06 Beetle P0101 P0299

I had to drive my daughter's daughter's 06 TDI Beetle yesterday. It seemed like it drove normally in the morning, but morning rush hour traffic is not necessarily the time to identify poor performance. I definitely noticed performance issues after I picked up the car at noon after some brake work. The exhaust was constantly smoky, and it was hard to gain speed up a hill that wasn't terribly big.

It is currently giving me codes P0101 and P0299. It also gives a P0128 that keeps the CEL on perpetually, so I don't know if these codes are sudden appearances, or have been hiding behind the P0128 code for some time. Scanning the forum last night, it looks like vacuum leak or intake/intercooler air leaks are top suspects. I would like the benefit of the group wisdom.

I'm just trying to prioritize where I start my hunt. If someone replacing rotors and pads would be in a position to affect a vacuum line that could account for these codes, I want to start there. Otherwise, where would you start your hunt on a car with 130,000 miles?

In case it sheds any light, it won't start with the MAF sensor unplugged. After I cleared codes, then drove it again this morning, it gave the P0101 and P0299 codes again. It felt OK around the neighborhood, but acceleration uphill is still definitely not what it should be.

Pleae let me know where you would start the search.

Thanks,
Tom

See this:
http://www.myturbodiesel.com/threads/codes-p0101-and-p0299-possible-bad-turbocharger.15038/

It has excerpts from Ross-Tech WIKI about those codes.

JETaah said:

See this:
http://www.myturbodiesel.com/threads/codes-p0101-and-p0299-possible-bad-turbocharger.15038/

It has excerpts from Ross-Tech WIKI about those codes.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I'll take a look.

Tom

I would look at the fabric covered vacuum lines that tend to wear out causing all sorts of problems. If the shop was working near the brake booster adding fluid to the brake reservoir, they could have disturbed these hoses and now one is cracked or popped off. Easy fix, just need to find it. I would get a bunch of hose and replace it, I bought some in bulk and just cut it to suit.

After I was working on the engine, I took it out and about a half hour into the the drive, my main line popped off and I lost boost and then the car wouldn't accelerate. I found the loose hose and popped it back on and away I went.

PB_NB said:

I would look at the fabric covered vacuum lines that tend to wear out causing all sorts of problems. If the shop was working near the brake booster adding fluid to the brake reservoir, they could have disturbed these hoses and now one is cracked or popped off. Easy fix, just need to find it. I would get a bunch of hose and replace it, I bought some in bulk and just cut it to suit.

After I was working on the engine, I took it out and about a half hour into the the drive, my main line popped off and I lost boost and then the car wouldn't accelerate. I found the loose hose and popped it back on and away I went.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

I guess I have a date with the mosquitoes on the driveway this evening.

Tom

PB_NB said:

I would look at the fabric covered vacuum lines that tend to wear out causing all sorts of problems. If the shop was working near the brake booster adding fluid to the brake reservoir, they could have disturbed these hoses and now one is cracked or popped off. Easy fix, just need to find it. I would get a bunch of hose and replace it, I bought some in bulk and just cut it to suit.

After I was working on the engine, I took it out and about a half hour into the the drive, my main line popped off and I lost boost and then the car wouldn't accelerate. I found the loose hose and popped it back on and away I went.

Click to expand...

The OP's 2006 NB does not have any of those fabric hoses, just FYI.

It DOES have a charge air tube that can spit itself off over time if the tab for the lock ring wears down, at the throttle flap valve.

Other spot is if the car gets crashed a lot eventually the intercooler will break.

Given the fact that you have both a low boost DTC and a MAF DTC, you almost certainly have a charge air leak somewhere. It is not likely a boost control side problem. Fortunately, the BEW's charge air tract is fairly easy to examine, just look for any oily residue being spewed out through the leak.

oilhammer said:

The OP's 2006 NB does not have any of those fabric hoses, just FYI.

It DOES have a charge air tube that can spit itself off over time if the tab for the lock ring wears down, at the throttle flap valve.

