How Little Adblue?

Rez1 · Oct 18, 2016

Sorry, initially put this in the wrong forum. how much DEF do I need to put in to clear the warning for Low Adblue? I have put in 1 of those special stealership bottles, but it's still on. Didn't really want to fill it up all the way as November 1 is the tentative return date of the car. I'm down to 400 miles now. Thanks in advance.

VeeDubTDI · Oct 18, 2016

You need to put in about one to two gallons in order to get the warning to reset.

Buy a 2.5 gallon jug from Autozone for $12 and don't worry about it again. http://www.autozone.com/miscellaneo...sel-exhaust-fluid/811821_0_0/?&searchText=def

Rez1 · Oct 18, 2016

Awesome! Thank you!!

Since I already put in the stealership DEF, I'm assuming mixing Autozone's version with it is completely alright? Oh, any special funnel needed? How big is the Adblue tank? Surely don't want to spill and make the car stink!

VeeDubTDI · Oct 18, 2016

The AdBlue tank is 5 gallons from empty, so you should be fine to add the entire contents of the 2.5 gallon tote.

You can use a long funnel to make pouring easier, or you can unscrew the cap on your VW bottle and refill it from your big DEF jug. If you listen while you're filling, you'll hear when it gets close to full. Be careful not to overfill, as spilled DEF is a pain in the next to clean up.

How to refill the VW bottle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5rXEWIeGCU

Rico567 · Oct 18, 2016

Those little "stealership" bottles only hold 1.5 liters, I think. Most DEF is sold here in the U.S. in a 2.5 gal. jug, or of course a person can always toddle down to the truck stop and hose a 55 gal. drum full out of the pumps. Based on what I've read about people turning the warning off, I'd say "more." Why not just fill it up? A 2.5 gal jug of DEF at Rural King (where I shop) is less than $10. (And, just to make it clear, all DEF is DEF, there is only one formula, which is a supersaturated solution of urea, I forget the concentration.)

r11 · Oct 26, 2016

BTW, the large DEF jugs are very affordable @ VW stealerships, I was surprised.
If you still have some $ on the dealer card, thats one of the items you can buy .

In my case, I usually add 1-2 bottles-worth of DEF when I get the warning and then it is gone for few months. I bought one of these @ a dealer and use it to refill the tank.

Of course, if you're going on a cross-country trip, it makes sense to top the tank off.
Otherwise, lugging around 5 gallons of DEF is just extra load on the tank, suspension & engine

.

Rico567 · Oct 26, 2016

I've discovered, with our Passat, that it will take just a little under a 2.5 gal. jug at the 10K engine oil change (and some others posting to this forum seem to get similar consumption). Why not just dump in a jug when doing the oil change? I got a M-B hose / jug that just hooks up and the DEF drains into the tank, clean, neat, no spillage.

yehaman · Nov 2, 2016

VeeDubTDI said:
You need to put in about one to two gallons in order to get the warning to reset.

Buy a 2.5 gallon jug from Autozone for $12 and don't worry about it again. http://www.autozone.com/miscellaneo...sel-exhaust-fluid/811821_0_0/?&searchText=def

It was only $13 @ the dealer...

Rico567 · Nov 2, 2016

I got the 50K oil change done yesterday at the dealer (on the last credit on my courtesy card), told them not to do the AdBlue. I stopped by Rural King on the way home and picked up a 2.5 gal. jug for $6.99 and it took all but a few ounces. So, at least for my car's consumption, the figure of about 2.5 gal. for 10K miles seems pretty good....

VeeDubTDI · Nov 3, 2016

2.5 gallons of DEF per 10,000 miles is 1% of fuel consumption (assuming 40 MPG fuel consumption). If the car wasn't cheating on emissions, it would consume 7.5 gallons DEF per 10,000 miles, which is the industry average of 3% of fuel consumption.

Trade Wind · Nov 3, 2016

Hope the "fix" for Gen 2 is just 3x as much AdBlue and no noticeable change to mileage, power, or reliability. Wouldn't bother me at all to add a container every 3,300 miles.

Rico567 · Nov 4, 2016

Trade Wind said:
Hope the "fix" for Gen 2 is just 3x as much AdBlue and no noticeable change to mileage, power, or reliability. Wouldn't bother me at all to add a container every 3,300 miles.

^^^^^^

Yes, I'd very much like to see something like this. At the current price for AdBlue, it'd just be something I'd set as an alert in my calendar for every two months and top off the tank. Of course, our current plans involve the buyback, not the fix, making this pretty academic for us.

atc98002 · Nov 4, 2016

Trade Wind said:
Hope the "fix" for Gen 2 is just 3x as much AdBlue and no noticeable change to mileage, power, or reliability. Wouldn't bother me at all to add a container every 3,300 miles.

I've heard they may replace one of the filters in the exhaust as well (not the DPF). But yeah, needing to fill the AdBlue tank one, or even twice, between oil changes would be no big deal. I understand why VW wanted to keep it within normal service timeframes, but overall no big deal.

Pitchar · Nov 7, 2016

If the fix is using more adblue (3% vs 1%) wouldn't that use more fuel, because the adblue is just the catalyst, the diesel fuel is what burns the soot in the pdf right? Or is more adblue with same fuel the answer to emissions issue?

VeeDubTDI · Nov 7, 2016

Pitchar said:
If the fix is using more adblue (3% vs 1%) wouldn't that use more fuel, because the adblue is just the catalyst, the diesel fuel is what burns the soot in the pdf right? Or is more adblue with same fuel the answer to emissions issue?

The AdBlue system and the diesel particulate filter (DPF) are two totally separate systems. They both need heat to work, but one is not directly related to the other.

They may need to increase fuel consumption slightly in order to keep the SCR system hot enough for the AdBlue to work efficiently under transient engine load conditions.

740GLE · Nov 10, 2016

How soon after you top up the tank does the warning message stop popping up?

Next restart or does it take a couple cycles?

compu_85 · Nov 10, 2016

On our car it goes away at the next key cycle.

-J

740GLE · Nov 10, 2016

Thanks, this morning I added prob a gallon and a half I had left over last time I topped up and still had the warning. I'll toss another 2.5 at it and see where were at.

In 73K miles this is the first time we've had the warning light come up, but granted I can't quite remember last time I topped up.

So far the mileage drop has been linear on the display, dreading adblue heater replacement dealer visit hassle.

740GLE · Nov 14, 2016

light went off at lunch, was still able to toss 2 more gallons into it (refilled a krus bottle for spare), so possibly 3.5 gal added when the light came on.

wallyworld had 2.5 gal for $7.99

Price at the pump at the local stations is 2.59/gal.

Rico567 · Nov 14, 2016

740GLE said:
light went off at lunch, was still able to toss 2 more gallons into it (refilled a krus bottle for spare), so possibly 3.5 gal added when the light came on.
<snip>

So- you finally got the light to go off and stay off?

How Little Adblue?

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