Driving with clogged heater core dangerous?

My wife's 2014 Passat TDI SE has the clogged heater core problem. I plan to take it to a dealer in a couple weeks but we are about a 5 hr drive from the closest VW dealer. Is it going to damage the engine to keep driving it like it is now? I can deal with no heat but I can't figure out if this is part of the main cooling system loop or not. Will the coolant flow through the engine/radiator be restricted by this?

Drive on.

Clogged Heater Core- 2014 Passat SE 6 MT

My 2014 Passat TDI SE just coded for
8215 EGR System
P2457
Insufficient Cooling Performance
Fault Priority:2
Fault Frequency: 22
Mileage: 105,802 kilometers, or about 66,000 miles

I checked with a VW service technician and he checked and said, "Let's check and see if you have heat". We did and no heat, which means a clogged heater core, so this is apparently a more common problem than I thought. I have 3 B4's with over 330,000 miles and did not have to replace the heater core in them yet. This code just came up on my drive back from New Hampshire to Baltimore this past Tuesday after Labor Day, so need to get it taken care of as it will be in the 40's at night in WV where I am leading a trip this weekend. Thanks for posting this and hope the information helps other Passat owners.

This:

"My 2014 Passat TDI SE just coded for
8215 EGR System
P2457
Insufficient Cooling Performance"

I had the same CEL and code. It was also due to the heater core being plugged. I had it replaced under warranty, and the CEL went away. The EGR cooler is supplied by coolant that loops around the heater core in some way. If plugged, it's common to get the code above.

Spoke to VW of A yesterday and they arranged a look see at the dealer on Monday, so we will see what they say. My car has 66,000 on it now, so past warranty.....but thanks for the information as I may be doing this job myself, but hope not.

Is this a Dash out repair?

I'm also wondering what the heck will happen for Canadians.

North American Passats shipped with -22 rated coolant. There was a TSB in Canada to flush the coolant and replace it with -45 coolant.

unixb0y said:

Is this a Dash out repair?

I'm also wondering what the heck will happen for Canadians.

North American Passats shipped with -22 rated coolant. There was a TSB in Canada to flush the coolant and replace it with -45 coolant.

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We leave our heaters on year round, engine running too.

TDINJ said:

This:

"My 2014 Passat TDI SE just coded for
8215 EGR System
P2457
Insufficient Cooling Performance"

I had the same CEL and code. It was also due to the heater core being plugged. I had it replaced under warranty, and the CEL went away. The EGR cooler is supplied by coolant that loops around the heater core in some way. If plugged, it's common to get the code above.

Click to expand...

I had this error pop up yesterday, and now this morning no heat!
53,000 miles with a bad heater core? Really?!?

Im wondering if removing them and soaking them in Cummins restore plus would work? its wickedly powerful and I have 2 gallons sitting in my garage- The previous owner just used water in my 1995 dodge cummins and the inside of the block was full of rust to where fresh coolant just turned brown- the restore plus worked amazing! Im sure it would eat threw coolant gel in a heartbeat!

https://www.cumminsfiltration.com/html/en/products/cooling/system_cleaners.html

Yes it's a dash out procedure

I am on my second time no heat. Does anyone know if VW has a warranty on parts, etc if the same parts fail again within a year? Is labor covered too?,

AFAIK, 12/12k miles on OEM replacement parts. Regardless, a second failure is unacceptable, and only increases my concern that they really haven't solved the problem. I would gently insist that VWoA should pay for the replacement.

Check the part number of your already replaced heater core.

Veedubtdi has my first core that I sent to him for dissection. Work order from the repair has the heater core listed as 561-819-031-B $ 107.65

Also replaced

561-898-353-A box 95.60
561-907-511-B motor $164.00
561-907-511-D motor $164.00

The saddest part of this repair was that the labor cost was $ 1176.00

dogger37 said:

I am on my second time no heat. Does anyone know if VW has a warranty on parts, etc if the same parts fail again within a year? Is labor covered too?,

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Second time! How many miles between?

