2014 TDI SEL Fuel Issues and High Pressure Fuel Pump Issues

Hi All,

I am a recent owner of a 2014 Passat TDI SEL. Unfortunately, I made this purchase back in July 2015 before all of the issues were announced publicly.

Recently, I was driving my car to work and I noticed that I couldn't maintain my speed on the freeway, and the accelerator began to drop slowly. I noticed that the following two dashboard lights were flashing "Engine Malfunction On-Board Diagnostics" and "Diesel Engine Pre-Glow Before Engine Start-Up".

I had my car towed into a VW dealership here in Seattle and within hours I was notified that I had water in my fuel tank and that they would have to drain the tank. They estimated ~$500 in service issues and that I should have my car back the following day.

Today I received another call from the dealership stating that they had to order a High Pressure Fuel Pump as draining the fuel tank didn't solve the problem. My car has 22,000 miles on it and I recently had no issues during my 20k inspection.

Has anyone else had similar issues? They mentioned draining the tank wouldn't be covered by warrant because it was from purchasing bad diesel, but if that didn't fix the problem, I don't think I should be responsible for that cost of service.

Any thoughts from folks?

Thanks,
Kevin

Typical water in fuel failure (if there really was water) and it's never warrantied, since VW can't be responsible for what you get from your fuel station. There are almost zero common rail engines in any brand that can tolerate water . . . do a search, there are loads of threads on this topic already.

- Tim

Sounds like a bad diagnosis to me.

I think you should contact the your fuel supplier if in fact there is water in the fuel.

I lost a HPFP in my 2014 also. Thankfully mine passed the fuel test so I didn't have any problems with them denying coverage for the repair.

I've heard some have been successful getting this expensive repair covered under their comprehensive insurance coverage if there is evidence of contaminated fuel. Another avenue to consider should you not get anywhere with VW.