Heater Core Replacement

Just had my heater core go on my 2014 passat. Atleast its covered under the extended warranty on the heater core.

Not_Agn said:

My dealer replaced my heater core under an agreement with vw. Splitting cost between the 2. That's what they told me anyway. Charged me $225 for a coolant flush. Which I thought was bs. Left the dealer and the heater never really heated up going down the road. Argued with the dealer and they kept the car and ran more tests. Came back with changing the heater core again. And come to find out they replaced the egr cooler also. No charge this time. Was wondering if the first time they just tried flushing it and it seemed to work idling in 1 spot. But going down the road was another story.
Car was a 13 with 43000 miles.

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After a rather chilly ride to the East Coast last Winter for my front seat passenger (aka wife), we got the heater core replaced under the 10/120K extended warranty, and the system WAS completely flushed at no cost to me. I had read another post of someone whose dealer wanted them to pay for the flush, and I was prepared to go in and say "Then don't flush it. Put the old coolant back in, and when it plugs again, I'll be right back in here for another core." But I didn't have to do that, it was all good.

2014 TDI Passat Mixed Heat/Cold

My TDI is in the shop for not producing heat. Supposedly it was fixed by replacing the heater core. Car was warm when I got in it. I left dealer and noticed that left vent was blowing AC cold and the rest warm. Took it back to dealer.

Round 2: They "fixed it." I drove away and noticed the AC is blowing out of the all the vents except the drivers side with heat on. Returned it back to dealer.

Round 3: Car has been in the shop now for a whole week. They have convinced VW that it is a defective heater core. Plan is to "flush the coolant" and replace the defective heater core. Fingers crossed.

Luckily this will all be covered, I am told, by warranty and a defective part warranty. Reading these posts has me concerned that this is not going to get fixed, but rather bandaged up. How is it this has not been found to be a defective implementation of heat by now? And how is it there are corrosive elements in the tubes/hoses? Seems like there are LOTS of people having this very issue.

For what its worth, love my car, had the emissions fix performed and liked my payback. But now I am wondering how long should I hang on to this car.

pm9448 said:

<snip> How is it this has not been found to be a defective implementation of heat by now? And how is it there are corrosive elements in the tubes/hoses? Seems like there are LOTS of people having this very issue.
<snip>

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There are other threads dealing with this issue, and, yes, it is a known problem. VW has never admitted to a specific cause, AFAIK, but there is a general belief among many that the excess heat produced by the emission control system denatures the new G13 coolant, causing the core to plug up. We are among those who have had the core replaced under warranty, and I wouldn't be surprised if we had to do it again this winter. There won't be a winter after that, because we are turning the car in late next year.

heater core replaced

We just bought (9/17) a '12 Passat SEL TDI with 71+K miles. As it turned out, this car also had the heater core problem. As this was our 9th or 10th VW, they (VW) agreed to cover the repair 100%. I can't complain.

Rico567 thank you for the reply. Apparently the heater core is under extended warranty for the 2014 Passat. Not sure for how long. I heave learned that the solution the dealer is taking is to flush repeatedly the coolant and remove as much of the sediment as possible and replace heater core. Luckily all of this at no cost to me. This time.

If the warranty will last for 100k, then I'll keep the car for a while. But otherwise, this is crazy that not only they sell us cheat software, but are using sub-quality parts for their cars. How did mechanical engineers not pick up on this one? Also, is this still happening on the newer US models? Is this just a diesel thing?