2013 injector failure

Anyone else have injectors "fail" (triggers the engine light) and had to be replaced (under waranty of course)?
My SEL with just over 20k is in getting its 3rd injector replaced.
The car runs fine but this seems a little premature...OK, A LOT premature.
It is what it is, but just curious as to others' take on this.
...and even though 3 of the 4 went bad, VW wont OK the replacement of the 4th until it actually "fails"...
I still love the car, just a bit dissapointed...

umm no, no issues at all- does your state use any bio diesel?

here in Wisconsin it usually goes from B5 to B15, i have heard of B20 but have never actually seen it by us , however we saw it out west a LOT when we visited Virginia or go down to Illinois
BTW at 16K so far the only problem i have had is the Amp cover under the drivers seat, the dang clips broke on it the first time i got in it and put like 5 pounds of weight on it, wonder if Icould get them to cover that as a warranty repair

Why the dealer can't provide insight as to why 75%(!) of the injectors have failed is concerning (is it fuel quality/type, component quality, etc).

Issues like this do not instill confidence and might have you wondering what life is going to be like after warranty coverage is over?

What does bio % have to do with injector failure? There are 10s of thousands of CR diesels out there running 5-20% bio w/o injector failure, AFAIK.
My bet is it's a harness problem, not injector failures. However, if you're not getting any more info as to the cause of "failure" from your dealership, you're out of luck. Sounds like they're content to just continue to throw expensive parts at the car.

I was curious as bio is a lubricant and can pro long the life of the fuel system due to the "dry" S15 fuels now days. I work with diesel a lot, and get it on my hands often- todays diesel is very clean and not near as greasy as it was a decade ago.

Goodie said:

Anyone else have injectors "fail" (triggers the engine light) and had to be replaced (under waranty of course)?
My SEL with just over 20k is in getting its 3rd injector replaced.
The car runs fine but this seems a little premature...OK, A LOT premature.
It is what it is, but just curious as to others' take on this.
...and even though 3 of the 4 went bad, VW wont OK the replacement of the 4th until it actually "fails"...
I still love the car, just a bit dissapointed...

Click to expand...

This is the first report I've seen on here about injector failure on the CKRA engine. What is the exact code that's being set? Is it possible that your dealer is misdiagnosing some other problem as injector failure? Or perhaps the injector failure is a symptom of some other problem that hasn't been diagnosed?

Inquiring minds want to know, time to start pestering your service manager! Sorry about your problems.

I had only owned the car for a couple of weeks (it was a CPO purchased from a "reputable" dealer in St.Paul) and had refueled only once at a station in St. Paul before the light came on the first time. I was not in the proximity of a dealer when the light came on and continued to drive for almost 100 miles before I could get it to one.
I had driven for < 50 miles before the light came on again. I took it to a different dealer this time. The car has always started/ran fine with mileage in the upper 40's.
I have been on a vacation (with no cell signal) since I dropped the car off the second time, but will contact them tomorrow and press for some specs and details.
The first time it went in, the dealer stated it may have been fuel related. They drained the existing fuel and evacuated the system. Aside from replacing 2 injectors they replaced the filter and a module of some kind (per factory request).
I will post my findings.

Does sound suspicious. If the reason for them failing was contamination of the HP fuel line, the whole thing would need to be replaced, rail, injectors and hpfp.

Them failing because of electrical failure - solenoid, 3 of them, is just utterly unlikely.

And every time the cel came on, the car was perfectly driveable ? You'd notice loss of a cylinder pretty quickly on 4 cylinder engine.

The way misfires are detected is through a hall sensor that reacts as teeth of the flywheel go by. After each firing event the wheel accelerates a bit and when it doesn't they know there was a misfire.


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r11 said:

The way misfires are detected is through a hall sensor that reacts as teeth of the flywheel go by. After each firing event the wheel accelerates a bit and when it doesn't they know there was a misfire.

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Traditionally, yes - but the commonrail engines also have pressure sensing glow plugs. The data stream from these in VCDS is amazing.

Bad fuel from the Fuel Station? Third Injector was already damaged just took longer for it to go.

My Passat is still on it's first fill up. I have a 2011 F350 Dually that I fill up at the same set of pumps at a truck stop north of me by a few exits. Hopefully my wife will be equally diligent about purchasing her fuel there as well.

Fresh Fuel is critical. My old IH tractor will run on anything but it's not Got the 10,000 psi pump and the new injectors that either the Ford or the Passat has

I'm curious if you're getting the same code as seen here:

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=348912

Here's what I have...
Injectors 1, 3 & 4 replaced due to codes PO26900, PO26300 and PO27200. All similiar to the above thread...
I'm hoping #2 craps out while still under warranty. I'm not sure, but I assume this is a fairly spendy reapir.