Jrm, you think that restore plus is safe for our cars? Might be worth trying a flush before dropping a ton of money on a dash out procedure.

I wonder if I could convince my dealer to give the stuff a try?

The most usual cause for core clogging on a newer Dub is that someone mixed an incompatible coolant such as Prestone or Peak with the VW speced coolant . Putting Prestone or peak coolant in you Dub will cause gelling and the first thing to clog is the heater core and/or the EGR cooler.

http://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/258158-G12-coolant-vs-regular

You could try flushing the core with a garden hose. Just take off the 2 hoses that are between the engine and firewall and blast water into each firewall connection until water flows freely in both directions.

30,000 between failures

The car has never had any coolant put into it that was not VW fluid...

What about water? Always had distilled water?

dogger37 said:

30,000 between failures
The car has never had any coolant put into it that was not VW fluid...

Click to expand...

That's just crazy! What was the Dealers response to the second clogged core... are the escalating this to VW?

in the woods, try mac's in Portland- they were able to run a thin brush threw the core on my dodge ram. worth a shot

jrm said:

in the woods, try mac's in Portland- they were able to run a thin brush threw the core on my dodge ram. worth a shot

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Yeah I don't think a brush will work...

VeeDubTDI said:

Compressed air won't work, as it's a parallel flow straight-through single-pass heat exchanger with a header tank on each end. You might be able to blow out one tube, or even a few tubes, but it won't blow out all of them, or even most of them.

Passat heater core shown on the right, compared to the old style core shown on the left.

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I had a 2000 ford Taurus with a clogged heater core. i flushed it out with lime away.worked great after.

Heater Core

67K miles and I had a code come up for bad EGR Temp Sensor. Sensor replaced under the extended warranty and 2 days later had the EGR Cooling Performance Code come up. I also have no heat. Going to flush the heater core with a pump and some CLR tonight. We'll see if that fixes the problems. I miss my prefix Passat.

Just FYI, the heater core is a pretty easy job on the NMS Passat. Slides right out an access panel from the HVAC case, by the pedals. No dash removal.

Thought I would add this, since earlier in this thread someone stated the dash has to come out, and that is false.

oilhammer, what's your thoughts of cummins Restore PLUS to clear out the EGR cooler? I used it on my old dodge ram and it actually ate the soldering on my old school radiator and caused some leaks- since our NMS use aluminum rad's do you feel its safer or stay away?
you must click the one on the right>
https://www.cumminsfiltration.com/cleaners

I would stay away from anything like that, especially given how easy a heater core replacement is on these cars.

Mitchell gives a flat rate time for replacement of 3.0 hours. It must be similar to my Jetta in that regard. I did it in 4 hours time.

The worst part of the whole job was getting the hose junction between the core and the tubes that go out through the firewall.

Be sure to get the gasket kit for that connection. It comes with new seals and clamps, you will need them in addition to the new core.

Alldata says 1.4 for the NMS. I have never done one, but the procedure looks pretty easy.

Looked again, still 3.0 in Mitchell, but nonetheless for a heater core that is a breeze even at that. I remember in my Jetta I had the core in my hand in 1/2 hour, back in again in minutes, but the connections to the heater tubes fought a good fight. Before that I was thinking that I would have it backing out the door in an hour.

It was hard to pull the tubes together tightly and apply the cinching clamp at the same time while laying upside down under the dash in a cramped space. Elsa-win listed the last step was to tighten the tube retainer at the firewall. In retrospect I think they really needed to be tightened down and locked into place so you can force the heater core onto them. Of course this revelation came long after the job was done. After a few false clamps and much fighting and challenging other techs to show me how, we achieved success.

It is about time they made them easy if they are going to persist in retaining a poorly designed heater core that is not self flushing, but more of a debris collector.

I stand corrected, Alldata is 2.9. I got confused with the Transit EGR cooler, which is 1.4 and takes a day and a half and involves coolant in your eyes, mouth, ears, and every curse word in the book.

I thought Passats had been granted an extended warranty of 120,000 miles / 10 years on the heater core.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=462818