Other spot is if the car gets crashed a lot eventually the intercooler will break.

Given the fact that you have both a low boost DTC and a MAF DTC, you almost certainly have a charge air leak somewhere. It is not likely a boost control side problem. Fortunately, the BEW's charge air tract is fairly easy to examine, just look for any oily residue being spewed out through the leak.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

I spent some quality time with the charge air plumbing on our '01 TDI Beetle when older daughter conducted an unplanned physics experiment as a new driver. Looks like it is time to look into the pathway on the '06. No impacts on the corner with the intercooler, that I know of, so maybe just wear and tear, or a junction bumped loose. I'll be sure to check near the throttle valve.

Tom

If you are familiar with the charge air tract on the 2001, the 2006 is not that different. The locations and routing is essentially the same. The difference is that the 2001 just used constant tension spring clamps on the charge air hose connections. The 2006 has the quick connect type, which have a little bale that clips on to two little tabs on a metal cylinder made on to each end of each hose. And there is a double lip o-ring on each metal cylinder.

I spent a little time on the driveway to collect more data. Got one mosquito bite behind my right ear.

I checked the charge air pathway a little bit. There is a tiny amount of play at the anti-shudder valve, maybe the width of the retainer clip. Don't know if it is significant enough to deploy a "dog collar" yet. I expect not.

Here are images of the joint when the hose is pushed and pulled.





I think this is more significant. At the intercooler, there is a loop of o-ring that protrudes from the joint. Some oil has blown past it, so clearly airflow is compromised.

(Stupid auto-focus)

Tomorrow is not a good day to show up with black oil splotches, so further efforts may wait to the weekend.

At least I have an obvious candidate to work on. I wonder if the IC snagged on something, or got jarred somehow.

Thanks for all the input.

Tom

That second picture is your problem.

And if that is at the intercooler itself, it *may* be due to hitting something. Look for any signs of abrasion on the lower bumper cover. It does not take much. I see people pull up on to curbs in parking lots all the time, tearing stuff up. No idea why they do that (especially in a car as "short" as a Beetle or Golf), but they do. The metal bracket that supports the intercooler, especially the lower one, gets bent, and can cause the charge air tubing to get pulled on at a strange angle and cause problems.

oilhammer said:

That second picture is your problem.

And if that is at the intercooler itself, it *may* be due to hitting something. Look for any signs of abrasion on the lower bumper cover. It does not take much. I see people pull up on to curbs in parking lots all the time, tearing stuff up. No idea why they do that (especially in a car as "short" as a Beetle or Golf), but they do. The metal bracket that supports the intercooler, especially the lower one, gets bent, and can cause the charge air tubing to get pulled on at a strange angle and cause problems.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll see if I can find a new o-ring today, and get it back tight by the weekend.

Tom

Oring... neoprene isn't going​ to get it. It's not oil resistant enough. Get one at the dealership or on line vendor specifically for this. Viton is the green colored type. There are other types as well.

JETaah said:

Oring... neoprene isn't going​ to get it. It's not oil resistant enough. Get one at the dealership or on line vendor specifically for this. Viton is the green colored type. There are other types as well.

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Thanks. Local dealer had one. Apparently it isn't an o-ring (there are grooves around it on both sides). VW calls it a washer or seal ring. That confused the counter man and me for a minute while we searched for o-rings in the charge air path.


I see oil drips and mosquitoes on my head in my future.

Thanks to all for the good info.

Tom

I had the same problem as in the IC pic. The tabs had worn off, but the only DTC was the P0101 which I knew was related to the MAF. Fortunately the part # is printed on the hose.

JB05 said:

I had the same problem as in the IC pic. The tabs had worn off, but the only DTC was the P0101 which I knew was related to the MAF. Fortunately the part # is printed on the hose.

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Good to know. I only picked up the washer/seal. I didn't think to grab a new hose as well. Once I have it apart, I may discover a second parts trip in my future.

