Emissions Modifications Results suck

leocat66

Active member
Joined
Sep 3, 2012
Location
Slidell, LA. USA
TDI
2013 PASSAT, 2006 JETTA
Our 2013 Passat has had the Emissions Modifications installed. What a disappointment. We expected some minor issues as described in the notice from VW. Our car, 60k, now sounds like our '99 which has 300,000 on the clock. Hesitation issues abound and it is now necessary to start off from a stop in S mode and not shifting into D until around 20 mph. Someone will ultimately be killed due to the hesitation issue. Our '06 Jetta has much more performance. When the issues were presented to the dealer they could not care less.

Anyone else having similar issues?
 

dak503

Active member
Joined
Oct 20, 2013
Location
northern nj
TDI
2013 passat se
When i had the modification done on my passat i had the same problem. It was so bad even my wife noticed it and she doesn't notice much when it comes to cars. But now if i hit the gas pedal to aggressively the tires chirp. It seems to have more power off the line than before. I think the car needs some time to relearn everything. I hope that is your problem drive it for a bit and see if it gets better. Hopefully that all it is.
 

jrm

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Location
Oregon
TDI
2013 Passat SE with nav (totaled)
yup, Emissions comes first- been this way to some extent since 2008- mine is also delayed- if you mash it to the floor there is a good solid 2 seconds of nothing, just idles then at that 2 second mark it comes to life and will spin the tires, so plan ahead when pulling out across busy lanes of traffic on those left handers :eek: But to be honest, my dodge ram diesel is 10 fold worse, randomly it disconnects from the pedal sensor and I can leave it stomped for 30 seconds as it just idles and speeds drop to a stop when pulling a travel trailer- called dead pedal and extremely common. We all know the fix. $2K and a trip to mexico to make some parts fall off
 

Rico567

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jun 13, 2003
Location
Central IL
TDI
2013 Passat TDI SEL Premium (Turned in 7/7/18)
Our 2013 Passat has had the Emissions Modifications installed. What a disappointment. We expected some minor issues as described in the notice from VW. Our car, 60k, now sounds like our '99 which has 300,000 on the clock. Hesitation issues abound and it is now necessary to start off from a stop in S mode and not shifting into D until around 20 mph. Someone will ultimately be killed due to the hesitation issue. Our '06 Jetta has much more performance. When the issues were presented to the dealer they could not care less.

Anyone else having similar issues?
If you can't get these problems to go away, you may be eligible to switch to the buyback. Our '13 Passat doesn't have them, because we're not even thinking about the fix. Doing the buyback late next year.
 

bustNfuel

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2002
Location
Raleigh, NC
TDI
Sold: 13 Passat SEL TDI
Mine is a '13 with 64K miles.
After the emissions update, I never really noticed any changes in the power delivery, sound, nor the way the DSG operates. It always seemed to be somewhat hesitant between brake release and actually moving away from a stop which is annoying. Not enough for me to consider it unsafe. I had to learn the DSG's idiosyncrasies compared to driving with a torque-converter automatic when I first started driving it. So to recap, thankfully mine did not exhibit any noticeable changes after the emissions mod.

Give it time. Probably a tank-full to see if it's returned to normal..'re-learned'.
 

roni024

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2007
Location
Syracuse, NY
TDI
2015 Passat TDI SEL DSG
If you can't get these problems to go away, you may be eligible to switch to the buyback.
Where did you get this information from?
I've been holding off on both the fix and buyback to extend my "free" driving time, but if what you say is true, I may want to get the fix sooner to be able to determine any problems associated with it before the Dec 2018 deadline. As it stands now, I'm leaning toward the fix.
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
From my knowledge soon as you get the "fix" and VW states you're car is "operating as designed", buy back is off the table.

Now i'd be up to each person and dealer to determine "operate as designed", somehow I think an owner could scream until their are blue in the face and VWoA would stand their ground, and then the dealer would probably low ball an offer for a trade out of good faith.
 

06bluebeetletdi

Veteran Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2012
Location
Middlesex, NC
TDI
'14 Passat TDI SEL and '13 Beetle TDI
How many miles since modification? Are you more city or highway driving? I am at 1800 miles with my passat, 90% at 70 mph, it seems plenty peppy and fun to drive, i dont notice any difference other than increased regens.
 

leocat66

Active member
Joined
Sep 3, 2012
Location
Slidell, LA. USA
TDI
2013 PASSAT, 2006 JETTA
How many miles since modification? Are you more city or highway driving? I am at 1800 miles with my passat, 90% at 70 mph, it seems plenty peppy and fun to drive, i dont notice any difference other than increased regens.
Modification was made in late August. 1400 miles since modification.
 

leocat66

Active member
Joined
Sep 3, 2012
Location
Slidell, LA. USA
TDI
2013 PASSAT, 2006 JETTA
Has anyone tried the options offered by KERMA TDI. Seems that they offer options to improve performance and noise issues on all TDI vehicles, relating to emissions either before or after modifications. If what they say is half true, it is awesome.
 

