After buy back issues ...

I purchased a used 2013 Jetta TDI from a local dealer recently. Previously, he had bought it after the VW buy back and reprogram of the emissions system. For the first week, the car ran well .. was getting great mpg, drove like the great German car that it is. Then, it threw it's first codes (check engine and "glow plug light") ... we took it to the dealer, he checked the codes and ordered the sensor that it shown might be bad. After driving it for another week, both lights came back on and this time the diesel particulate light came on as well. After checking into it again, the car was sent to the local VW dealer (as this is warranty emissions work). The car has LITERALLY been at the dealer two weeks and we are starting to worry that maybe this is a sign of things to come.

Has anyone bought one of these after buyback cars and NOT had issues with all the emissions systems? I'm wondering now if its time to call this a lemon law car and get my money back.

Any help or advice is much appreciated. Please note, we LOVE the car when its running correctly. This is the 3rd Jetta I've owned (5 cylinder, 1.8L GLI and now TDI). I'm a big fan of VW and what they've done, so don't think I'm just looking to discard the car for something else.

Picked up a 2012 last month and put around 1500 miles so far with no issues yet but it only has 15k on the odometer

Seems like you will not be eligible for lemon law due to the 2 year or 18k mile exclusion. They should be able to fix things though so it runs properly.

I bought my car thru buyback, 27k miles 2014 JSW.... from Sept 2018 to March 2019 5 HPFP
Failures and mechanic was like lets check gas tank and behold! MOLD!!!!! So they cleaned ip the fuel tank and replaced fuel filter and some parts and she runs beautiful ever since. So yours might be just the DPF failure. Let warranty cover it then you are golden.

How did the mold develop? 2 years of sitting after buyback from first owner.


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You probably know that there are a lot of parts on your TDI that are completely absent from your gasser VWs - HPFP, turbo (except the GLI), urea tank, urea heater, urea injector, DPF, vacuum pump (X GLI), NOX trap, etc, etc. Originally, some of those extra parts were designed with the cheating software in mind, i.e. they were designed to withstand only occasional use, but not continuous loading, as they should have been designed. The mandated fix then attempted to rectify this situation, but the jury is still out on the results. It is a totally different scenario when a design team is tasked with designing a new engine and its emission system for a vehicle that will go into production at some point in the future (the team has the freedom to make as many iterations as it sees fit), than when that same team has to make design changes to vehicles that are already on the road.

As I said earlier - the results are by no means unanimous. Some people are very unhappy with their post-fix cars, some are only partially happy, and some report no noticeable changes in the behavior of their fixed car. However, one unquestionable fact about the Dieselgate is that only a small fraction of all TDI owners opted to have their vehicles fixed and continue driving them. The rest of us were lured by VW to give them up. I cannot speak for anyone else, but my personal motivation was twofold - besides the financial benefit, I also considered the huge unknown of what will the vehicle be like if I have it fixed, and pretty much everyone knew even before the repairs began that either the fuel economy, or the performance, or the reliability, or any combination thereof, would be impacted negatively.

I, too, used to be a huge VW fan, but as time went by, my enthusiasm for the brand began fading. Long time ago, among other things, all VWs were made of parts produced exclusively in Germany, and were assembled in Germany as well. Nowadays, you are lucky if you can get 35% German parts content in a brand new car with final assembly point of Puebla, Mehiko. You can bet that vast majority of the remaining 65% of components are made - you guessed it - in China. That's one reason why I am now a lot more skeptical about VW than I used to be.

Buyback deeply appreciated by this sailor..........de facto we had our 2013 JSW TDI for close to five years - 50k, VW/Bosch provided the same $$$ - after those circa 5 years - as the original purchase price (tax, license, dork fee excepted!!!


Therefore, i stuck with VW (however no more HPFP, DPF et al ad nauseam......).

Surprisingly, the TSI 1.4 turbo/5M - at 23,000 per Fuelly - is calculating right at 90% of the wagon's fuel numbers over 50,000 miles.

No issues. Rock bottom pricing (VW is trying to crawl out of a hole, duh!)


ez

I just wanted to follow up on my original post, I had the issue resolved by VW under Dieselgate extended warranty. Within the last month the check engine light was on again, took it back to the dealer and they replaced the throttle body under warranty.

As an aside, during the last visit they found that. Other front springs, mounts and bearings were bad ... $1,100 estimate to fix. I passed on that offer and had them replaced by my buddy for $450. He bought the spring/strut unit from Carquest. Is the spring issue common? Could be from the extra weight of the TDI? (2013 Jetta)


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redstar24 said:

I just wanted to follow up on my original post, I had the issue resolved by VW under Dieselgate extended warranty. Within the last month the check engine light was on again, took it back to the dealer and they replaced the throttle body under warranty.

