Second DPF replacement in 3 months

Hi everyone!
I have a 2012 Golf 6M- I do have the recall fix with this car. My CEL came on while I was driving to work last Friday. The dealer was nice enough to check it out the same day, and told me I would need a new DPF... which is surprising considering that the dealer replaced it just a few months ago, on June 7.
I asked the question; what could possibly have caused a DPF to go bad after only ~3 months/~8k miles? The master technician stated, "it can't be explained."
Of course my concern is that there is some other problem causing the DPF to "clog" faster than normal... could it be software related? some other component in the system? is it my driving??
Or could it really be just a random bad filter?
Please post your ideas!!
Yes, I'll be using these ideas to assess what level of bs I'm getting from the dealer...
Here is some background:

• I bought this [awesome] car early in January 2019, after a Mack truck travelling 70mph faster than me totaled my 2000 Golf [and I walked away]
• It had 26k miles at the time of purchase
• It had 40k miles at the first DPF replacement
• It has 48k miles now
• My commute is 30 minutes and it's 99% freeway (I usually average 68-70mph), 5 days a week
• I usually idle for about 1 minute after each commute to cool the turbo
• I use Power Service/Diesel Kleen with every tank of fuel (I'm pretty conservative with usage ratios though).
• I had the fuel filter replaced at 34k
• I've been getting ~40-45mpg during the summer, more like ~36mpg in the dead of winter

I've also been having an intermittent issue with long crank time, but this also can't be explained by the dealer (they did test my fuel pressures overnight and found nothing). It happened mostly in the spring but did happen a couple weeks ago on an especially cool/humid day. It doesn't really bother me since it's never failed to start and I'm still under warranty (certified pre-owned).
I've used this forum quite a bit in the past several months for information gathering, but this is my first actual post. Please me nice to me

It seems to be happening a lot on these post-fix vehicles. Do some digging here, there are owners who are getting new DPF under the extended warranty every few thousand miles. Some claim to be on their fourth DPF post-fix. I think all of those owners would agree that the fix really messed up the reliability of those vehicles big time. The fault code for defective DPF is p0401. If you run a search for that, you'll have plenty to read for at least a few hours.

Hey I have the same car, and had the DPF and EGR filter replaced under the emissions warranty about 1000 miles ago. They also replaced the thermostat at the same time after realizing the engine wasn't getting up to temp to trigger a regen, despite the water temp gauge showing 190F. I'm hoping this was the root cause for me, but we'll see! I might be in the same boat as you in a few months. I believe the thermostat issue was mentioned in a TSB that luckily came out while my car was at the dealer and that triggered them to look at engine temp. It might be worth a mention to your dealer.

This guy talks about DPF's and what can possibly fail with them..... and a failed or not good glow plug could do it supposedly and that would make sense with the winter start.... either way draw your own ideas..... hahaha..... https://youtu.be/-bOlDFFhuPM

Cut it off problem solved.

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I had some issues with mine early on, after the emission fix. Egr cooler, and pretty much every sensor was replaced was also replaced, and then the DPF had to get replaced again, and all happened in a span of 3 months from the post fix. It’s been almost 2 years since the last dpf replaced, and car has been running fine. I do mostly hey driving.

I try not to drive it too long, if the CEL comes on, to avoid clogging up DPF. I drive it hard here and there, as I think that helps clear and flush things out

Ron

LuckyK said:

Hi everyone!

I have a 2012 Golf 6M- I do have the recall fix with this car. My CEL came on while I was driving to work last Friday. The dealer was nice enough to check it out the same day, and told me I would need a new DPF... which is surprising considering that the dealer replaced it just a few months ago, on June 7.

I asked the question; what could possibly have caused a DPF to go bad after only ~3 months/~8k miles? The master technician stated, "it can't be explained."

Of course my concern is that there is some other problem causing the DPF to "clog" faster than normal... could it be software related? some other component in the system? is it my driving??

Or could it really be just a random bad filter?

Please post your ideas!!

Yes, I'll be using these ideas to assess what level of bs I'm getting from the dealer...