Owain@malonetuning

Associate Vendor , w/Business number
Joined
Jul 1, 2016
Location
Vancouver
TDI
PD jetta wagon
Both Kerma and Malone have been tuning these vehicles for quite some time, should have no problem there. Mark has considerable experience with the bosch EDC17 ECUs found in most of the newer diesels, we tune pretty well every diesel coming out of Europe at this point.
 
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jrm

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Location
Oregon
TDI
2013 Passat SE with nav (totaled)
I have noticed that after the update that cold weather really causes this thing to drink fuel, in cold EGT temps dip down to 400F in rain, then the engine changes pitch and instant fuel MPG drops by 5mpg and the EGT's spike up to 950F
 

Jetta_Pilot

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Apr 14, 2005
Location
West Hill, Ont.
TDI
2015 Passat Highline TDI Candy White (SEL Premium) long gone 2002 Jetta TDI
There are three different people complaining about a lag of (2 seconds?) after releasing the brake pedal. It just seems like 2 seconds, it isn't.

What you are experiencing is the hill hold. This keeps the same pressure on the brakes for a fraction of time as you applied at the stop.

There are two ways to rectify this.
1.) Using a VCDS disable the hill hold function. (Personally I like it)
2.) Anticipate when the light changes to green and release the brake pedal just before that.
 

Rico567

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jun 13, 2003
Location
Central IL
TDI
2013 Passat TDI SEL Premium (Turned in 7/7/18)
I have noticed that after the update that cold weather really causes this thing to drink fuel,<snip>
We have had no update done, and don't plan on it, and our Passat has gotten lower mpg in cold weather since we bought it new.
 

jrm

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Location
Oregon
TDI
2013 Passat SE with nav (totaled)
Rico, prior update in cold weather we averaged low 40's now we are low 30mpg range- worse than my old Accord V6
Jetta pilot- the lag I'm talking about isn't hill hold, but you must stomp the pedal to notice it- if you slowly floor it the car reacts pretty good. I think its a dsg safeguard. I really noticed it when chasing a thief (robbery actually) and whenever I stomped the pedal from a 4 way it lagged big time. Cops took over after we got out of town and got him- Passat hung with him just long enough to get the direction that he exited town.
 
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Rico567

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jun 13, 2003
Location
Central IL
TDI
2013 Passat TDI SEL Premium (Turned in 7/7/18)
Rico, prior update in cold weather we averaged low 40's now we are low 30mpg range- <snip>
Yeah, we've never seen anything that bad. If we get some typical winter temperatures here in Central IL (20F), I've seen some high 30's figures, but that's as low as it's been.
BTW- glad you caught the robber!
 

Mark_J

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2003
Location
Deer Park, Washington
TDI
2015 TDI Passat SEL Premium, 2017 Fiat Spider, 2017 Ford F350 6.7 Diesel crew cab PU, 2016 Harley Trike, 2016 Tesla Model X P90D (I know went to the dark side)
It isn't just the cold weather affecting diesel mileage. Work in a refinery and we have switched over to making diesel with a colder freeze target so it does not gel up in the winter. The freeze in the summer is as high as +20 F but in the winter is can be as low as -45 or more. What we have to do is drive some of the heavier components out of the diesel making it a lighter fuel which has less BTU's than heaver fuel. So your mileage goes down. But some have stated that they loose 10 mpg, I have been driving car and PU diesels for over 40 years and my experience is I only lose a couple of MPG. 10 MPG loss sounds excessive and I would look into it if it were my vehicle.
 

TheGrove

TDIClub Enthusiast, Veteran Member
Joined
May 17, 2006
Location
S Central PA (Breezewood)
TDI
2012 Passat SEL Premium Opera Red - Dieselgate Fix, KermaTDI Tune, 2004 Passat GLS Northern Green-RIP
Jetta pilot- the lag I'm talking about isn't hill hold, but you must stomp the pedal to notice it- if you slowly floor it the car reacts pretty good. I think its a dsg safeguard.
This has always been the case. Mine has done that since I purchased it in 2011. It is know that you need to roll into the throttle you can't mash it or the car will hesitate very badly. If a search is done on this forum there will be threads about this back to 2012.
 

jrm

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Location
Oregon
TDI
2013 Passat SE with nav (totaled)
yup I was a part of those old threads, but after the fix it has noticeably worsened- and diesel rattle in cold temps is ALH style :cool: but I like it
 
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