Intercooler Issue (Flashing Glow Plugs)

On my way to work today (0 degrees outside) I got a flashing glow plug light with a service engine message, along with a slight lack of power.

Drove it directly to the VW dealer and was told that the Intercooler had water in it and it was frozen up (not a car guy so I'm sorry if I'm not using the correct terms). They offered to install a bypass that VW recommends but the part would be $1100.

As this was the first time this has happened, it was a VERY cold day, and it's never happened before I suggested that they let it thaw out overnight and check it in the morning for any error messages. My thought is if it happens again I can bring it in and get the repair done...but if it doesn't I saved myself the expense.

Thoughts?

Should be free if you are still under warranty.

What are you driving and what dealer did you take it to in Chicagoland?

As Jay said, that's a warranty issue for sure, if you sill are covered that is.

I have 50K on the car.. so it's out of warranty. Took it to Liberty VW in Libertyville.

cmeller said:

I have 50K on the car.. so it's out of warranty. Took it to Liberty VW in Libertyville.

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You may want to give VW a call. My understanding it that VW is covering some, or all, of the costs on this retrofit, even out of warranty. Your dealer should have mentioned this to you.

I'm calling right now just to notify them of the problem. This is the third time I needed to call them for a repair on this car..1st) rear passenger door lock stopped working, 2) Exhaust Flap issue.

Luckily, they have covered these in the past (out of warranty) but I would rather these things just work. Can't say I will go back to VW or TDI's in the future...

Grrrr. VW needs to step up and fix all these known issues, out of warranty as well. They are starting to really piss people off.

cmeller, please fill out this brief intercooler icing survy when you have a chance.

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I filled out the survey..

Anxious to see VWoA's response. This is a known issue with a VW installed retrofit to combat the issue. If they deny the kit (which, btw, may or may not help) they'll be liable once the issue takes down the motor - under the power train warranty.

If they deny, I suggest looking up lemon lawyers in IL. They work free to you and considering you may have a bigger issue on your hands down the road in addition to an $1,100 bill now, it'll certainly be worth the phone call.

Take it to Jennings.

Is there a reason to take it to Jennings. That's out of my way and I'm guessing ill get the same push back.

Do you recommend either fighting for this repair kit or paying for it? Or just leave it and hope it never happens again. Like I said its been cold before and it never happened before.

Finally, what is the power train warrenty? I'm going to hit 60k this year.

If you have to pay for it, pay for a tune, which fixes your issue, or get the 2micron drain.

What is a tune or 2micron drain?

Contact 2micron he's a member. He developed an intercooler drain system. That's a great idea vs the iffy fix that people are reporting in the iced inter cooler thread. Especially if u have to pay.

I have my theory about some of the northern suburb dealers that I won't state publicly. I go to Jennings now. Can't say they'd give you a different answer for sure.

nikhsub1 said:

Grrrr. VW needs to step up and fix all these known issues, out of warranty as well. They are starting to really piss people off.

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Ya think?

cmeller said:

Is there a reason to take it to Jennings. That's out of my way and I'm guessing ill get the same push back.

Do you recommend either fighting for this repair kit or paying for it? Or just leave it and hope it never happens again. Like I said its been cold before and it never happened before.

Finally, what is the power train warrenty? I'm going to hit 60k this year.

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I'd fight for the retrofit, but that's me.

Thanks for all the feedback. Update: The dealer was able to thaw everything and empty the water out of the line and blew air to dry it out. I'm hoping this is just the accumulation of water over 50K miles. I will ask the mechanic to drain this at every oil change moving forward.

I did put a call into VW of America to keep them aware. Hopefully, this will solve the problem.

Yea - I guess the intercoolers are a lot like knees - Just drain them and they're all fixed.

I wish I wasn't the predictor of doom and gloom, but I am. Draining water out of your intercooler every 10k miles isn't the solution. If the weather conditions are right (or wrong), you can experience this problem after 50 miles of driving, let alone 10k miles. Intercooler icing/thawing isn't a cumulative thing. It can come fast, and it can go just as quickly if your car belches the water through the system.

sgoldste01 said:

I wish I wasn't the predictor of doom and gloom, but I am. Draining water out of your intercooler every 10k miles isn't the solution. If the weather conditions are right (or wrong), you can experience this problem after 50 miles of driving, let alone 10k miles. Intercooler icing/thawing isn't a cumulative thing. It can come fast, and it can go just as quickly if your car belches the water through the system.

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I understand that it might happen at anytime...but it's not worth the $1500+ kit repair just for that possibility. Hopefully, with draining every 10K it will prevent this from happening. If not I will either need to trade it in or bite the bullet and do the repair.

Believe me this car hasn't been the most reliable thing.. but it's yet to cost me more than $150 in repairs. However, my Ford has proven to be much more reliable then this VW and it was 95K on it with 0 problems.

I'm guessing this will be my one and only VW but I guess I have learned...however, I want to drive this as long as I can.

You do understand that if the engine ingests a significant slug of water that it will hydrolock ... and that can make the $1500 intercooler kit look like a real bargain, right?

Someone earlier suggested getting the intercooler drain kit from 2Micron (a very talented member of this forum, soon to be a vendor here). If you do nothing else, I'd look into that kit and use it to drain frequently.

OilBurningBrit said:

You do understand that if the engine ingests a significant slug of water that it will hydrolock ... and that can make the $1500 intercooler kit look like a real bargain, right?

Someone earlier suggested getting the intercooler drain kit from 2Micron (a very talented member of this forum, soon to be a vendor here). If you do nothing else, I'd look into that kit and use it to drain frequently.

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I understand the risk, but I still view it as small. However, we might be looking into trading (or selling) this car in the next year or so due to the continuous issues that seem to be happening. If a car needs a third party installation just to function properly it's not the car for me.