As an aside, during the last visit they found that. Other front springs, mounts and bearings were bad ... $1,100 estimate to fix. I passed on that offer and had them replaced by my buddy for $450. He bought the spring/strut unit from Carquest. Is the spring issue common? Could be from the extra weight of the TDI? (2013 Jetta)


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Being north east car, yes its common for the springs to rust and go bad. My old 2011 JSW being Florida car all 8 years and racked 300k miles and still in perfect condition. Now I have an 2014 JSW TDI from NJ and no rust so far...... keeping a close eye on rear lower control arm, has some rust. She had 20k miles when I got her last year and now 65k miles.


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Hope it wasn't a quick strut from Carquest - I hate those horrible things. There is a reason why they are cheaper.

Jason

I wish I had read your post before I decided to keep our 2013 Passat TDI. Loved the car so I decided to keep it, but in July 2019 the check engine light came on with a code no one seemed to understand (P100600). VW recommended flushing the fuel tank, lines, and replacing the fuel filter. It's now January 2020 and the lights on again and VW wants to flush the fuel lines again. $800. last time and $400 this time. Seems to me they have a never ending excuse of bad fuel. Beginning to wonder what I have gotten myself into?

Are you tuned by chance? Who gave you that code number? I would find someone with VCDS and have them scan the car for you and post the full scan here. P1006 shows up in this thread:

https://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=397440

fuel injector or compression issue?

I have seen exactly one Passat with that code. It has been a while, but I think we tried flushing fuel system, then replacing fuel injector, then something let go in the engine. I think it ended up being the rod bearings that were causing the problem and they took a while to fall apart.

If it was my car I may have tried cleaning, flushing, and replacing rod bearings, but under warranty that car got a new long block.

Jason

SilverGhost said:

I have seen exactly one Passat with that code. It has been a while, but I think we tried flushing fuel system, then replacing fuel injector, then something let go in the engine. I think it ended up being the rod bearings that were causing the problem and they took a while to fall apart.

If it was my car I may have tried cleaning, flushing, and replacing rod bearings, but under warranty that car got a new long block.

Jason

Click to expand...

Yikes!


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2013 Passat owner here, have had it less than 3 weeks. Already problems, Adblue warning won't reset even though the tank is right full. Had it to be already once, said the concentration may have been off and suggested I use their adblue instead of the Walmart brand I had put in. Wasn't even a few days before the engine light came back on, and now I have 50 km to no start. Not terribly happy, but hopefully whatever the problem is, it's covered by the VW warranty.

Many have had issues with the tank and associated hardware it comes with. Heater and level sensors and such. Should replace the whole thing under warranty with a new unit. My car was brand new and has already had the tank and hardware replaced under warranty. Threw a code. You should have it scanned with VCDS and if there is a code showing it should be replaced completely.

2015 Q7, bought new Feb 2019. Post fix problems required two visits to dealers in early days, no issues throughout summer and next 18k. Once it got cold, new problems surfaced, and from what I am told, result of work done during "fix" (now THERE's an oxymoron!!!) they think disturbed a harness under the center console/shifter that is somehow not allowing the park lock to release when colder than -25C or so, thus they are replacing the entire shift quadrant (pretty sure it only needs the right lubricant in the pivot point of the release lever driven by the N110 solenoid).

2ManyKMfor1Tank said:

2013 Passat owner here, have had it less than 3 weeks. Already problems, Adblue warning won't reset even though the tank is right full. Had it to be already once, said the concentration may have been off and suggested I use their adblue instead of the Walmart brand I had put in. Wasn't even a few days before the engine light came back on, and now I have 50 km to no start. Not terribly happy, but hopefully whatever the problem is, it's covered by the VW warranty.

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I've had that issue with our T'reg TDI. Did you ever figure out why it isn't recognizing the AdBlue refill? It's bunk that it's not VW blessed piss. Mine went into lockout to start as I was on the way to the airport and had to fly out. It was towed to a VW dlr in Vegas who got the code cleared and it started, but they had no idea why it didn't recognize refilling the urea tank. TIA for any hints.

Mike in Anchorage said:

I've had that issue with our T'reg TDI. Did you ever figure out why it isn't recognizing the AdBlue refill? It's bunk that it's not VW blessed piss. Mine went into lockout to start as I was on the way to the airport and had to fly out. It was towed to a VW dlr in Vegas who got the code cleared and it started, but they had no idea why it didn't recognize refilling the urea tank. TIA for any hints.

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Had a customer buy a used 3.0TDI with this concern. Spent couple months with Tech Line and reading arcane MVB in the computer, replace countless parts. Finally came to the conclusion that there was a glitch during the software update before it was sold. ECM would not release the warning, even though we could reset the distance to empty to 3600 miles. Eventually replaced the ECM and updated the new ECM to force it to reset.

BTW - Initial warning to add DEF will clear if you add DEF. After a while the warning is more dire and will require scan tool to reset. Also, depending on the engine and software, the ECM will require seeing a SCR regen before clearing the light. Thank EPA for this garbage.