Here is some background:

• I bought this [awesome] car early in January 2019, after a Mack truck travelling 70mph faster than me totaled my 2000 Golf [and I walked away]
  
• It had 26k miles at the time of purchase
  
• It had 40k miles at the first DPF replacement
  
• It has 48k miles now
  
• My commute is 30 minutes and it's 99% freeway (I usually average 68-70mph), 5 days a week
  
• I usually idle for about 1 minute after each commute to cool the turbo
  
• I use Power Service/Diesel Kleen with every tank of fuel (I'm pretty conservative with usage ratios though).
  
• I had the fuel filter replaced at 34k
  
• I've been getting ~40-45mpg during the summer, more like ~36mpg in the dead of winter
  

I've also been having an intermittent issue with long crank time, but this also can't be explained by the dealer (they did test my fuel pressures overnight and found nothing). It happened mostly in the spring but did happen a couple weeks ago on an especially cool/humid day. It doesn't really bother me since it's never failed to start and I'm still under warranty (certified pre-owned).

I've used this forum quite a bit in the past several months for information gathering, but this is my first actual post. Please me nice to me

Click to expand...

Did they change the EGR Filter along with the DPF Filter?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Isn't the DPF etc. covered by the EPA mandated extended warranty?
120,ooo from in service date or 48,000 miles from the "fix"

Daemon64 said:

This guy talks about DPF's and what can possibly fail with them..... and a failed or not good glow plug could do it supposedly and that would make sense with the winter start.... either way draw your own ideas..... hahaha..... https://youtu.be/-bOlDFFhuPM

Click to expand...

Great info! Every DPF owner needs to watch this.

My non PDF Passat developed a post MAF air leak and it was obvious with the exhaust soot. I can see this now invisable issue ruining many DPFs. I think my 100k service will include preventative air charge hoses.

redbarron55 said:

Isn't the DPF etc. covered by the EPA mandated extended warranty?
120,ooo from in service date or 48,000 miles from the "fix"

Click to expand...

Im going to look at the exacts I have written down . I believe you are correct but I think there is also a date expiration.

Daemon64 said:

This guy talks about DPF's and what can possibly fail with them..... and a failed or not good glow plug could do it supposedly and that would make sense with the winter start.... either way draw your own ideas..... hahaha..... https://youtu.be/-bOlDFFhuPM

Click to expand...

I only wish the video were in English....

That must suck to have to keep taking a car back and forth to a dealership, that is why I said get rid of it. I don't have the patience to deal with that kind of BS.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

VW offered a $ 5,000 incentive to anyone willing to have his/her TDI "fixed". Now it is clear it was gas money for the seemingly endless trips to and from the dealer to have the vehicle fixed and refixed again and again. At one point, however, the extended warranty will be over and anyone driving a vehicle like that should have an exit plan. Just ask the dealer how much it would cost to have the DPF replaced on your dime.

soot1 said:

VW offered a $ 5,000 incentive to anyone willing to have his/her TDI "fixed". Now it is clear it was gas money for the seemingly endless trips to and from the dealer to have the vehicle fixed and refixed again and again. At one point, however, the extended warranty will be over and anyone driving a vehicle like that should have an exit plan. Just ask the dealer how much it would cost to have the DPF replaced on your dime.

Click to expand...

How much did they buy back a one owner JSW for? Was it a variable? What about a 1 owner who choose to keep and NOT fix, do they encounter smog check issues (from original VW cheat program)?

JELLOWSUBMARINE said:

Im going to look at the exacts I have written down . I believe you are correct but I think there is also a date expiration.

Click to expand...

I think that there may be a time limit as well.
I bought my Touareg just after it was fixed a few months ago.
There is a VW site that will give the date of the fix on your car by the VIN number.
It will show the mileage and date when the fix was applied.
Both the 120 K miles AND the 48 K mile warranties apply.
It covers all of the emissions and just about the entire engine as well.

Here is the dite:

https://www.vwdieselinfo.com/

Here is the readout for my Touareg

2012 Touareg Utility 4D TDI Executive AWD V6 TDI
Volkswagen Emissions Modification Programs
Vehicle (VIN) Included in Settlement: YES
Modification Approved by EPA and CARB: YES
Modification Completed for this Vehicle (VIN): YES
Vehicle has Extended Emissions Warranty: YES
Vehicle Eligibility and Emissions Modification Status:
An emissions modification has been approved for this vehicle by EPA and CARB. Please see below for additional information regarding the emissions modification.

Emissions Modification Disclosure:
Please find details on the modification for the vehicle in the Emissions Modification Disclosure.

