Cylinder 2 Contribution/Balance Fault

Hello please help,

my situation:
2010 Jetta Sport wagon TDI DSG
86000 miles
I live in Arizona
check engine: P0266 Cylinder 2 Contribution/Balance Fault
Engine still starts fine, fuel economy is not changed, engine does NOT run rough to my knowledge, no strange smoke coming from tail pipe, etc.

Mechanic gets it on bench(checks fuel solenoid for metal debris, none is found, checks some numbers on the computer readings and says cyl2 injector is not changing values like the other 3 and recommends replace injector)

I agree and he installs a new cyl2 injector (650$). He says he cleared the adaptation values on all the injectors within the ECM and drives the vehicle for 4 cycles and no problem, then returns the car to me. car drives fine till following morning. He warns me this problem may not be over...

next morning when cold (52F out this morning) I get the code P0263 Cylinder 1 Contribution/Balance Fault. Call him up, he recommends replacing cyl1 injector.

I call dealer for some fact finding. I friggin cant afford to replace all 4 at 650 a pop. The dealer asserts that P0263 and P0266 can also be indicator of failing glow plug. (my dash cluster does not show a flashing glow plug or anything while driving). If I have glow issue, I don't care, I will not need them in the mild climate I live in and I don't want to spend 2K to make a light go out "if" my car drives fine.

Car appears to run ok but has a has a solid check engine light P0263. Please, can anyone recommend what to do. I have used this mechanic b4 and trust his abilities and he knows his stuff, but I am moving in a week and i don't want to drop 2k on this workmanship and not be able to make good on the parts/labor warrantee as i will be in a different state and unable to take it back to him if there is issues.

Things im thinking currently:
Will injector cleaner be worth a try?
Changing glow plugs and/or glow plug cluster wires
Why are my injectors going south with only 85K on the engine?
Fuel filter replacement?

Thanks in advance....

My sympathies, but I can offer little help. I've been having these #2 cylinder injector/balance codes ever since I reached 40K (now >98K). They're intermittent, occur mostly in the colder months and, like you, I notice no decrease in engine performance so I just erase the codes and drive on. I certainly don't feel like replacing injectors at $650 a pop with no guarantee that it won't reappear.

It could be intermittent fuel injection but, if this occurs only once in every 1000 or more firings, and since I never notice the slightest stumble, I'm inclined to wonder if it's an electrical/computer phenomenon.

There is a TSB about this. Dated July 15th of this year, so pretty recent.

01 14 14 2035464 are the numbers I have.

The ECU needs to be reflashed. No big deal.

People thinking of throwing $650 injectors in these don't have all the info, I guess.

Thanks folks. I will pursue the ECM flash. I assume the number you provided will identify that specific ECM flash ? Ya I didn't have the info. Sometimes short schedules can cause me problems in the wallet

Thanks

This just happened to me in my 2010 Jetta about 10 minutes ago. Code P0263 for cylinder 1. I'm just going to take mine into the dealer, as I'm under an extended warranty. Mine gets regular fuel filter changes as well. Just ran injector cleaner through it a couple of tanks ago and I usually run a Stanadyne additive anyway. So we'll see where this goes.

oilhammer said:

There is a TSB about this. Dated July 15th of this year, so pretty recent.

01 14 14 2035464 are the numbers I have.

The ECU needs to be reflashed. No big deal.

People thinking of throwing $650 injectors in these don't have all the info, I guess.

Click to expand...

This is what they did with mine, same TSB. Reflashed and it's fine now. This was also covered under the federal emissions warranty so no charge.

Good to hear.

ECU Reflash was a No-Go

We optimistically took our 2009 TDI in to the VW dealer for the same TSB. The tech informed me that the federal emissions warranty was only good for vehicles with 80,000 miles or less. Our Jetta SW has 113k so we paid $90 for a reflash (which apparently was needed as we went from software edition 8681 to 9970) and surprise, the Cylinder 1 Contribution/Balance Fault error came right back. Having tried a myriad of other troubleshooting tests already, I'm now pretty well stumped. The VW tech was really good to deal with. He recognized that we have our own VCDS at home and agreed to not charge the dealership's $120 code reading fee. Since the ECU reflash did not fix the Cylinder 1 Contribution/Balance Fault error we agreed that I'd do some more troubleshooting at home before paying for additional VW service diagnostics. Any other suggestions appreciated.

Update: I cleared the error code at home and much to my surprise it has finally stayed off! I'm unsure what the dealer tech did to clear the code, but I cleared the code using the VCDS in two places (directly in the Engine controller page and also in the Vehicle overall diagnostics page). My current thinking is that the reflash worked and the dealer may not have cleared all the codes. Anyway, much relieved at this point. Thanks oilhammer and others for the information in this post!

I was driving home from NYC(350 mile trip) and noticed some very slight intermittant hesitation(hiccups) and when I looked at my dash the mil engine light was on 100 miles after filling up at a questionable station in NJ. I got home fine, no performance problems and cleared 2 P0269 Cylinder 3 Contribution Balance Fault Codes. The mil engine light has not come back on for about 40 miles now. Local dealer wants $115 for one hour diagnosis. Can anyone post TSB 2035464 here or tell me where I could get the details without paying for a subscription. I'll post my resolution when I reach one. 116K miles and first engine trouble ever encountered.

To the guys that have had this issue, do you run straight pump diesel or do you use an additive of some sort?

Samcar222 said:

To the guys that have had this issue, do you run straight pump diesel or do you use an additive of some sort?

Click to expand...

The issue is software related. An additive won't make a difference.

ECU Reflash (4-Week Update)

Status update: the CEL has remained off since I cleared the codes shortly after the software reflash. I happened to do a VCDS scan yesterday (about 4 weeks after the software update) to check on something else and everything has a clean bill of health.

TDI WNY, here is all I have on the TSB:



Note the technical background comment at the bottom of the page stating, "Diagnostic strategy for zero fuel calibration too sensitive".


Samcar222, I do run Liquimoly "Super Diesel Additiv" and agree with yatzee that there is no correlation between this error and additives. The bottle on the right is for the mechanic:

ECU Reflash

I had 2 episodes of P0269 fault codes 120 miles apart so I elected to have a local dealer reflash ECM, via TSB 2035464 for $107(1 hour labor rate).

I was able to view the TSB on the VW Dealer's monitor and it instructs not to replace any components just update the software.

No error codes 300 miles after reflash of ECM.

ECU Reflash (5-Week Update)

Aargh! Its back. Same error code as before. CEL only remains off for first engine run (once the error code is cleared) and then comes right back when the engine is started a second time.

to benettlr: Has the code been repaired, now that it came back after the TSB software flash?

6000 miles since my reflash and the code has NOT returned.