Some of the pieces that make up that pathway have silly prices at the dealer. I can almost understand $415 for the cooler, but a $305 plastic pipe seems like a stretch.

Tom

tlynch said:

Good to know. I only picked up the washer/seal. I didn't think to grab a new hose as well. Once I have it apart, I may discover a second parts trip in my future.

Some of the pieces that make up that pathway have silly prices at the dealer. I can almost understand $415 for the cooler, but a $305 plastic pipe seems like a stretch.

Tom

Click to expand...

Sometimes you can haggle or set-up a commercial account at dealerships.
Here are a few on-line that may have better prices, they do charge too much for shipping-
www.WorldImpex.com
www.1stvwparts.com
www.expressoemparts.com/
www.jimellisvwparts.com/

Update:

My daughter didn't want to wait until tonight when I could replace the seal, so she went to a local shop which fixed her up in about 30 minutes. I am told that power and drivability are back to normal.

Now that I am aware of the issue with the pipe connections wearing down, I have time to plan ahead for the possibility that the same joint, or others may let loose.

Side note on technical "progress" by manufacturers:
I hate, hate, hate it when car manufacturers save pennies per car with parts or construction in a way that cost me lots of dollars to fix later. I'm certain that VW made the change from clamps to clips to save assembly time, maybe 30 seconds per car for all the connections in the charge air loop. I just bought an $11 seal, and paid for 30 minutes labor to fix that "improved" connection. There are still another 4 seals in the the loop that may do the same thing to me.

The wire clips on the '06 are not enough easier than the clamps on the '01 to justify the cost I just paid as a result of the change, even if I had done the swap myself. I never had one of those old clamps let loose, even in a collision, and they weren't so hard to deal with that I couldn't do it with channel lock pliers.

Don't even get me started on turn signal/flasher switches in Chrysler minivans.

Thanks again for all the help,
Tom

Well you could always buy a brand new one! Oh, wait....

But yeah, sometimes things that would seem to be an improvement often are not any better and may even be a little worse.

Since we still do not know actually why the 2006 was like that, it is tough to outright blame the design on that reason alone. Lots of BEW NBs running around that never have this problem at all, too. I still suspect the car got bumped and something is tweaked out of whack causing excess stress on the joint. Usually the only spot that is truly problematic with this setup on any of the PDs is at the intake flap, and for some reason the NBs are actually not nearly as bad about it as the G/J.

Oh, and the published list price for that seal is $9.02. Not cheap, but not $11, so once again we see another example of dealer price gouging.

oilhammer said:

But yeah, sometimes things that would seem to be an improvement often are not any better and may even be a little worse.

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I don't blame VW for wanting to streamline things. They multiply each change by millions of units, and it add up to real money for them. A few seconds of labor per car times millions of cars is a lot. I'm sure wire clips are cheaper for VW than spring clamps, and when multiplied by several clamps per car and millions of cars, it adds up to a lot of money.

I don't care about millions of VWs. I care about the one in my driveway. I doubt that any VW purchase I have made would have turned out different over the amount of money that was saved by changes like clips for clamps and other cost reduction changes.

But my future VW purchase decisions will be affected by my experience with quality issues and maintenance frequency and costs, because those costs on my end add up to a whole lot more than I saved on the front end. This includes things like door upholstery that falls off and showers the carpet with adhesive crumbs, interior door handles that break off, door locks that break if you use the key to unlock them, third brake light designs that use thin plastic to carry tension, tail light assemblies that can't take the heat of taillights, and electrical wire insulation that cracks and falls off after 6 years.

If only the stupid things weren't so much fun to drive.

Tom

Ha, yeah I hear ya. Unfortunately, if you removed every stupid thing from the road, there wouldn't be anything left to drive. They all have some dumb things. I could go on and on about that. I prefer to enjoy the good things and know that they soften the blow of the dumb things.

I drove my Beetle to work today... loved every second of it! Every Rocketchipped second of it.