EGR fault on VW

It looks like the EGR (the ERG of car components) has an intermittent fault on my Transporter (12 plate 57k miles) and needs replacing.

local independent  £600 ish

on line mobile quote  £420

main dealer  ££££££££££££

Anyone had luck getting it paid for under goodwill by VW?

I have emailed VW UK with a gentle ‘bought it new can you help’.

12 plate you say? Forget it! I battled with VW over rear tyre noise and sawtooth wear of the inside edges on my B7 Passat tyres and after much argument they agreed to pay to have the rear subframes re-aligned.

I sent them a photo of the wear, which was very obvious if you photographed the tyre while it was spinning on a balancing jig. About a month later I received a phone call from a VW engineer in Germany who said: “I hear you’ve got a very good photo of tyre wear on the inside edge of a Passat rear tyre. Could you email it to me please?” The same problem has not happened on my B8 Passat.

My garage had said two recent clients had had it done by VW as goodwill. I know there is an issue with the emissions / software tweaked ones.

We had a seat Altea which was a 61 plate, it was part of the great recall and remap. The EGR valve failed whist in france last summer and was replaced by a french SEat dealer for 900 euros. Seat Uk repaid the costs under good will. Worth while chasing VW about this, especially if it was under the E89(?) engine recall.

Similarly the EGR went on my Skoda Octavia – £700 at the local independent VAG specialist, or, as you say, massive ££££££££s at the main dealer.

Unfortunately mine had already had the emissions fix, but was told by the independent mechanic (and have heard stories afterwards also) that if it hadn’t the Skoda main dealer would have fixed the EGR, THEN do the emissions fix, and not charge anything for the lot by way of ’emissions lies goodwill’. All I got was an umbrella and a travel mug…

So if you haven’t had the fix…maybe yay?! If not….big bucks.

I bought an EGR from here: https://www.darksidedevelopments.co.uk/egr-valves-egr-deletes-and-parts-1/?sort=featured&page=3 for my 05 plate Transporter. The pate was OEM identical to the VW part with the VW part number on the casting but the VW logo ground off.

Depending what engine it is and your mechanical aptitude then they are not ridicuosly difficult to replace.

Unless this is the 2.0l bi-turbo engine in which case then no unfortunately its big money – about £600 for the part…

If you’ve got full vw service history speak to vw customer care, there have been times when people have had it sorted, even at that age. It’s not guaranteed though. Even if they give you an allowance of say 50% off then it’s still likely to be cheaper at a decent independent. Common fault.

Owned since new (had a Touran new before that). Full service history (mostly main dealer).

2012 ORANGE VOLKSWAGEN T-SPORTER T30 140 TDI SWB

I’ll keep chipping away at them and see what gives.

Take the EGR valve off, clean it up with WD40. It worked on my 2.0L TDI Audi and has been fine for the last 70,000 miles…

Mine went in an 2010 Audi A3 140 TDI a few years ago while I was at Bike Park Wales.

Limped to the local VW dealer who had a look and quoted £900 to do it the next day but advised me that “if was a VW with that age/mileage/service history we’d be able to contribute to the cost”, so took their advice and had the car recovered across the country to my local Audi dealer who had serviced it a few times.

Audi dealer (and Audi UK), “That will be £900 please and a couple of weeks till we can fit it in the workshop” :faceplam:

Audi UK told me that unless it was a known fault (as judged by “a database of part numbers on a computer in Germany”), any goodwill was entirely down the the dealer. Maybe if I’d bought the car from the dealer originally they would have been more generous.

Take the EGR valve off, clean it up with WD40. It worked on my 2.0L TDI Audi and has been fine for the last 70,000 miles…

I think the accessibility of these things varies a lot between different flavours of VAG TDI engine.

I suspect the OP has the same one that I did (2.0 TDI 140 bhp Stop-Start). My £900 bill was mainly due to labour. I also have a feeling, now I think about it, that although the verbal diagnosis was “EGR valve is buggered” the actual work was replacement of the EGR cooler.

If its an EGR cooler, not EGR valve, it’s a big difference. As you probably know, the cooler is buried on the rear low down on the engine and is a bigger job. The part being €300 ish and the other €600 ish is labour.

Older EGR valves were right on the top of the engine at the front.

Nice work VW designers!

is it defintely EGR valve? I had an issue with my SEAT 2.0 TDi that all googling suggested it was the EGR valve, so i stripper it out and cleaned it. You can buy specific cans of cleaner from GSF, so i used that and a tooth brush to clean it up. Don’t do it in the kitchen as its a horrible job and it stains your skin.

