Status of Passat Exhaust Issue

mfusco

Member
Joined
Oct 15, 1999
Location
Hyde Park, NY
TDI
Passat, 1996, Metallic Grey
What is the official status of VW for the '96 TDI exhaust resonance problem? At 40k, my car was in the dealer for a week because they couldn't find that source of the resonance problem. The flex bellows exiting the turbo was removed and cleaned and "bent" to not resonate. According to the dealer, this was the VWOA fix. The new TDI's (Jetta) have been corrected and no longer have this problem. I'm now at 60k and have what appears to be a cracked flex bellows which is distributing exhaust soot all over the bottom of my car. It must be a small exhaust leak becuase it isn't very noisy. I'm wondering if this is going to be an ongoing problem with this car. At 40k, I asked if I'm going to have to go through this every 40k and was told that It'll never happen again. We'll guess what.

I would like to know if there is a permanent fix rather than the recommended "bend the pipe to a different angle". I was lucky the first time because the dealer never encountered the problem and worked with VW for the week to fix the problem. The turbo was removed, too. I had to pay $150 for everything, which seemed cheap with relation to all of the work that was done. I'm afraid I'm going to have to pay through the nose this time and want to receive a permanent fix instead of an "adjustment".

I read the past archives looking for this problem and didn't see any real solutions. I love this car and don't need a reason to sour my love for the beast.
 

GoFaster

Moderator at Large
Joined
Jun 16, 1999
Location
Brampton, Ontario, Canada
TDI
2006 Jetta TDI
You're talking about the loud resonance at 1200 rpm and the slight resonance at 2400 rpm, right? I don't think there is a real proper VW "fix" for this problem. I fix the 1200 rpm resonance by not driving at that speed. The 2400 rpm resonance is at an inconvenient speed (115 km/h top gear) but much less prominent, so I just got used to it.

I know a guy who's a mechanic at a VW dealership. He says he fixes them by strapping a good-size lump of steel (like a worn-out set of Eurovan brake pads!) to the top of the tailpipes. I've not tried this ...

Brian
'96 Passat TDI
 

mfusco

Member
Joined
Oct 15, 1999
Location
Hyde Park, NY
TDI
Passat, 1996, Metallic Grey
Well, I don't know about that.... What I do know is that the flex pipe out of the turbo gets blocked up with soot and needs to be cleaned. It has to do with the angle of the pipe and has been rendered with the new TDI's. After they cleaned mine, I could feel a great difference, as if the car could breathe better. To me, there is a known problem if the company spends enough $$ to re-design/re-engineer the exhaust to fix the problem on new TDI's. Strapping brake pads to the exhaust is a joke to even be considered.
 

ENUTPEN8

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 31, 1999
Location
AR , USA
And strapping brake pads to the pipes would probably create some exhaust drag... Driveon...Nick@Nite

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'71 green Super Beetle w/Hurst & header (94mph); '99 green/tan A4 Golf GLS TDI automatic, lux.
 
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