96 wagon tdi question--solenoid/hose question

Hi,

I am in the process of doing the timing belt and h2o pump
in our 96 passat wagon. This is the first tb that I have done in
this vehicle. From an archeological point of view, I am finding
evidence of previous "visitors"; parts missing, things broken.
I have a shopping list (unfortunately) for the dealer.

I removed the air cleaner box to get better access to removing
the TB cover bolts/nut. In doing so I noted that there is what
appears to be a solenoid mounted to the air cleaner box via rubber
coupling. A hose from this solenoid goes to one of the fuel lines
where it is Teed in, on the other side of the solenoid is a hose
that is partially hard plastic that goes behind the engine.
This hard plastic hose has been worn through by chafing and
appears to contain black crud--for lack of better term. It is not
fuel. Whatever that hose did at one time--it can't possibly be
working. Engine seems to run fine no cel codes or anything.

I went to the dealer and tried to describe this but had no joy in
terms of finding the purpose of this thing. The car has been
running fine with this hose essentially broken to the atmosphere.

What is the solenoid? It looks like it may monitor fuel pressure
or something as it is connected to the fuel line but fuel does
not pass through it. Also what is the purpose of the hose?



Thanks

-Almus

Al, that's the little solenoid that spritzes fuel into the oxidation catalyst.

Wow. Thanks for the quick reply,


I just pored throught the bentley manual and it appears to
claim that that is for auto tranny.... Our car is a manual

(section M23-15 in Bentley)

So this thing has been not working for ages. hmmmmm


-Almus

Al, you can review "smoking recall" and related documentation. It describes the conditions under which the solenoid was (mis-) fired. The smoking recall renders the lil' bugger inactive. I wouldn't worry about it if you're not experiencing any CELs, etc.

FWIW, we had 5 spd cars only in NAmerica, no autos (thank God for minor miracles).

And if you's had the "smoke fix" performed, the replacement ECU (with GQ as a suffix) would render the rubber mounted solenoid pump inactive. The fuel that was in the hose from the period when the original (BK suffix) ECU was in use might well have turned to "black crud---for lack of a better term."

dieseldorf said:

FWIW, we had 5 spd cars only in NAmerica, no autos (thank God for minor miracles).

Click to expand...

The opinions on that post aren't necessarily the opinions of this poster.
and, for clarity, that should have been "we had only 5 spd cars in NAmerica..." rather than implying that the rest of the world had only automatics or fewer than 5 spd.