As i couldn;t see anything obviously wrong i ordered a new one off Amazon which was bizarly way cheaper than GSF, ECP etc even with their usual discounts. In the end i put it back on the car to test it and had the same problems. It was then i hooked it up to VCDS and found a small fault for a sensor on the fuel rail. I found the sensor and spotted that the plastic cam cover had chaffed the wires and it was shorting slightly.

In short, could be worht getting the fault codes read to make sure it is that and not a red herring. If your anywhere near macclesfield i’d be be happy to hook it up to VCDS for you to have a look

Dave

Had the van serviced yesterday and they picked up the fault. The dash warning light for the cat has been coming and going for the last month. MOT was fine for emissions.

Thanks for the kind offer but I’m in Bristol..

My son had EGR fault on his A6 at50000 miles as rickmeister says it was the cooler that was choked. I cleaned it out (messy time consuming job) and then he traded it in. It hadn’t had the recall and doing motorway speeds in that with a 6 speed box wasn’t doing the engine any favours.

What’s the actual fault with the egr? That will determine if you have any hope of any help. If it’s electrical fault/circuit board corrosion you might do, if it’s just blocked you’ve no hope.

Lazy and armchair mechanics like to say pooh EGR as it sounds plausible. But what’s actually wrong with the EGR system? Has the valve failed electrically or is it just clogged? If the latter, then why has it clogged? Could be something else.

This the one on my Skoda fabia after the EM light went on. You might be just able to see the fault bhind the coal deposits

I was just told ‘diagnostic test shows fault with egr valve’. Can you usually get more information than that from the error codes? Or do you need to check it physically?

Off on holiday tomorrow so will get it sorted on our return. I’ll get a Haynes manual ordered and I have a friend who is very handy on the spanners.

I bought my genuine Valeo EGR valve from here http://www.carparts4less.co.uk , with a discount code it came to £241 and fitting it on my T5, 2.0 T30 isn’t too bad as its got decent access. The garage charged me £100 to fit it.

Remove it, spray it with Mr muscle oven cleaner, leave for an hour or 3. Then toothbrush it till it shines.
Refitting is a reversal of removal.
Test drive to prove its fixed, go to pub £500 better off.
Then when you drive ensure you take the engine over 3000 rpm to blow all the soot through the system
If it’s the egr cooler then it’s a bigger issue

Do the error codes differentiate between the EGR and the EGR cooler?

I think (others may know), different engines have a EGR or EGR with cooler. 1.9 had an EGR on the top of the engine and perhaps the early 2.0 too. Later CR units are, I think, egr plus cooler to get emissions down.

Best is to get your engine code and do a google check. There are youtube vids on this too.

Mine was a common rail 2.0 tdi and the EGR and cooler are a single unit. After fitting (kill me now) I had it mapped out in the software so it will remain closed and not cause the same issue again.

Do the error codes differentiate between the EGR and the EGR cooler?

No there is no sensor on the cooler so the car doesn’t know it is blocked I cannot remember the codes but RAC told him it was EGR fault (See my post above) the cooler is connected to cooling system and EGR on sons 12 plate A6 it was easier to take cooler off first it was manky and a good clean sorted it every chance its the same set up

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AUDI-A4-B8-2007-2016-2-0-TDI-CJC-EGR-COOLER-VALEO-V29009967-MM112DN/123380638376?hash=item1cba0f22a8:g:CG0AAOSw~p1bo126

Looked like this one

Note it is sold as one part (valve and cooler) but they can be split.

VW rang me after I had emailed them. They have asked that I take it to the local dealership to have the error investigated. Any goodwill would be discussed at that point.

I’ll drop it off after I’m back from holiday. If they want full payment then I’ll either have a look with a mate or find an independent.

Do the error codes differentiate between the EGR and the EGR cooler?

Fault codes are only a guide to diagnosis, and it’s up to the person doing the diagnostic to actually check things to find the real problem.
A code like Low EGR flow could be caused by either, or even a fault elsewhere. It all depends on the system in question, and what actually has position feedback sensors.

I was just told ‘diagnostic test shows fault with egr valve’. Can you usually get more information than that from the error codes?

There are a few faults pertaining to the valve. But as said it doesn’t measure actual EGR flow, it infers it from something like the MAF and something else, forget what. But if the other sensors are mis-reading it can trigger an EGR flow rate fault.

Yes there are a number of fault codes that come with egr and will give you quite precise info. See what vw say but the actual fault code is key.