EGR Valve failure on 2010 Cali

[cozmo1589]

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Just out of interest, how much does a diagnostic check cost?
Breeze Poole have quoted me £75.00p which is basically their hourly rate! Took it for a drive this morning, drove fine on full power but now the engine management light is permanently on - GRRRRRRRRRRR

I had that on mine it was the exhaust sensor.

Did you have that reset or replaced Jeff? What was the cost? Cheers.

 

[jeff]

It was the exhaust pressure sensor total cost £176.00 including diagnoseits.

 

[cozmo1589]

It was the exhaust pressure sensor total cost £176.00 including diagnoseits.

OK cheers, well fingers crossed mine is something like that rather than the expensive egr fault

 

[cozmo1589]

Arghhhh! It's been confirmed as the dreaded egr valve and vw Breeze Poole want £1200 to fix it. They say there is no good will as it's 5 years old!! It's only done 31500 miles!!!! what with this and my rusting roof I'm starting to go off of my £50,000 camper van ;-(

 

[Martin]

2010 is the prime year for the EGR problem, I would fight for some goodwill on that, have you contacted VWCS?

 

[owen_h]

If VW are not offering any goodwill then i would be looking to get some quotes from an independent as well. No personal experience but Terry at TH Performance seems to have a very good reputation for this sort of work and may be close enough for you to consider http://www.thperformance.co.uk/
He used to be a member on here but not seen any posts by him recently.

 

[cozmo1589]

2010 is the prime year for the EGR problem, I would fight for some goodwill on that, have you contacted VWCS?

Yes I've contacted them today and opened a case. I await a decision within 24 hrs. Will let you all know the outcome ;-\

 

[cozmo1589]

If VW are not offering any goodwill then i would be looking to get some quotes from an independent as well. No personal experience but Terry at TH Performance seems to have a very good reputation for this sort of work and may be close enough for you to consider http://www.thperformance.co.uk/
He used to be a member on here but not seen any posts by him recently.

Many thanks for that, I'll look into it once I know for sure whether vw are going to help me or just cast me aside ;-)

 

[Bluestone]

Interesting reading this re the EGR valve. Why don't people just delete the EGR? I can understand if the van is still in warranty but out of warranty it seems to make perfect sense. After all EGR valves are only really effective under a certain amount of miles, above a certain (actually quite low) millage they actually do more harm than good when it comes to emissions (and that's all it's there for). Took the one out of my Discovery and the best upgrade I could've done. It actually showed lower emissions figures in the MOT after I removed it, plus the benefit of improved performance, fuel economy etc etc.

I also heard some dealers say this is quite rare - well all you need to do is take a look at all the other forums for the other vehicles which use the same engine in the VAG group and of course there are a lot, in fact the same engine is used in all VAG cars from Skoda to Audi. With that in mind, why don't people take them to a Skoda or Seat garage where the labour rates are probably lower - just a thought

 

[Chris Pike]

Many thanks for that, I'll look into it once I know for sure whether vw are going to help me or just cast me aside ;-)

Just to chip into this thread. I have had the same problem on my 11 plate California. Was dreading the argument/bill as it is 14 month out of warranty. I went to be van center in Peterborough.

All I can say is fantastic service. The after sales manager Rob, was very understanding and helpful. He phoned vw straight off the bat and came back later that day with and offer for vw to pay100% of the part and I was to pay the 3 hours labour to have it fitted. I think that is very fair.

So I thought I chuck in a recommendation.

Chris

 

[cozmo1589]

Arghhhh! It's been confirmed as the dreaded egr valve and vw Breeze Poole want £1200 to fix it. They say there is no good will as it's 5 years old!! It's only done 31500 miles!!!! what with this and my rusting roof I'm starting to go off of my £50,000 camper van ;-(

Ok so vw breeze Poole have had my Cali for 6 days and that's how much time it's taken them and vw commercial uk to decide between them what level of contribution they are going to give me, good job I had a courtesy vehicle all this time! So this afternoon I've been told that of the £1,337.68 they will do it all for £947.01 inc vat so a total discount of £390.67p. Not as much as I'd have hoped but it's something I suppose. I'd rather still not have to shed out almost a grand after an £800:00 bill in April for service, mot, cam belt and water pump replacement but there you go :-/

 

[Freeley]

I've just had the egr valve fail on my 140 transporter yesterday, driving up hills in limp mode reminded me of the good old days driving the original Renault trafic!
It's going in tomorrow to have a software file installed in the ecu to blank off the egr, cost £125+vat. Apparently will still be fine for mot emissions and certainly a lot cheaper than replacing the valve.
Thoughts anyone?

Sent from my Galaxy S6

 

[WelshGas]

It depends whether the valve has failed Open or Closed. If jammed open will have very little effect apart from switching off Engine Light on dash.
My EGR failed closed, just Engine Light, NO limp mode.
Could get EGR blanked Off rather than replaced but would still need Software to switch Off Engine Light.

 

[Alan]

Which would have ment what in terms of cost ?
Not looking forward to these bills as the Cali gets older
Hopefully by then there maybe cheaper options or even upgraded parts

Alan

 

[cozmo1589]

Which would have ment what in terms of cost ?
Not looking forward to these bills as the Cali gets older
Hopefully by then there maybe cheaper options or even upgraded parts

Alan

I was getting quite despondent with my 2010 Cali as I had Cambelt / water pump to replace at 4yrs (only had covered 30k) egr failure and roof corrosion and broken control selection knob on main control panel for the roof, fridge, heater etc all in short space of time but now I'm thinking everything is now done so can I now at least look forward to reliable and more cost effective ownership for many years to come or do I sell on a fully sorted immaculate low mileage California. Probably will keep it unless I get more expensive surprises ;-)

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

 

[Freeley]

Which would have ment what in terms of cost ?
Not looking forward to these bills as the Cali gets older
Hopefully by then there maybe cheaper options or even upgraded parts

Alan

Egr replacement is about £700 versus £150 for software update to blank it off.
Will see what the outcome is tomorrow but I know which I prefer!

