Rust in the filler neck

I'm posting over here instead of the B5 forum. There have been mentions of rust in the filler neck. I have the problem and took the car to a local stealer. The factory rep looked at it and said it's a fuel related problem and not covered . This VW Rep, John Moutopoulos covers all of the stealerships on LI. I call VW to find his supervisor....I'm told that the rep's don't have one. The suggestion was to try another stealership with a different rep. That would mean N.J., CT or at least an hour away So a problem may be covered by a shop manager or stealership owner or a rep?
How does one car in WA get a fuel tank replaced under warranty and the car in NY not be covered for the exact same problem.

Welcome to stealerships and warranty denial in the real world I am beginning to think they get kick backs for this junk.

The next time you see that rep, punch him right in the stomach.. I am sure it won't help with the rust in the filler neck, but it feel awful good

Remember, in the U.S, its up to them to prove it. Not the other way around.

LoneLIPumpeDuse said:

How does one car in WA get a fuel tank replaced under warranty and the car in NY not be covered for the exact same problem.

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Not sure about rust in the filler neck but you probably don't need a new fuel tank. IIRC, the tank is all PLASTIC.

Show me the proof

It's such Bull$hit, I ask the sevice manager how he came to the conclusion it was fuel related. He say's that what the Rep said. So I ask, what did he do? Drain the fuel tank and check for water or rust in the tank or check the fuel filter for water? Nope none of the above. In fact the SM say's it doesn't look like rust to him. I said did you take a paper towel and give it wipe? Nope, he say's "I've seen this on lot's of cars." I then asked how many PD TDI he services.....complete silence (I'm in a CARB state remember) I then ask why VW would place metal that would rust, in any fuel system? More silence.... I then tell him I can guarentee there is no water in my fuel system. That this is a problem from condensation and the wrong part is being used. I also mention that this problem has been covered under warranty in WA.

The Rep will be back on Monday morn, I'll give him a call and let you know what his line of BS is

BTW, they are replacing the trunk hinges

No satisfaction yet

Called Smithtown VW this AM looking for John M the VW factory rep. He not in, has not showed up this week. Service manager said he will call me when the rep is in next. Somehow I feel like I'm getting BS'd . I intend to litigate this if the part is not replaced. If you have or had this problem please post up and tell the story.

Please follow through, and keep us updated.

Terri, the service manager at Smithtown VW, had promised me, that he would call me when John Moutopoulos (VW factory rep) was around. No phone call to date, zip, zero, nada....

I started looking for the exact coverage in the warranty.
Nothing found in my owners manual. Although I did find a reference to the BBB auto. Seems that if you have less than 24,000mi and the car is less than 2 years old, VW will fork the bill for a BBB rep. I have phoned in a claim with the BBB auto and am about to send back the paper work. Interesting that neither VW customer service or the dealer did not inform me of this option of an outside arbutrator This can take up to 4 months I have been told

Stay tuned.....

Just a word on caution on pinning your hopes to an arbitrator, we had a forum member lose his warranty by using Delvac 1 in his pre-PD tdi, even though it meets one of the specs specified in the owners manual. Arbitrator ruled it needed to meet all 3 specs which no oil does.

I have been denied by BBB auto. They state I'm over the mileage allowance (even though I was under 24000mi when I reported ).

Well I'm nearing the frustration point and am going to give up. It's not worth my time and anger. I'll take care of the problem myself. I will never buy a new VW again and will never use Smithtown VW for anything in the future. VW sucks and I can't wait for Honda to introduce the 2.2 i-CTDi to north america! The Passat will be for sale the same day the Accord diesel comes ashore. Another customer lost by VW

Pictures would be nice.....

btw, did you try to figure out if it really is rust yourself? Pictures might show diferent, but I imagine what you are seeing is flash-rust, not the sort with big flakes of iron oxide. A dried out flash rusted area often gives the appearance of a light dusting of small particles. This sort of corrosion generally can be polished away with little effort and minimal degradation of the parent metal.

At some point, the air space of the filler neck must have had water/condensate in it, but this should be fairly simple to prevent in the future. The problem should not reoccur if you keep your tank closed to the atmosphere as much as possible. The fuller, the better, obviously.

When you fill the tank, do you get fuel to the top of the neck? I would think fuel-wetted metal would be fairly well protected from any atmospheric corrosion.

I will reserve judgement until there are pictures that show the extent of the rusting problem, but if it is as light as I suspect, I think you're getting much too bent outta shape over this.

And what's up with the trunk hinges? Is that a recall item?