Extended Emissions Warranty Information*:
The vehicle has an Extended Emissions Warranty that runs for 10 years or 120,000 miles from the original in-service date. Please see your VW dealership for additional information including the vehicle's in-service date.

In addition, and concurrently, the Extended Emissions Warranty runs for 4 years or 48,000 miles (whichever occurs first) from the date of modification or first dealer resale post-modification. Your vehicle was modified on May 7, 2019 and 96,472 miles. Please see your VW dealership for additional information on the vehicle's post-modification dealer re-sale date.

JELLOWSUBMARINE said:

How much did they buy back a one owner JSW for? Was it a variable? What about a 1 owner who choose to keep and NOT fix, do they encounter smog check issues (from original VW cheat program)?

Click to expand...

The buyback amount was fair market value (KBB good condition) plus the same approximately $5k incentive you would collect if you had the car fixed. The incentive was almost constant, but the fair market value was the big variable. The factor that counted the most was the mileage the vehicle had as of September 2015 when the scandal blew wide open. But, it wasn't the actual mileage your odometer was reading in 09/2015. Rather, they gave you allowance of 1,042 miles per month, counting back from the month you sold the vehicle back to VW. That means if you drove the car very little (I only put about 6,500 miles per year on it), your car was increasing in value every month you kept it. Conversely, if you drove more than the above mentioned monthly mileage allowance, your car was losing value. This fact motivated some people (myself included) to hold on to their vehicles until the last possible moment, while others unloaded them as soon as they could.

Other factors that impacted the buyback amount were some options, such as auto/manual tranny. Most other options, however, were not a factor. For instance, I ordered my vehicle with a set of 17" rims and low-profile tires, which was a $ 1,099 option, but all I got for that was a thank-you, nothing else.

If you chose not to do anything, you got nothing at all. To the best of my knowledge, all 50 states took the blood money from the federal government (portion of the fine our government collected from VW). In return for that, any state that took the money (meaning all 50 states) agreed not to harass those owners of the affected vehicles who chose to continue driving their cars without having them fixed, and those owners are allowed to continue driving those cars indefinitely.

I cannot give you any figures for a JSW, but if you are interested, there was a calculator posted somewhere on this web site, which told you exactly how much you'd get if you plugged in all the relevant information. It may still be there, but I don't know if it still functions correctly since the deadline passed almost 9 months ago. In my case, the 2010 Jetta TDI 6M was bought back by VW for a total of $ 17,656.73, of which $ 5,431.73 was the incentive, and the rest, $ 12,225.00 was a fair market value of the car. I turned the car in on 7/19/2018, at which moment it had 59,601 miles on the odometer. The time lapse between July of 2018 and September of 2015 was 35 months (credit for the whole month was given on the first day of each month), so subtracting 35x1,042 from 59,601 yields 23,131 miles, and that is the mileage that was used to determine the fair market value of the vehicle. Needless to say, I had in excess of 39,000 miles on the odometer in September of 2015, but that didn't matter: everyone got the same 1,042 miles per month credit. Oh, and they subtracted $ 750 for the manual tranny, so if I had the DSG, VW would have paid me $ 18,406.73.

Eh, the moment my 2 yr unlimited CPO warranty is over I'm deleting all the emissions crap anyway. No way I'd spend money on replacing that stuff.

soot1 said:

they subtracted $ 750 for the manual tranny, so if I had the DSG, VW would have paid me $ 18,406.73.

Click to expand...

That's increadable, drive a new car for 7 or 8 years for several thousand! Thanks for the detailed info. I see why JSW owners turned them in and bought a newer CPO! BTW I had a 2010 JSW TDI owner approach me today to ask how I liked the car. He said his 2010 TDI JSW had no DPF??? hmmmmm...

27win said:

Eh, the moment my 2 yr unlimited CPO warranty is over I'm deleting all the emissions crap anyway. No way I'd spend money on replacing that stuff.

Click to expand...

I hear you. Unfortunately Im in a smog checked area

JELLOWSUBMARINE said:

I hear you. Unfortunately Im in a smog checked area

Click to expand...

