CEL Came On After ECM 23O6 Update - P0401 Sensor - Related?

Cross-posting this from a reply in one of the many update threads so it's easier to find for anyone who may have the same issue as they get their recall done. If you can concretely say that this is or is not related to the update, please do so-- I'm still new here.

> Luke < said:

Oh, please do, for I've had nothing happen with my car since I drove it off the lot. Although I have a super tech, who is the only person I allow to touch the car at the new Norm Reeves dealership in orange county, this ECU modification/update does have me concerned.

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Can you let me know the name of your guy over there? I actually live in North OC and, while I like my (non-dealership) mechanic a lot, I want another opinion on pretty much everything now.

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Quick driving history:

Gave the car to the dealership at 121,588 miles for the software update. Took them about an hour and a half.

Drove home (15mi)
Car sat for about 20 minutes
Drove to get coffee (1.3 mi)
Car sat for about an hour
Drove home (1.3 mi)
Car sat for about two hours
Drove to UCI (25 mi)
Car sat for about three hours
Went to leave UCI
-surface streets, fine
-got on the freeway, got up to about 65MPH and went .5 - 1 mile and PING

So we're looking at, really, two warm starts and two cold starts (assuming I'm using that phrase correctly-- I'm new to all of this), with a mix of surface streets and highway (non-traffic hours) driving. I'm pegging the estimated traveled mileage between update and CEL at 40 - 50 miles.

I kept on driving after the CEL light went on, radio off, listening to my car and feeling for any deviance in the usual vibrations-- the general rumble of my car (post-service, pre-CEL) was -much- more bass..ier... than usual for the first 20 or so miles after the service, but that was gone by the next day.

Put 5 gallons in my car before parking at my house.

CEL was still on the following morning. Car still sounded and felt normal. Went to get coffee (1.3 miles), was in the shop for about five minutes. Came out, started car, drove about, oh, 20 feet.

And the CEL went off. I have no idea how normal that is. I've never had that happen to me, on any car of any make I've owned.

Drove down to the dealership. The light stayed off. Noticed that, after about 20 miles of highway driving, sitting at the signal at the exit ramp, my car was pulsing. I've noticed that maybe twice ever, and I've had this car for five years.

So the brake pedal is vibrating under my foot with this steady, almost regular heart-rate pulse. But the car isn't pulling forward and the RPMs were steady. I could hear my engine doing it, once I turned off the radio.

Drive to dealership, park... car is still pulsing. Turn off car. Regen was cycling. Don't know if that's what I was feeling.

Go talk to the service adviser. Explain that I had the update done the previous day, what had happened, and that I wanted a scan to see what had set the light off. Told him about the pulsing. He refused to believe that my car wasn't actually pulling forward and that were the RPMs unchanging.

Tells me no problem, will totally scan... for $140. If it wasn't the result of the update, that was the cost. If it WAS the result of the update, they'll apply it to the repair. THE REPAIR FOR WHATEVER MIGHT HAVE HAPPENED DUE TO THE UPDATE.

I think my reply involved some shocked profanity.

So I called my mechanic (5 miles away), and he said he'd scan it and give me the print-out (he knows I love my print-outs) for $47. Sure.

Additional info: An exhaust sensor went bad two weeks ago or so. Details on that below (just in case there's an impact that needs to be taken into account), then details on the fault that caused my CEL to come on after that.

What flagged two weeks ago:

001146 - Exhaust Pressure Sensor 2
P047A - 000 - Open Circuit - MIL ON
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 11100000
Fault Priority: 2
Fault Frequency: 44
Reset Counter: 255
Mileage: 173669 km
Tim Indication: 0

It also caused:

16815 - Warm Up Catalyst; Bank 2
P0431 - 001 - Efficiency Below Threshold - Intermittent - MIL ON

And:

000262 - Manifold / Barometric Pressure Sensor )G71) / (F96)
P0106 - 006 - Implausible Signal - MIL ON
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 11100001
Fault Priority: 4
Fault Frequency: 2
Reset Counter: 40
Mileage: 198574 km
Time Indication: 0

Freeze Frame:
RPM: 800 /min
Mass Air / Rev.: 152.6 mg/str
Temperature: 43.5 C
Idle
Voltage: 14.18 V
Speed: 0.0 km/h

So those showed on today's print-out. The new ones?

