UNOFFICIAL Adblue Heater Element Failure Thread

A few months ago my '12 w/73k miles threw the P202A code. Dealer est. $1,200. I was the first for my dealer to have this. Was issued a Passat loaner to carry me over until the 2-week back order was filled. I *****ed up the VWNA ladder which only netted me a $136 off of the actual part. Final BOM was $1k out the door. I think it was back in July on an earlier thread I was trying to asses the quantity of TDI owners who experienced this issue. At that time not too many responses- for me to gauge the climate for a class action. Funny to me because within one week of the Emissions disaster I had heard of seven class actions ramping up.

I just don't see this ending well for VW especially with the US EPA vs. VW AG ~ Criminal Conspiracy building momentum.

Well, they were visually identical. Same markings on all electrical components in the heater module itself. Same exact wires (except one harness was shorter).

Time will tell I guess, but I've already driven it a couple hundred miles since installing it - - no DTCs or CELs yet! So I'm guessing that it is in fact doing its job.

Again, if anyone is reluctant to do this, then they by all means shouldn't do it. I'm just sharing my experience to date, especially since there was "speculation" in the forum about this specific part. I thought it would be helpful to share my experience. If people disagree, I'll stop posting about it.

Received this response today from the EPA reference Adblue components: Thank you for your inquiry regarding the federally mandated warranty which was forwarded to me for a response. The AdBlue fluid heater and pump are not covered by the federal emissions warranty; at this time, the warranty only covers the actual SCR catalyst. A list of the covered components and a description of the warranties is available on our web site at: www.epa.gov/otaq/archive/regs/im/obd/pubs/420f09048.pdf. However, vehicle technology is constantly changing, therefore there may be emissions control components or emissions related components which do not appear on this list. A more complete list can be found in your owner's manual/warranty booklet. The specified major emissions control components, however, are specified in the Clean Air Act and are the only components subject to the 8 years/80,000 mile federal emissions warranty. Below is some background information on the federal emissions warranties that might be useful. The Clean Air Act requires manufacturers of light-duty vehicles to provide two federal emission control warranties: (A) "Performance Warranty" and (B) "Design and Defect Warranty." These warranties are provided by the vehicle manufacturer and apply to used vehicles as well. The warranty period begins from the date of sale to the original owner. The Performance Warranty covers repairs which are required during the first 2 years or 24,000 miles of vehicle use (whichever first occurs) because the vehicle failed an emission test. Specified major emission control components are covered for the first 8 years or 80,000 miles (whichever first occurs). The specified major emission control components only include the catalytic converters, the electronic emissions control unit or computer (ECU), and the onboard emissions diagnostic (OBD) device or computer. If you are a resident of an area with an Inspection and Maintenance (I/M) program that meets federal guidelines, you are eligible for this warranty protection provided that: Your car or light-duty truck fails an approved emissions test; and Your vehicle is less than 2 years old and has less than 24,000 miles (up to 8 years/80,000 miles for certain components); and Your state or local government requires that you repair the vehicle; and The test failure does not result from misuse of the vehicle or a failure to follow the manufacturers’ written maintenance instructions; and You present the vehicle to a warranty-authorized manufacturer representative, along with evidence of the emission test failure, during the warranty period. The Design and Defect warranty covers repair of emission control or emission related parts which fail to function or function improperly because of a defect in materials or workmanship for 2 years or 24,000 miles (whichever first occurs), and the specified major emissions control components mentioned above for 8 years or 80,000 miles (whichever first occurs). The manufacturer can deny this warranty coverage if evidence shows that the emission component failure was caused by improper use or maintenance and not caused by a defect. When you believe you have identified a defective part, or your vehicle fails an emission test, you should follow the procedures for making a warranty claim as identified by the manufacturer in your owner’s manual or warranty booklet. If you plan to have the manufacturer pay for a repair under either of the emissions warranties, you must take the vehicle to a facility authorized by the vehicle manufacturer for repair to give them the opportunity to diagnose and repair it. Note that if your regular repair facility is not authorized by the vehicle manufacturer, they are not obligated to advise you of parts that are covered under warranty. Before giving your automotive technician the “go ahead” to perform repairs, check your owner’s manual/warranty booklet for possible warranty coverage. Additional state laws may apply, so you might want to contact your state Department of Motor Vehicles to find out. I hope this information is helpful. Thank you for contacting the Office of Transportation and Air Quality. Sincerely, Jennifer France ***************** Public Information Services Team Office of Transportation and Air Quality U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Mark Neil said:

Well, they were visually identical. Same markings on all electrical components in the heater module itself. Same exact wires (except one harness was shorter).