Sent from my Galaxy S6

 

[greenfintry]

A while back I opted to just use non-supermarket diesel and when possible use premium diesel from the regular petrol companies. I started to do that after the dreaded EGR problem at 20k miles and just 3.5 y old. After trying the premium diesel I was a bit amazed by how much smoother the engine seemed. Well, I have stuck to this plan for the last 6 months and 4k miles. The fuel consumption has been 32mpg on average (including several 1000 miles on motorways at pretty high speed (v fully laden as a van down to the Alps and up the odd one gave 28mpg) for our 180 4motion, and the engine does seem to have more power (the odd time only regular diesel was available..... and it did seem more sluggish and rougher)...

So, just for info and thoughts really. The premium diesel is pretty wide spread in France, and at 1.20 euro a liter not too painful at the moment....

 

[blondebier]

An interesting thread. Sorry to hear about all the hassle people are having with EGR failures.

I have also wondered if running premium diesel is worth considering GreenFintry.

There are many threads online where people claim similar gains. Surely they can't all be placebo effect.

In a similar vein are diesel additives worth it? Some people slate them as "snake oil", but surely there must be some benefit or else these companies would go out of business.

Does premium diesel offer the best of both? Clean diesel with additives to clean the internals.

I'm not sure, but it's certainly something I'm going to have to consider when the T6 arrives.

As an aside - have any mechanics recommended giving the EGR a clean from time to time? EGR cleaner sprays seem to be well advertised now.

Should EGR cleaning be part of a regular service schedule? Will VW read this?

 

[WelshGas]

There was an increased incidence of EGR failures on 2010 /11 engines, but I believe the design has changed since.
My EGR valve failed at 900 miles and I had the latest designed valve, different to what was originally fitted, installed with a software update. Now my failure was due to a manufacturing fault rather than a design fault.
I only use named Diesel. My local is a Gulf station and I don't do Supermarkets.
I have no idea if there is any difference as my California has never used Supermarket pumps.

 

[T6 CFO]

There was an increased incidence of EGR failures on 2010 /11 engines, but I believe the design has changed since.
My EGR valve failed at 900 miles and I had the latest designed valve, different to what was originally fitted, installed with a software update. Now my failure was due to a manufacturing fault rather than a design fault.
I only use named Diesel. My local is a Gulf station and I don't do Supermarkets.
I have no idea if there is any difference as my California has never used Supermarket pumps.

Having read all this thread prior to making my decision on a T6 i will try to summarise so far with some questions:-

1. 2010/11 models seem to be the worst affected, however later models may start failing soon ?
2. Fix one 140 is much easier than on the 180. Have they improved the EGR on later models or at least made it easier to replace on the T6?
3. Do we have any idea on the difficulty of replacement on a 204?

I'm going to have a punt around other bulletin boards to see what I can find.

Great thread by the way. Quite a few folk saved loads of money as a result of it

 

[WelshGas]

Every vehicle that has an EGR valve in the system has had failures. VW are not alone. New technology takes time to settle in and arrive at the final design/operation. Real life testing on hundreds/thousands of vehicles is so much better than laboratory testing. The trouble is it's the public that end up doing the testing on their pride and joy.

 

[blondebier]

The trouble is it's the public that end up doing the testing on their pride and joy.

The frustrating thing is that if they've discovered a weakness with a component and it's probably preventable by cleaning it then why don't they make it a serviceable item?

I'm not knocking VW here, but as a wider point, I think that if things like EGR valves fail due to becoming clogged up and this failure could be avoided if they were cleaned then surely they are missing a trick here.

Keeping owners on the road and reliability should be more of a priority.

 

[T6 CFO]

Every vehicle that has an EGR valve in the system has had failures. VW are not alone. New technology takes time to settle in and arrive at the final design/operation. Real life testing on hundreds/thousands of vehicles is so much better than laboratory testing. The trouble is it's the public that end up doing the testing on their pride and joy.

Yep at least I understand the issues now. Thanks

 

[T6 CFO]

Yep at least I understand the issues now. Thanks

Keep hitting the post before I'm finished. Stubby fingers

Found this on the VW website. Interesting.

"
The diesel particulate filter
Our advanced diesel engines are much cleaner than older engines. One important factor is their diesel particulate filters (DPF), which are very effective in cutting emissions, trapping even the finest soot particles that are produced as the engine burns diesel fuel.

The latest generation of filters operate without additives. This makes them maintenance-free for an exceptionally long time: an initial inspection is usually carried out only after 150,000 km. The filter's lifespan is dependent on factors such as fuel quality, driving style, use and oil consumption."

 

[T6 CFO]

The frustrating thing is that if they've discovered a weakness with a component and it's probably preventable by cleaning it then why don't they make it a serviceable item?

I'm not knocking VW here, but as a wider point, I think that if things like EGR valves fail due to becoming clogged up and this failure could be avoided if they were cleaned then surely they are missing a trick here.

Keeping owners on the road and reliability should be more of a priority.

Yep agreed.