I assumed so. Fortunately we don't have diesel emissions testing here.

soot1 said:

It seems to be happening a lot on these post-fix vehicles. Do some digging here, there are owners who are getting new DPF under the extended warranty every few thousand miles. Some claim to be on their fourth DPF post-fix. I think all of those owners would agree that the fix really messed up the reliability of those vehicles big time. The fault code for defective DPF is p0401. If you run a search for that, you'll have plenty to read for at least a few hours.

Click to expand...

I almost don't want to, it would ruin my day

ebain21 said:

Hey I have the same car, and had the DPF and EGR filter replaced under the emissions warranty about 1000 miles ago. They also replaced the thermostat at the same time after realizing the engine wasn't getting up to temp to trigger a regen, despite the water temp gauge showing 190F. I'm hoping this was the root cause for me, but we'll see! I might be in the same boat as you in a few months. I believe the thermostat issue was mentioned in a TSB that luckily came out while my car was at the dealer and that triggered them to look at engine temp. It might be worth a mention to your dealer.

Click to expand...

That's give me hope that it could be fixed... but I know that it does cycle pretty often. Did yours not cycle at all?

Daemon64 said:

This guy talks about DPF's and what can possibly fail with them..... and a failed or not good glow plug could do it supposedly and that would make sense with the winter start.... either way draw your own ideas..... hahaha..... https://youtu.be/-bOlDFFhuPM

Click to expand...

This is super helpful. I've also been wondering about the glow plugs with the long crank.

super1 said:

Did they change the EGR Filter along with the DPF Filter?


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Click to expand...

No they did not. I'm not sure exactly what was replaced when they did the fix either...

Yai said:

I had some issues with mine early on, after the emission fix. Egr cooler, and pretty much every sensor was replaced was also replaced, and then the DPF had to get replaced again, and all happened in a span of 3 months from the post fix. It’s been almost 2 years since the last dpf replaced, and car has been running fine. I do mostly hey driving.

I try not to drive it too long, if the CEL comes on, to avoid clogging up DPF. I drive it hard here and there, as I think that helps clear and flush things out

Ron

Click to expand...

Good to know! I just have to convince the dealer to actually replace all these things...

i have a 2012 jetta tdi sedan thats at the dealer right now (almost two months now...fyi) sitting waiting on a part thats (Backordered .. or shall we say it.. theres several thousand waiting for the same exact part...

Thinking down the line, might do DPF and EGR deletes once the warranties wear off.. is that hard to do? (yes i know i'd have to buy a tune that deletes the dpf....) upside is that fuel economy probably would go up a bit eh?

While its been there waiting for dpf, they also found out that the turbo was failed, due to overtemp most likely due to the dpf plugged or cracked, which caused the Turbo to burn up. They replaced the Turbo no charge, and also found out that one of my coolant fans wasnt spinning, so they replaced the Coolant fan assembly, with no charge, while awaiting this fix.

Update: I went in for the DPF replacement and the dealer assured me that they would look into the cause. They filed a help ticket and VW came back and told them to check for a boost leak... and voila! They also replaced a sticky EGR valve.
I have improved mileage now, which makes me happy. I was also happy to see that VW is tracking this **** and actually knew what to look for.

I'm not totally convinced it's all gravy now... I still have the long crank time occasionally. I might just pay for a specialist to diagnose so that I can have some peace of mind. I want to keep this car for a long time so I've gotta find everything wrong with it before the warranty runs out.

Question for anyone who had the DPF replaced under the warranty extension...any hassles from the dealership about using the warranty? In March my CEL came on about my exhaust pressure valve and then the DPF light came on about a week later, but I didn't know about the extended warranty until I started researching the fix. And my local dealership can be a pain in the butt. Bought mine Summer of 2019 and had no issues with it at all until this happened after a late spring ice storm here.

goosepilot said:

Question for anyone who had the DPF replaced under the warranty extension...any hassles from the dealership about using the warranty? In March my CEL came on about my exhaust pressure valve and then the DPF light came on about a week later, but I didn't know about the extended warranty until I started researching the fix. And my local dealership can be a pain in the butt. Bought mine Summer of 2019 and had no issues with it at all until this happened after a late spring ice storm here.

Click to expand...

I had no issues at with getting my DPF replaced on my 2011 on August 31, 2021. I had just bought the car too. The previous owner did have issues getting the dealer to replace it for some reason. He was just done with car and dealer at that point. I guess it can depend on the dealer.