Time will tell I guess, but I've already driven it a couple hundred miles since installing it - - no DTCs or CELs yet! So I'm guessing that it is in fact doing its job.

Again, if anyone is reluctant to do this, then they by all means shouldn't do it. I'm just sharing my experience to date, especially since there was "speculation" in the forum about this specific part. I thought it would be helpful to share my experience. If people disagree, I'll stop posting about it.

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Thanks again for your clarity. If NMS owners can buy a much less expensive AsBlue kit that fits (with minor wiring change) we'll all benefit.

P202A
48K miles, 30 mos old
No symptoms other than CEL

After reading up on this and other forums I stopped by the dealer to discuss options. Dealer estimated about $1000 but they said they'd diagnose it for $122 and go to bat for me with VW for coverage. Dealer said they had the parts in stock. All of my service so far has been at the dealer. My plan was to meet them up to halfway on the cost or buy the part and do it myself.

I brought it in 4 days later as scheduled, final diagnosis was heater and other parts, $1050 to repair, no coverage from VW and no parts in stock. Parts were 3-4 days out so they asked if could I leave the car since it was torn apart. I was not happy.

After some heated discussion, an email to vwcares and tweet to @vwcares dealer called back next morning and said VW would cover all costs and put me in a loaner until the parts arrived and they could complete the repair.

My loaner is a TDI Jetta Wagon - a CPO that they can't sell so they're using them as loaners.

When I got home I had a recall notice for the airbag. Great!

^^^Excellent news for you, and all of us. Your persistence paid off. It's a lesson for all of us.

gothicreader said:

Just got back from VW to work on 2 recalls and fault code
9632 - Reductant Level Sensor
P203B 00 [036] - Implausible Signal
Intermittent - Not Confirmed - Tested Since Memory Clear
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00000001
Fault Priority: 2
Fault Frequency: 1
Mileage: 71576 km
Date: 2015.09.26
Time: 13:25:32
Needless to say, my comprehensive ($3K) warranty doesn't cover this fix since they consider it to an emission problem which is excluded from my policy. The dealership told me it would about $1100 to fix, but he was going to call VW on Monday to see if they will take care of cost to repair. Since I live in S. AZ this shouldn't be a problem to continue to drive my car, plus tank is filled with the ADBlue.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed because I definitely don't want to pay more than $100 dollars, which would have been my deductible.
After reading the posts on this thread it seems this is a common problem.
Also, asked them about dieselgate, and they still haven't gotten direction from VW as to what they are going to do to fix the problem. I feel sorry for the salesperson who are now not selling much since this came out.

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Got a call yesterday from the dealership and they would fix the problem at a 50/50 split. Me paying 50%! Of course, I said to them if they called VW. They essential told me or at least led me to believe that if they called, VW would agree to the 50/50 and I wouldn't be able to change this. However, they did give me the customer care number to call VW myself. I spoke to a very nice lady at VW and she opened a case number and escalated to case manager.
I'm proud to say that VW called me today and they will pay 100% of the cost, since I'm a loyal VW customer (which I am).

Ummm...seems that when the bottom drops out of the stock market some people start listening.....

year 2012 Passat TDI
Milage 144,655
Warning light : Check Engine, not flashing

had to replace Ad Blue heater tank, control unit and add Urea, costs $1,658 plus $ 109 for diagnosis. total costs to maintain this car since purchased new in Oct 2011, is $15,496 for repairs, and regular maintenance. This is with free oil changes. Do not by a TDI they are not worth the price saved on good milage, not to mention this current problem of VW being dishonest about Clean Diesel.

MIHamilton said:

year 2012 Passat TDI
Milage 144,655
Warning light : Check Engine, not flashing
had to replace Ad Blue heater tank, control unit and add Urea, costs $1,658 plus $ 109 for diagnosis. total costs to maintain this car since purchased new in Oct 2011, is $15,496 for repairs, and regular maintenance. This is with free oil changes. Do not by a TDI they are not worth the price saved on good milage, not to mention this current problem of VW being dishonest about Clean Diesel.

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I have a feeling my 2014 Passat is leaving me a few miles before the warranty is up.

