2012 Passat TDI POS!!

TuonoV4

New member
Joined
Mar 19, 2018
Location
Minnesota, USA
TDI
2012 Passat TDI
I am getting very frustrated with this damn car.

So I bought a CPO 2012 Passat TDI from a dealer last October, it ran fine until the cold winter months hit, when it was really cold, the car would seem to misfire after a cold start for the first mile or so, accompanied by a loud knocking sound. I brought it to the dealer and asked they let it sit overnight and see if it would do it for them in the morning. I picked it up the next day after they told me it never exhibited said issues, except it did exactly what I told them it did when I drove it off their lot.

Drove the car through the winter with the issue persisting.

It just started doing the same thing this month even when it's warm out, takes a couple seconds longer to start than normal, misfires sometimes, and makes an awful racket under the hood for the first few miles of driving.

No check engine light has ever come on with these symptoms.

I had an oil test done on the oil after 8500 miles, blackstone laboratories said it had high amounts of aluminum in the oil, I'm worried that a bearing or something is letting go, I just hope it does before the car is out of warranty.

I want to love this car but man does this piss me off.
 

Mike_04GolfTDI

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Nov 19, 2003
Location
Richmond, BC, Canada
TDI
Mine: 2019 Golf R DSG, Wife's: 2015 Golf Comfortline TDI
Not every problem causes the check engine light to turn on. There could very well be a fault code set in the engine computer, but no light.

You have to scan it with a VW specific tool, like VCDS to read those codes.

I think the reason is basically because government regulation mandates that certain codes be readable with a generic code scanner, and they must turn on the warning light so you know something is wrong. Usually this will be related to emissions.

VW is under no obligation to bring your attention to other types of faults, and does not have to make those codes available to a generic code scanner. They expect you to bring it to a dealer where they will charge you $100 just to connect their machine and read the codes.

I had a timing belt skip a few teeth, making the engine run very badly until eventually it slipped too much and wouldn't run at all. A very serious problem indeed, but there was no check-engine light, and a generic scanner that I keep in the car found no codes.

After getting towed home, where I have VCDS, there was a code saying the camshaft position was out of range, which is a catastrophic problem.

So, get a proper scan for codes, and maybe you'll find something that could point you in the right direction. It might be a simple fix. Good luck.
 

BobnOH

not-a-mechanic
Joined
May 29, 2004
Location
central Ohio
TDI
New Beetle 2003 manual
He hasn't mentioned if he had it scanned or not. So we don't know if it has codes. It might.
Yes, it should be scanned. Interweb guessing that if it's done this since October, the CEL would be on if it was something that's monitored.
 

Lex Tdi

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2016
Location
Lexington ky
TDI
2013 Passat
Dont you love when someone new comes to the site, bit*% about their car and then never comes back to find an answer...
 
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