Thanks bigyinn

Sand in it?

I’m going with injectors

Quite often the cause of VAG issues are faulty injectors..

I am going with Cat converter not getting hot enough to catalyze properly.
Bit of a drive and the EGTs get the cat hot enough to lite up. Start up / long over-run slow down and its chuffing away lie Thomas the Tank engine.

IANAM , but its that or turbo shaft seals. Beware you do not get sold a new turbo , when its a tired Cat and or vica versa. Pull rubber hose off front of turbo to check for lateral play, should be zero.

To close this one out for the benefit of anyone searching for VAG problems in the future it has come back as being confirmed as a leaky EGR valve cooler. A known issue. So updated/modified part fitted under warranty as well as the two recalls on the timing belt and tensioner (glad I found out about that one!) and the rear high level tailgate light. My engine is not affected by the emissions thing so no need to worry about the ECU update.

Glad it wasn’t anything more complex like HG, turbo or injectors. I suspected it wasn’t injectors as the smoke didn’t smell like fuel, burned or unburned, so main worries were HG or something to do with the turbo.

Anyhoo again, thanks to all the contributors – it’s good to have a few suggestions and benefits of others experience before you talk to dealerships, and also good to have a few comedic responses. I’m glad I’m not the only one with an immature sense of humour.

It’s the aux belt not main timing belt that’s subject to a recall as far as VW have told me (on the various vans I’ve had in the last 3 months) doesn’t apply to all vans oddly either.

Just as well you do not gave the bitdi engine, the egr cooler is known to disintegrate sending metal particles in to the engine causing full bore wear resulting in a new engine. VW refuse to acknowledge as it only happens outside the warranty period or about 70k miles

He did mention it was the auxiliary belt and tensioner, but then went onto say can affect the engine timing, so just assumed the timing belt was also driving everything else too. Anyway glad its done.

So it wasn’t bacterial vaginosis?

Good deal.

I’m going with injectors

Quite often the cause of VAG issues are faulty injectors..
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Oh well done sir…