JJ

I'll post some pic's when the wife gets home with the car.
Surface rust will lead to large flakes eventually. As Neil put it "Rust Never Sleeps" and I live in the rust belt.
Surface polishing is not cure for rust unless the metal is sealed. Which is what I intend to do with some of Eastwoods polyurethane. But ***, why do I have to do this to a new car? If the car was 10 years old, I'd have no gripe.

You can't keep the moisture out of your tank. The humidity level of your climate ,dew point and temperature will dictate the amount of H2O that enters your fuel system through atmospheric venting and refueling. Living on LI, 1 mile from the sound, 50% humidity is considered low! Unless the venting system uses a dessicant filter , water will enter the fuel system.

The trunk is hard to open, the wife can't do it one arm. When it's really cold I even have to use two hands. It barely budges when you press the button. I guess I should be happy it unlocks at all.
There is only one recall for the 04 TDI GLS passat; the fuel pump leak.

BTW here is the other one http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=105744&highlight=rust+filler+neck

JettaJake said:

I will reserve judgement until there are pictures that show the extent of the rusting problem, but if it is as light as I suspect, I think you're getting much too bent outta shape over this.
And what's up with the trunk hinges? Is that a recall item?
JJ

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Here's some pic's

http://www.msnusers.com/04PassatGLSTDI/shoebox.msnw

Don't know if you can tell or not from the pictures. Every time the fuel cap is unscrewed it pulls the rust away and distributes its through out the threads of the neck and cap. Great way to contaminate your fuel. Just unscrew the cap, refuel and your contaminating your fuel. I'm now the only one who is allowed to refuel this car. Each time I unscrew the cap, I have to wipe down the neck and cap before fueling

Hey try some Naval jelly. It's stuff boaters use that turns rust into coated metal. I imagine a well stocked boating place should have it. Paint some on the filter neck- should cure your problem. We own three 2001 VW- gas Jetta, gas Passat and my TDI Jetta so far no weird problems like yours, I think someone back at VW may have buffed the paint off. As far as VW doing right by customer- well just read a few posts here. This club basically sprung up so we could help each other sans stealerships. Good luck

Thanks Mike, I actually have some in the garage. It's phosphoric acid in the product that converts the rust to ferric phosphate (a black coating). I'm very familiar with rust and rust treatments. It's best to seal the ferric phosphate, to keep any oxygen away. I have found that acid treated rust will start to rust again, unless coated with a very strong sealer. I perfer Eastwood to POR. Rust I know.

akmike said:

Hey try some Naval jelly. It's stuff boaters use that turns rust into coated metal. This club basically sprung up so we could help each other sans stealerships. Good luck

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I forgot to mention, somewhere in june of 06, I tried another Stealer, Westbury. Mike the service guy was very surprised when I showed him the filler neck and promptly ordered the replacement tank. No mention of having to talk with the vw factory rep? (that was too easy I thought) He gave me a call about a week later when the tank came in. I made an appointment and specifically told him I would have to wait for the car, I could not leave it over night, No problem he said. I showed up early for my 8am appointment, job was going to take about 3 hours, so I walked around, got breakfast etc...
12 noon I come back, the car is in the same spot Long story short
The tank was not replaced they had to talk with the factory rep (my friend JM). You know what happened next, no coverage on tank replacement. Again I ask to speak to the factory rep, I got runaround.
Asked the service manager to put it in writing that rust in the filler neck will not effect my injectors, sheepishly agrees but doesn't have time right then. After 4 weeks of calling for my letter, nada, squat, bumkiss.

Long-dormant thread.....only seeing the pics you posted for the 1st time -- that's a lot of rust (or whatever it is)!

It looks as if the "rust" is limited to the very end portion of the filler neck. This leads me to wonder if there is a ring connector/insert there that mates the tank neck with the body of the vehicle.....someone with a parts list and exploded diagram should be able to give a part number.

I may be all wet here, but my guess is that this steel ring was supposed to be plated (perhaps w/ ZnNi or even just plain Zn) and your ride got one that was improperly finished for some reason (bad clip/connection on plating rack maybe?).

Hey, even if the rust migrates down into the fuel tank, it still has to pass thru the fuel filter, right? Would think your injectors and the rest of the system should be fine regardless. Probably a waste of time expecting any action from VW on this one..... (pssst, btw it's "bumpkiss" not "bumkiss" )

So, other than this one sticking point, what is your overall appraisal of the car now? I see you have a picture set relating to a breather hose....a continuing problem?

JJ