inderwies
Member
Long time reader, very infrequent poster. Here goes...
I have a 2013 Passat TDI SE with about 65,000 miles on the clock. It's been very methodically maintained by my dealer at each interval. Up until now, I hadn't even touched the DEF/AdBlue port - the dealer filled it at each 10,000 mile service. They top it off and of course charge me now that the initial warranty is up.
At around 48,000 miles (last summer) my turbocharger blew up. This was *right* after the warranty extension letter came in the mail. I had the same dealer make the repairs. I described this in the appropriate thread for the sake of science...
From about 45,000 to 60,000 I began to put the car in a different type of service... Uber/Lyft driving. This is like any other livery service... lots of city use, starts and stops. I try to limit idling as much as practical (no more than a minute or so.)
Only at around 60,000 miles did I receive my first low AdBlue warning. The dealer topped of the DEF at the scheduled service, no problem, all is well, right?
At about 63,800 I received another AdBlue warning. It ominously did the "starts will be disabled" countdown. Surely enough, the tank was dry. I bought the appropriate filler bottle and a 2.5 gallon jug and refilled it myself.
Sorry for the novel, but my question - would one really consume a tank's worth of DEF in under 4,000 miles, even with part-time livery driving conditions? I mentioned it to my service advisor and his response - "it will vary based on driving conditions." He mentioned some of the Touaregs gulp the stuff.
Maybe they just didn't fill the tank completely at 60K? Is it related to age? New turbo? Wondering what others have experienced.
(PS I'm pretty much done abusing my car for livery, but I wanted to try it out. The Passat is wonderful for it, but it doesn't compensate me enough to wear down a beautiful car.)
I have a 2013 Passat TDI SE with about 65,000 miles on the clock. It's been very methodically maintained by my dealer at each interval. Up until now, I hadn't even touched the DEF/AdBlue port - the dealer filled it at each 10,000 mile service. They top it off and of course charge me now that the initial warranty is up.
At around 48,000 miles (last summer) my turbocharger blew up. This was *right* after the warranty extension letter came in the mail. I had the same dealer make the repairs. I described this in the appropriate thread for the sake of science...
From about 45,000 to 60,000 I began to put the car in a different type of service... Uber/Lyft driving. This is like any other livery service... lots of city use, starts and stops. I try to limit idling as much as practical (no more than a minute or so.)
Only at around 60,000 miles did I receive my first low AdBlue warning. The dealer topped of the DEF at the scheduled service, no problem, all is well, right?
At about 63,800 I received another AdBlue warning. It ominously did the "starts will be disabled" countdown. Surely enough, the tank was dry. I bought the appropriate filler bottle and a 2.5 gallon jug and refilled it myself.
Sorry for the novel, but my question - would one really consume a tank's worth of DEF in under 4,000 miles, even with part-time livery driving conditions? I mentioned it to my service advisor and his response - "it will vary based on driving conditions." He mentioned some of the Touaregs gulp the stuff.
Maybe they just didn't fill the tank completely at 60K? Is it related to age? New turbo? Wondering what others have experienced.
(PS I'm pretty much done abusing my car for livery, but I wanted to try it out. The Passat is wonderful for it, but it doesn't compensate me enough to wear down a beautiful car.)