Jason

Very happy with my JSW

My JSW had 13k miles when I got it in October and it's at 17k now and running fine. Only problem I have is the backup camera is dim compared to the one on my 2017 GMC.

SilverGhost said:

BTW - Initial warning to add DEF will clear if you add DEF. After a while the warning is more dire and will require scan tool to reset. Also, depending on the engine and software, the ECM will require seeing a SCR regen before clearing the light. Jason

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Thanks, but the problem is that it did NOT recognize my adding DEF and still locked me out. Hell, when the first message came up, I tried to add a 2.5 gal bottle which was more than it had used, so it was spilling all over the inside wheel well. I'm not asking about the lockout, but if others have had problems with not recognizing DEF had been added so I DO NOT get locked out again. I tow, so usage is quite variable and often insanely high.

TIA.

@mike - yeah, that's usually a sign the AdBlue heater failed. Glad they put an extended warranty on all of those things. When we do the AEM, Touaregs and Passats usually have a service action to replace the AdBlue heater.

Jason

I think the adblue heater failed in many TREGs including my2012. So far the 2016 is ok,but only has 11,000 miles. So far I can go 10,000 miles with no warning to add adblue. It is a mystery as to why normal use should not go oil change to oil change. If you are towing a ton of the mileage then it will be different.

showdown 42 said:

I think the adblue heater failed in many TREGs including my2012. So far the 2016 is ok,but only has 11,000 miles. So far I can go 10,000 miles with no warning to fill adblue. It is a mystery as to why normal use should not go oil change to oil change. If you are towing a ton of the mileage then it will be different.

Click to expand...

I'm towing two and a half tons. So yeah, it drinks DEF. If the AdBlue heater is not functioning correctly, is there something I can see on OBDEleven to indicate that so I can take it in to get fixed?

The issue, as I was told, was AdBlue contaminating the sensor probes in the tank module. Apparently the heater and level probes are built together, and both will corrode or be damaged by AdBlue.

Not sure exactly what to look for in measured values? Maybe heater circuit?

Jason

soot1 said:

You probably know that there are a lot of parts on your TDI that are completely absent from your gasser VWs - HPFP, turbo (except the GLI), urea tank, urea heater, urea injector, DPF, vacuum pump (X GLI), NOX trap, etc, etc. Originally, some of those extra parts were designed with the cheating software in mind, i.e. they were designed to withstand only occasional use, but not continuous loading, as they should have been designed. The mandated fix then attempted to rectify this situation, but the jury is still out on the results. It is a totally different scenario when a design team is tasked with designing a new engine and its emission system for a vehicle that will go into production at some point in the future (the team has the freedom to make as many iterations as it sees fit), than when that same team has to make design changes to vehicles that are already on the road.

As I said earlier - the results are by no means unanimous. Some people are very unhappy with their post-fix cars, some are only partially happy, and some report no noticeable changes in the behavior of their fixed car. However, one unquestionable fact about the Dieselgate is that only a small fraction of all TDI owners opted to have their vehicles fixed and continue driving them. The rest of us were lured by VW to give them up. I cannot speak for anyone else, but my personal motivation was twofold - besides the financial benefit, I also considered the huge unknown of what will the vehicle be like if I have it fixed, and pretty much everyone knew even before the repairs began that either the fuel economy, or the performance, or the reliability, or any combination thereof, would be impacted negatively.

Click to expand...

That was my concern as well but $14,000 for a $28,000 MSRP car with 33,000 miles and a 120K mile warranty was enough to get me to bite.

We had a 2003 Jetta Wagon TDI that we had for 10 years / 245,000 miles and loved. This 2014 is a nice car but the mileage is pretty poor at 37 mpg. After 1 1/2 years I am starting to question my decision.

JSH1 said:

That was my concern as well but $14,000 for a $28,000 MSRP car with 33,000 miles and a 120K mile warranty was enough to get me to bite.

We had a 2003 Jetta Wagon TDI that we had for 10 years / 245,000 miles and loved. This 2014 is a nice car but the mileage is pretty poor at 37 mpg. After 1 1/2 years I am starting to question my decision.

Click to expand...

You are better off deleting and tune it... MPG will go up big time. Those emission fixes is what kills the power a bit and MPG hurts quite a bit. It depends on your emission testing state or not.

I did it 6 months after buying my buy back CPO 2014 JSW and never regret it.

I did the same to my old 2011 JSW that was rear-ended later on with almost 300k miles. So here I am with 2014 JSW.


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Having driven a "fixed" Beetle and getting 50+ MPG, I can say it's a lot about driving style and conditions. City MPG was noticeably worse after the fix, but highway actually was about same if not slightly better.

Oh, and from what all our customers have been saying, MPG is much more affected by a lead foot after the fix than before.

Jason