to um bruce...im with you 100%..................316 out of 120 ....thats a fantastic score whats up with the other four was they on a tea break.?.vcds all the way for me ,i will match or beat any result from any other scanner with the vcds its simply brilliant.!!!!..