MIHamilton said:

year 2012 Passat TDI
Milage 144,655
Warning light : Check Engine, not flashing

had to replace Ad Blue heater tank, control unit and add Urea, costs $1,658 plus $ 109 for diagnosis. total costs to maintain this car since purchased new in Oct 2011, is $15,496 for repairs, and regular maintenance. This is with free oil changes. Do not by a TDI they are not worth the price saved on good milage, not to mention this current problem of VW being dishonest about Clean Diesel.

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Can you list the items that come to over 15K?

dst5 said:

Can you list the items that come to over 15K?

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I agree dst5- Where's the beef? I can (Almost) reconcile your maintenance costs if owning a Ferrari but not a TDI. Could you have "Fat fingered" your amount accidentally? If not why didn't you pursue the Lemmon Law protection?


"These are my principals and if you don't like them...well, I have others" Groucho Marx

2012 Passat TDI 6MT

Folks, the $235 Adblue heater (for a Toureg) that I bought from ECS, and had to extend one of the wiring harnesses by a few inches (otherwise a perfect fit), is still working great - no error codes or issues.

If you're handy and splicing 4 wires (solder and shrinkwrap) is within your technical abilities, then this is a viable option. About 2 hours labor (for someone like me who read the sticky on the remove and replace process but had not yet done it myself), and you're done.

Great if you can get VW to cover the cost, but it sounds like even if you have to pay 50% of the dealer-quoted cost, you're still out of pocket $500 or more.

All good news, Mark. Thanks for the update.
How many miles since your Adblue heater replacement? I suspect it's too early to tell if DEF usage has changed?
...of course, DEF usage for all of us is moot, as the speculation is emissions update will increase usage.

Just got word that my aftermarket warranty will not cover. I will pursue it some more and also try VW to see if they will honor it. If nobody warranties it, I was quoted $700. I figure it would not be wise to dump any money into the car right now. VW probably feels the same, but maybe they are wise enough not to piss us off too much

About 1,000 miles now since replacement. I filled the AdBlue tank after replacing the element, and just checked it, it seems like it's down just a tad - - so while not scientific, it IS continuing to use AdBlue at would seem to be at a normal/moderate rate. I'll keep the List posted if anything changes for the negative, but so far so good.

I may just pick up another of these $235 heaters from ECS just to have a spare on hand for the inevitable NEXT failure ("hopefully FAR in the future," he said, whilst knocking on his wooden desktop!).

Mark Neil said:

Folks, the $235 Adblue heater (for a Toureg) that I bought from ECS, and had to extend one of the wiring harnesses by a few inches (otherwise a perfect fit), is still working great - no error codes or issues.

If you're handy and splicing 4 wires (solder and shrinkwrap) is within your technical abilities, then this is a viable option. About 2 hours labor (for someone like me who read the sticky on the remove and replace process but had not yet done it myself), and you're done.

Great if you can get VW to cover the cost, but it sounds like even if you have to pay 50% of the dealer-quoted cost, you're still out of pocket $500 or more.

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Hey! thanks for this Info. I thought my extended warranty would cover but it didn't. So I'm going to do it myself. Do you have the part number for the one that you purchased for a Toureg ? I have the same model and year as you. Thanks

Mark Neil , what codes did you get? I might be ordering the same heater you did. I hate having the car with a cel on.
Steve

Hi, all. I bought and used this:

https://www.ecstuning.com/ES2845755/

Looks like they just raised the price by a little over $25 (from $274 to $301). I guess the publicity on what it can be used for got back to them somehow!

Besides the shorter 4 wire harness to splice/extend, everything else looks identical from the $499 NMS-specific kit sold by another vendor.

If you have any questions once you get into it, please let me know. I pretty much just followed the instructions on the "sticky" posted at the top of this forum. Pay particular attention to the orientation of the heater in the tank. There is a lot of talk about arrows and such, but they can be hard to see. I just used a blob of paint to match the heater insert to the tank so that I would be sure to reorient in the same position when installing - - I just then matched the new heater to the same position as the marks on the one I'd removed.

Good luck!

Oh, and Sbieshelt, the codes I was getting were the (in)famous and well-documented P205B and P205C. Once heater element was replaced and DTCs cleared, all has been well now for over 1,000 miles.

Sorry, I meant to say they just raised the price by $65. Doh. But even at $301, still cheaper than $500.

Bummer that we didn't buy up a bunch when they were still $235!

I guess somebody woke up to the fact that these are really basically the same parts, just at radically different price points.

