VW, AUDI....SEAT EMISSIONS RECALL

General Discussion Forums Car Talk
2

hi…i have a seat leon 1.6 tdi as my daily driver, its been a fantastic car , never missed a beat.

BUT it went in for the emissions recall work doing in february

 

2 days later it cut out on me , pulling out of a junction , on restarting it , it cranked for 10-15 seconds before spluttering into life.

i pulled over to the side and the rev counter was dancing around between 500 and 1000rpm,

i continued on my journey. but for the next few days the electric fan kicked in on turning the car off, this would run for approx 30 seconds.

the car never seemed right after that, on cold mornings it did not sound quite the same , it  seemed “tinny”, a bit  “lumpy” too  , i just cant put my finger on it.

 

fast forward 2 weeks , it did it again, pulling out of a junction, it lost all power , as if running out of juice.

i dipped the clutch, tried to rev the car but it just spluttered to a halt in the middle of a very busy junction.

on trying to start the engine , it cranked for maybe 15-20 seconds before firing up, but it was still as if not enough fuel , it was coughing n spluttering.

i got it to the side of the road , but it drove as if in limp mode.

i turned the car off , gave it a few seconds and it started up straight away…revs a gain around the 1000 rpm mark.

since this last incident its just never felt right , sounds different, drove different.

 

another issue i have is this,  i have owned the leon for over 2 years and even in winter with heated seats and climate control on, the car has never gone below 51.9 MPG…

since the recall work its down to 44.9 MPG.

 

today i took the car back to SEAT, who straight away told me there was a £79 charge for them to look at it. trying to tell me it was probably nothing to do with the recall.

so words were exchanged… and the charge was dropped, 

they rang me after 5 hours to tell me i could collect the car… i asked if they had fixed the problem, …THEY HAVE NOT.

they now have to wait for someone in a technical team to advise them on their next move…meanwhile wanting me to take the car back in a potentially dangerous condition.

 I REFUSED THE CAR , AND ASKED FOR A COURTESY CAR TO BE PROVIDED.

 

SO…has anyone else had any issues since their recall work

 

 

i know its a bit long winded, sorry…there is even more to tell , if anyone is interested.

 

regards

 

 

 

3

interesting, I had my Audi 2.0 tdi fixed a while ago. I never noticed any difference until a few weeks later when the start stop topped working whilst on s short trip. When I got out of the car the fan was running, and you could feel the hot air blowing out from the rear wheel arches, all quite noisy as well. I stood and waited for it to stop, but after a few minutes I gave up and left it. To cut a long story short, it now does this every few weeks it seems, you know its doing something as the start stop stops working, and you know if you stop and get out the fan will run. I’ve stood by the car for 5-10 mins and its carried on running, so never actually heard it stop yet.  It doesn’t feel right walking off and leaving a car standing there with the fan running. Now I know they will all do it sometimes, (but this car never did before the fix) but usually stop a minute or so after you get out, mine doesn’t. Apart from that, not noticed any difference at all. I will mention it to the dealer when next it goes in for something, but not had cause to go near the garage for ages… And a colleagues A4 2.0 tdi is doing similar as well he reckons. So, not as bad as your issue but clearly the software change does have a noticeable effect on some cycle the car needs to run through every now and again… 

4

at one of the leading vw dealers in yorkshire there is a list of cars , mainly 1.6 engines that are being /have been damaged by this recall…egr valves being a main failure
thats from a trusted source , thats actually seen the list.

5

Hmm interesting.  I have a SEAT Exeo 2.0 TDi Estate as my daily drive - I’ve had the recall letter, but not taken the car in for the re-programme yet.  Starting to wonder if I should even bother, now. 

6

 

I had a similar issue on a VW Golf 1.6 tdi, after some investigation work I established that it appears this can happen if the ignition is turned off during a DPF cleaning cycle, before it has finished. There are several VW and Audi forum topics on this around. Maybe this is what was happening to you, especially as it was a short journey?

 

7

The VW 1.6 tdi engine has been a real challenge for VAG.These are notorious for egr failure (about a £1k repair at main dealer)and also injector issues,often made worse by the software update.The cooling fan cycle is part of the dpf re-gen system ,while the stop/start system will not be active during this process,as the engine temp needs to be maintained.Some info here;http://www.volkspage.net/technik/ssp/ssp/SSP_336.pdf

8

another issue i have is this, i have owned the leon for over 2 years and even in winter with heated seats and climate control on, the car has never gone below 51.9 MPG…

since the recall work its down to 44.9 MPG.

I think most people are going to see this after the modification mpg wise. If people are having these issues after the mod’ I think it needs to be put out to the public so they are pre warned, VW tried to charge you how many have just paid up thinking it’s a problem with the venicle and not tied into the modification

9

Is that taken from the car’s computer or a calculation based on actual mileage and fuel consumption? When I had a BMW 5 series as a daily driver for work I used to keep a detailed record of fuel consumption and mileage etc and the actual mpg was invariably lower than what the trip computer indicated. In my experience the trip computer shows a snapshot average based on the way you’re driving the car rather than the actual fuel consumption and mileage. I don’t have much faith in the trip computer mpg reading on any car.

10

My wife runs a two year old Seat Ibiza FR 1.6 TDI and we were dubious about having the work done. It was however done at the Seat main dealer here in Exeter, who have never been anything less than excellent in our dealings with them over the years, and I have to say that the car performs exactly as it always has done. No dip in performance and no change in fuel consumption. We have no complaints whatsoever so i thought we would show that things can go right…

11

yes, that was my assumption, although it can still happen at the end of a long journey as well, and its now a regular feature, every few weeks, since the software change. Didn’t find anything online about it when I looked but I think my car was done quite early, so will go look again, cheers…

 

12

Just out of curiosity, has anyone here afflicted joined the ‘class action’ against VAG for compensation?

I know of at least 2 people who have been affected by this apparent software fumble - both had 1.6 Tdi engines - one in a Seat Leon, the other a Golf - and needed a new EGR valve after it, with noticeably worse fuel economy. The larger engines (as in Passat etc.) seem to stand it OK, but they have an Adblue mod. IIRC.
Personally, I think EGR valves are a PITA, but that doesn’t mean they should give up when modified by the software, and should be replaced as part of the campaign if faulty after the mod. VAG take a different view, of course…

13

right , got my leon back this afternoon, they have done all checks ,checked parts fitted during recall , no fault codes found , done a re-gen of dpf , and ask me to take the car and monitor.
they have done this free of charge , as goodwill , so i’m quite pleased…they even advised me to contact SEAT UK and tell them of my problems.

on my run home from huddersfield to barnsley it averaged 59.8 MPG…it also “sounds” better.
so fingers crossed.

regards

14

pete…the MPG is just taken from the o/b computer.
i know its not always accurate,
its just the fact for 2 yrs plus it was over 51.9 MPG then days after recall it dropped to 45 MPG.

regards

15

Sounds like you’re a winner in the VAG campaign lottery…!!
Good news! Hope it stays behaving itself !

I wonder what they’re doing differently now?

Aldi

16

did a bit of googling earlier, there are loads of unhappy VW Group customers on the Honest John website, all with similar problems to the OP… 

17

cheers aldi…me too

18

to update this ,

the leon still activates the cooling fan when the car is stood , part of dpf re-gen i’m told.

at the start of 2018 the dpf light came on ( a mechanic friend showed me how to get that off )

its averaging around 51 MPG , so thats great.

 

just looking at ALDI’s comment , re action against VW , joining one of the many solicitors trying to get compensation , any body done it , anyone got opinions ???  

 

regards