Those are definitely cylinder contribution codes for cylinders 1, 3, and 4. Interesting.

There's an unmistakable correlation between injector failures and your TDI. I would call VW Customer Care and kindly request the #2 injector warranty be extended. When they challenge your request ask them to enumerate other Passats with 3 injector failures. Then say, "what you're telling me is 3 of my 4 dogs died unexpectedly, but I shouldn't be concerned for the 4th."

The most likely scenario is a fuel issue from the original owner -- be it misfuel, particulate contamination, etc. if it were mine, I'd open the filter canister in search of visible particulates before the warranty runs out.

Makes you wonder why it was CPO... I wonder if it was returned because of this issue or perhaps the person mis-fueled and just wanted to get rid of it.

TomB said:

Makes you wonder why it was CPO... I wonder if it was returned because of this issue or perhaps the person mis-fueled and just wanted to get rid of it.

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My thoughts exactly.

I wonder about misfuels by the dealers also. When I was test driving a new Passat TDI, the car was below "E" so the salesperson told me to pull into Sam's Club to refuel. She directed me to a pump on the end, and as she was about to get out of the car I said "I didn't know Sam's Club sold diesel." She closed the door and said "You're right. I'm glad you said something... I would have put gas in the car!" I would bet that has happened.

Just an update to report that all is well after almost two more tanks of fuel with no drivability issues and MPG's in the upper 40's.
I will contact VW CC and request some kind of addendum be prescribed for #2 injector...wish me luck.
I tend to agree with the theory that the PO misfueled at some point...but will never really know I guess.
I still am lacking the warm fuzzies after this episode but I so enjoy the car in every other aspect that I will keep the faith.

I agree with the fuel theory. You never will get the full story of previous history. If any metal is in that fuel filter you got the smoking gun.

serious question here:

how does misfiling mess these diesels up? I figure it running like crap, if at all and some detonation, but how does an injector fail because of it?

Thanks!

'misfiling'?

What?????

- Tim

Im no expert on the TDI but on other diesels that I am a expert on Unleaded doesn't lubricate the high pressure pump. Speaking on that I recently had a tanker truck driver as a customer, I questioned him about bad diesel.... he said one day they haul unleaded and the next they could haul Diesel and he added that some small stations blend bio during the drop to comply with the state law so it could be anywhere between 5% and 20%, granted a few gallons of unleaded mixed with thousands of diesel shouldn't pose a risk but food for thought on that one.

Good question about how "bad" fuel causes failure and/or long term damage to injectors..
So...not to open up a while new debate here but what would you suggest my course of action should be at this point?
I got nowhere with VW...the component (#2 injector in this case) must "fail" to be replaced at no cost to me. The car continues to run flawlessly...as it always has. I've put on around 500 miles since the "bad" injectors were replaced. Is there still a chance that the fuel system (assuming that is where the problem originated) is "contaminated" or "jaded" and will at some point fail pematurely? What about other components of the fuel system?
I almost wish I had other issues with the car to justify its replacement, but it is really one of the most satisfying vehicles I've ever owned (and the list is long, believe me!). I do plan to drive this for many years and don't want to risk an expensive repair at a later date caused by whatever the problem was recently...

If the car is running flawlessly, then your best bet is to keep driving it and hope for the best.

cd_booth said:

I'm curious if you're getting the same code as seen here:

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=348912

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They use Piezo injectors for CBEA /CJAA but on CKRA it's Solenoid injectors so there is nothing to do in between those injectors.

Greg

Goodie said:

I had only owned the car for a couple of weeks (it was a CPO purchased from a "reputable" dealer in St.Paul) and had refueled only once at a station in St. Paul before the light came on the first time. I was not in the proximity of a dealer when the light came on and continued to drive for almost 100 miles before I could get it to one.
I had driven for < 50 miles before the light came on again. I took it to a different dealer this time. The car has always started/ran fine with mileage in the upper 40's.
I have been on a vacation (with no cell signal) since I dropped the car off the second time, but will contact them tomorrow and press for some specs and details.
The first time it went in, the dealer stated it may have been fuel related. They drained the existing fuel and evacuated the system. Aside from replacing 2 injectors they replaced the filter and a module of some kind (per factory request).
I will post my findings.

Click to expand...

Yep, sounds familiar .

And the VW TDI expert 'remote controlled' the Dealer's zombies to replace the injectors?

Give me a break .

And here I thought for months that the Dealer's Techs were the dumb ones; maybe the screws are loose at VWoA .

Ive been running a mixture with up to 50 percent recycled Jet A with 10 percent of that being motor oil and so far so good!

767wrench said:

Ive been running a mixture with up to 50 percent recycled Jet A with 10 percent of that being motor oil and so far so good!

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Seriously? Do you filter it ? That is really cool