Parts Vortex (no experience with them) is showing this part number at $220:

http://www.vwpartsvortex.com/oe-volkswagen/7l6198970a

I don't know this vendor, but the part number is the same so is likely the same thing. ECS was great to deal with, not sure why they raised the price by $65 in the last few days though?

Also another place, VW Parts Depot, showing it at $224:

http://www.vwpartsvortex.com/oe-volkswagen/7l6198970a

better pricing for the heater

I just purchased it from expressoemparts.com I got it for $211 plus shipping total came to $227.

Great! Good luck with the installation - - please post or PM me if you have any questions once you get into it. It's really pretty straightforward.

Finally got the P202b CEL

Year - 2012
Mileage - 61,000
Warning Light - CEL
Code(s) - P202B
Any symptoms or problems before diagnosis - None
Repair Time: Will tackle the repair myself unless VW owns up to this issue and covers it.
Any pertinent info from dealer - not been there yet

CEL came on driving back from lunch yesterday. Read the code with Torque Pro, researched it last night, and reset it today (just in case). It came back within a few minutes of driving, so there's no doubt it will have to be fixed. I can wait a month or two to see how the rest plays out with VW in general (I really think there's a good case that this should be considered part of the emissions system). We usually won't get sub-zero temps in Ohio until January.

I've loved the TDI since I first brought it home, but she's really making me work for it now - Hankooks, headlights, turbo, dieselgate, now adblue heater. I expect that exhaust flap, clockspring and maybe HPFP are still coming, and probably a turbo repeat.

Overlooking these minor flaws is getting more difficult, and will add up to more love-hate at some point, but I'm not there yet - there's still nothing else out there like it for me.

2012 / 35700miles (but past 3 year warranty limit)
CEL (P205B)

This morning when I started the car CEL light stayed on and sure enough got P205B (Implausible Signal) code from the reductant tank sensor...

Dropped the car off at the dealer to be diagnosed and when finally got callback, they said Adblue heater needs to be replaced (just as I was expecting). So I asked that this should be covered by the California mandated emissions warranty as its clearly emission part? And to my surprise dealer said yes it would be covered... [car is past initial 36k/3year warranty]

Either VW has changed its stance on this or did I just go lucky?

---
Update:

Repairs cost $0 (it was apparently covered under California emission warranty that covers "high-cost emission-related" parts 70,000miles/7years)

Parts used: 1 x 561-198-970-A, 2 x GUS-052-910-A3

Year: 2012
Mileage: 68k
Warning Light(s CEL
Code(s 202B
There are two codes that come on but the 202B is the only one that lists. The second code goes into error mode and will not list but does clear with my oohbeedoobee reader.

I keep clearing it but it comes back every two hours.

Repair Time: Not repaired, am waiting for more info on the issue.

passatti said:

2012 / 35700miles (but past 3 year warranty limit)
CEL (P205B)

This morning when I started the car CEL light stayed on and sure enough got P205B (Implausible Signal) code from the reductant tank sensor...

Dropped the car off at the dealer to be diagnosed and when finally got callback, they said Adblue heater needs to be replaced (just as I was expecting). So I asked that this should be covered by the California mandated emissions warranty as its clearly emission part? And to my surprise dealer said yes it would be covered... [car is past initial 36k/3year warranty]

Either VW has changed its stance on this or did I just go lucky?

---
Update:

Repairs cost $0 (it was apparently covered under California emission warranty that covers "high-cost emission-related" parts 70,000miles/7years)

Parts used: 1 x 561-198-970-A, 2 x GUS-052-910-A3

Click to expand...

Same with me.

2013 with 29k miles.
Even though I'm still under factory warranty I was informed that this issue is covered by VW under the CA emissions warranty.

Passat 2012, TDI SEL
54K miles
P202A code at the end of August 2015 (CEL light went on, and I found the code using VCDS)

Bought the expressoemparts kit, and installed it following instructions given in the sticker thread (no need to cut any cable). The CEL light went off after 28 miles, and all took 260$ and 3 hours of my time. I hope the new part can last much longer than the replaced one!

Stuck

Did anyone else experience this:

I replaced the heater and Nox sensor- both fault codes gone. No other major fault codes pop up.

35 miles left until adblue shutdown. Drove it 100 miles (did the SCR reset in VCSD everytime the 35 miles were up) but then the 35 miles remaining until shut down still appears.


Any suggestions or anyone else encounter this?