Black smoke

I noticed a small puff in third gear on my way to get lunch, but it's definitely nothing close to what it was before. I've also only driven about 40 miles on the stock tune. I'll continue to monitor my mirrors throughout the week.

EGR codes popped again once I got on the highway leaving work yesterday. A couple puffs of smoke, but definitely a significant reduction. Car feels so damn slow. I miss my tune already.

VCDS doesn't seem to show my DPF being out of control.

Soot at the exhaust means the DPF is cracked. P0401 then means the soot has now clogged the EGR filter. The dealer, upon finding the soot at the entrance to the EGR filter, is supposed to replace both the DPF filter and the EGR filter.


My TDI (untuned) is now on the way to do this for the third time. I already noticed soot in the exhaust again, but the P0401 has not yet been thrown. VW will not replace the DPF before the EGR filter is also clogged and the car throws the code.

Post-fix cars no longer have the EGR filter tube. It is just a straight tube, with a little flex section. So when (not if) the DPF cracks, the soot is now sent straight into the turbo inlet, and gets mixed with the intake air charge, creating a nasty, black, sooty, gooey mess through the entire charge air tract. At least before, the filter tube clogged up and stopped this part from happening.

oilhammer said:

Post-fix cars no longer have the EGR filter tube. It is just a straight tube, with a little flex section. .

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Which I learned the hard way when I did the rawtek kit... 15 minutes feeling around behind the (still warm) turbo looking for that damn 13mm upper mounting bolt. Decided to take a break from searching and undid the other EGR bolts and lo and behold...

Ugh. Gross stuff in my intake. This has been informative. Thanks.

oilhammer said:

Post-fix cars no longer have the EGR filter tube. It is just a straight tube, with a little flex section. So when (not if) the DPF cracks, the soot is now sent straight into the turbo inlet, and gets mixed with the intake air charge, creating a nasty, black, sooty, gooey mess through the entire charge air tract. At least before, the filter tube clogged up and stopped this part from happening.

Click to expand...

Didn't know that! But why are these cars still throwing the P0401 (insufficient flow) code, if there is nothing to clog?

Diesl said:

Didn't know that! But why are these cars still throwing the P0401 (insufficient flow) code, if there is nothing to clog?

Click to expand...

It may be that the EGR valve itself is no longer working properly.

oilhammer said:

It may be that the EGR valve itself is no longer working properly.

Click to expand...

They were a problem on the Jeep CRD also. Most tunes turned off the light.

I recognized that little whirring sound when my new to me JSW is shut down.

Here's the last code scan I took before dropping the car off with the dealer this morning:



They just called and said, "Your particulate filter isn't regenerating. We're ordering parts for you, but we'll button the car back together and get it back to you before the end of the day. I'll fill you in on the rest of the details when you pick it up."