001025 - EGR System
P0401 - 000 - Insufficient Flow - Intermittent
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00100000
Fault Priority: 2
Fault Frequency: 4
Reset Counter: 255
Mileage: 194268km (120712 mi)
Time Indication: 0
Date: 2027.14.03
Time: 23:33:08

Freeze Frame:
RPM: 1495 /min
Speed: 47.0 km/h
Voltage: 13.68 V
Load: 85.9%
Load: 100.00%
Mass Air / Rev. : 295.0 mg/str
Mass Air / Rev. : 440.0 mg/str

001025 - EGR System
P0401 - 001 - Insufficient Flow - Intermittent
Freeze Frame
Fault Status: 00100001
Fault Priority: 2
Fault Frequency: 2
Reset Counter: 255
Mileage: 195733 (121623 mi) <---PING
Time Indication: 0
Date: 2027.14.19
Time: 08:14:20

Freeze Frame:
RPM: 2323 /min <---DOUBLE CONFIRM
Speed: 118.0 km/h
Voltage: 13.68 V
Load: 96.1 %
Load: 100.0%
Mass Air / Rev.: 475.0 mg/str
Mass Air / Rev.: 470.0 mg/str

I don't know enough (yet) about this particular sensor and what all of the numbers above mean, but I did have my ash load checked yesterday at the dealership and it's only 120.0mL, so if my DPF is going bad at that load a low and causing some sort of clog, I'm going to be pretty upset.

Not sure if it's related to the update, since it happened 900 miles earlier. What I don't understand is why the same error happened with a higher frequency but my CEL did not come on.

If it could be related to the update, as it looks like it has to do with emissions (pardon my ignore), feel free to chime in. I'm going to make a new thread for this in 2010 Jetta TDI category so it doesn't get lost in the chaos of having so many threads on this software update. Maybe I can get help sorting it out there and soothe your concern.

I just did some math. P0401 came on the same time my exhaust sensor P047A went out. When it was replaced, the CEL went off.

The order of print-out, which mostly seems to be chronological:

P047A - 173669 km (Open Circuit -- my mechanic replaced this, said that meant it was
bad-- accurate?)
P0431 - ????
P0106 - 198574 km (Implausible Signal) <--This cannot be right. I do not have that many miles on my car.
P0401 - 194268 km (Insufficient Flow - Intermittent)
P0401 - 195733 km (Insufficient Flow - Intermittent)

So now I'm at a sort of impasse.

Did P0401 fault because of the update, or was it entirely unrelated?

If the initial P0401 fault was what was actually the issue and not P047A, why then did the CEL turn off when P047A was replaced?

Would the P047A fault cause P0401 to fault, as my mechanic said it did with P0431 and P0106?

If the mileage on P0106 is wrong, which it clearly is, could P047A have faulted at a time closer to the other faults? How long can one run on a bad P047A before the rest of the system starts to have issue and the CEL turns on?

How would I go about answering any of these questions? Or even checking the sensor and the area it's monitoring? I'm getting together with a mechanic friend on Sunday and he has the bulk of what we'll need to get into the car to poke around.

General update, for those curious.

Took out my EGR valve and intake manifold last Sunday. EGR valve was pretty clean, especially for having nearly 122k miles on my car. Cleaned it out anyway, put it back in. Intake manifold was fairly grimy, but nothing warranting a heavy cleaning (I was short on time). Valve was operating just fine, nothing jamming it.

Later that night, the CEL came on. Drove home (~10 miles), got up the next day, scanned it on a OBS-II... same error-- P0401 intermittent etc.

Drove to grab lunch (15 mi), parked. Ate. Turned car back on. CEL turned off.

Sure.

Then my initial service adviser from the dealership called the next day. Said that -he- would scan it free of charge and do a diagnosis. Which I was grateful for, given that the other guy was being a bit of a condescending dick and trying to way overcharge me.

Took it in today. He confirmed that I tossed the P0401 (already had told him that) and that I had a fuel pressure sensor error (which happened when we depressurized the fuel system when we took out the EGR valve and intake manifold). He swiped my tailpipe (which I had cleaned out on Monday to see if I was actually putting out soot or if it was just five years of build-up) and told me it was clean. So nothing has come out of it in the last five days. Going to check each week.

Anyhow, their opinion is either the update did it (though they won't come out and directly say it, he indirectly admitted as much and attached two pages with more details about the update to my work order) or the DPF has a crack in it. They seem to think the sensor is fine.

All in all, if it doesn't come back on again in the next few months, I'm going to assume it was either the update or something neither I or VW have figured out yet.

what ever happened with this?

Im experiecing the same thing after the 23o6 update on my 2013 jetta with 64k miles.

gimmie11s said:

what ever happened with this?

Im experiecing the same thing after the 23o6 update on my 2013 jetta with 64k miles.

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Whatever your issue is- it is covered under the 80k mile emissions warranty. Take it in- you shouldn't have to pay anything