Yes, I knew there was a heater core problem prior to the fix. What I did not know was that the heater core and the egr cooler are in series. The coolant runs from the engine to the egr cooler and then to the heater core.
A restriction in the heater core was causing the egr cooler to overheat and boil the coolant.
What I am thinking is that the egr system has more exhaust gasses going thru it. Prior to the fix all was well. But the increased cooling load on the egr cooler after the fix caused the system to fail.
Using exhaust gasses in the combustion process reduces NOx formation. And NOx was the issue with the scandal. So it would be reasonable to think that increased egr was one of the primary ways that VW reduced NOx to comply with the emission agreement with the gov't.
The problem I was having with the dealer was that I explained this to the service personnel as soon as I saw a problem after the fix was done. So instead of replacing the heater core they decided the car needed a new cooling system (that did not include the heater core) at a cost of thousands of dollars.
There are 2 egr systems on the VW common rail engine. Low and high pressure. This system that uses the egr cooler is the low pressure system. One side effect of the egr cooler is that hot exhaust gasses warm the coolant in the egr cooler and help the enigne to come up to operating temperature faster.
VWCC said they would not pay for any part of the cooling system. Even in this situation where the fix caused the CEL to come on. From my point of view the 4 year warranty on the fix should have covered this. Look at prior posts. The wording in the warranty is short, clear and concise.
I think it's worded that way so that the car owner is protected from the very thing that happened here. The dealer misdiagnosed the problem. If I did not catch this it would have been very costly and NOT fixed the problem.
VWCC said that they would not pay for any part of the cooling system, even if it causes the CEL to go away. Once again the wording of the warranty is very clear to me. But VW thinks otherwise. The VWCC people I spoke to did not seem to understand any technical aspects of the car.
I can only imagine the group of people sitting at a conference table and coming up with the warranty wording. It is there to protect the car owner. VW will do anything it can to push these costs onto the owner. One case at a time. One dollar at a time. Anything to avoid paying.
And now I see that the DSG transmissions in 2009 cars are not working after the fix. With all the cars they bought back you would have thought they had plenty of opportunity to test out the fix on a variety of cars. High mileage, low mileage, from various parts of the country. To make sure they know all the potential issues that could arise. But that would have cost money.
VW knows exactly what parts go into each car. What software works with what hardware.
This is what happens when the bottom line profit is what their sole goal is. Short term thinking for short term profit.
I may have worded my question(s) improperly. What I was trying to ask (which is not in
jbright's post) is:
- Did you know you had a clogged heater core before you brought in your vehicle for the emissions fix?
- Did you have heating problems in past winters?
I'm trying to understand if the owner knew there was a clogged heater core prior to bringing it to the dealer for the emissions fix.
If clogged heater cores, prior to the fix, did not trigger a CEL, but after the fix, they do, VW did say that the thresholds in the new ECU flash would be different, so it is possible the new flash threshold was lowered and the CEL was triggered after the fix was applied. I'm not sure if a clogged heater core is considered part of the emissions system to be under the emissions warranty extension anyway. I'm sure others in this forum are better versed in knowing this than I.