viceboy
Member
It an automatic 2013 Jetta TDI with 165k miles
Drove car from parking lot to highway with no issues (I did open up the throttle fully once on the way to the onramp), once on highway I turned on cruise control, loss of power and glow plug light flashing happened a minute or so later, cannot remember if cruise control was still working or not. Drove home, restarted engine and car appears to be running as normal, glow plug light no longer flashing on 5/10 morning. Hazard light on dash appeared to be lit up lit up the day before, not sure if related to issue, or if that light glows when its dark out.
Appears the vehicle was in a sort of limp mode, but I was still able to drive 60-70mph and I was able to get up to reasonable speeds (just slower to get moving), I have seen in other cases of glow plug flashing and loss of power being much worse on the performance... some people have said they couldn't get over 20MPH.... this wasn't the case for me, just crappy acceleration.
Check engine light was already on when I purchased the car a few days ago, code was related to EGR system but didn't seem to affect the vehicle driving.
When starting the car the day before, the engine hesitated to start immediately and then a plume of black smoke came out of the mufflers as it started up. However, the car started immediately on the drive back from work that night. The following morning the car started immediately and drove fine to work, then on the way home the glow plug light started to flash. The glow plug light only has flashed that one time (accompanied by loss of power), but I have only driven it once since then.
As of now, I was able to drive it to work without glow plug light flashing and no noticeable issues, engine isnt making weird noises or anything. Haven't been able to use a code reader yet so just seeing if anyone else has experienced something similar? I will post the codes here when I get them though.
The only other detail I can remember is that I was playing around in manual mode when leaving the parking lot, I wanted to see how well the manual mode worked with quick acceleration (I just bought this car and havent played with everything). So I pushed the pedal all the way down and manually shifted from 1st into 2nd gear. I am not familiar with the optimal RPM to switch from 1st to 2nd gear, so it's possible that I over revved there a bit, but then I decided not to mess with manual mode anymore and drove to the highway... then thats when I put it in cruise and a minute or so later the flashing light and lack of power.
EDIT 5/11:
here are the error codes i got after doing a small amount of cleaning. I had 7 codes before I cleaned the outer valve, and then it went down to 3. Although I think the 7 codes were just multiple pages of the same errors?
p2002-particulate trap bank below threshold
p240f- EGR slow response
p0401-EGR system insufficient flow
I was able to to disconnect and clean the outer valve last night (where recirculating pipe connects), but it was late and i wouldnt be able to finish the whole job. I sprayed some break cleaner in there and cleaned it with some towels and qtips.
The glow plug lights have not come on again since that one time, i cleared the codes but the check engine light came back on which I expected would happen.
How hard of a job is it to remove and clean the EGR filter, and both EGR valves? Do I need a hoist or can I just pop the hood and get that stuff out? I understand there could be a bad sensor too causing incorrect temperature readings. There was for sure some carbon build up on the outside of the front EGR valve, but I didn't get far enough to see what else would be inside. I am not experienced enough to know how bad the carbon buildup was, I will try to take photos next time I get in there.
Can I continue to drive the car and just reset the engine whenever it goes into limp mode? If I neglect this issue what will happen to the vehicle? Can I just disconnect the MAF sensor and drive it normally (heard someone had to do this to stop limp mode from starting)? All the codes seem to be related to EGR which I know the car doesnt actually need to run in theory.
Drove car from parking lot to highway with no issues (I did open up the throttle fully once on the way to the onramp), once on highway I turned on cruise control, loss of power and glow plug light flashing happened a minute or so later, cannot remember if cruise control was still working or not. Drove home, restarted engine and car appears to be running as normal, glow plug light no longer flashing on 5/10 morning. Hazard light on dash appeared to be lit up lit up the day before, not sure if related to issue, or if that light glows when its dark out.
Appears the vehicle was in a sort of limp mode, but I was still able to drive 60-70mph and I was able to get up to reasonable speeds (just slower to get moving), I have seen in other cases of glow plug flashing and loss of power being much worse on the performance... some people have said they couldn't get over 20MPH.... this wasn't the case for me, just crappy acceleration.
Check engine light was already on when I purchased the car a few days ago, code was related to EGR system but didn't seem to affect the vehicle driving.
When starting the car the day before, the engine hesitated to start immediately and then a plume of black smoke came out of the mufflers as it started up. However, the car started immediately on the drive back from work that night. The following morning the car started immediately and drove fine to work, then on the way home the glow plug light started to flash. The glow plug light only has flashed that one time (accompanied by loss of power), but I have only driven it once since then.
As of now, I was able to drive it to work without glow plug light flashing and no noticeable issues, engine isnt making weird noises or anything. Haven't been able to use a code reader yet so just seeing if anyone else has experienced something similar? I will post the codes here when I get them though.
The only other detail I can remember is that I was playing around in manual mode when leaving the parking lot, I wanted to see how well the manual mode worked with quick acceleration (I just bought this car and havent played with everything). So I pushed the pedal all the way down and manually shifted from 1st into 2nd gear. I am not familiar with the optimal RPM to switch from 1st to 2nd gear, so it's possible that I over revved there a bit, but then I decided not to mess with manual mode anymore and drove to the highway... then thats when I put it in cruise and a minute or so later the flashing light and lack of power.
EDIT 5/11:
here are the error codes i got after doing a small amount of cleaning. I had 7 codes before I cleaned the outer valve, and then it went down to 3. Although I think the 7 codes were just multiple pages of the same errors?
p2002-particulate trap bank below threshold
p240f- EGR slow response
p0401-EGR system insufficient flow
I was able to to disconnect and clean the outer valve last night (where recirculating pipe connects), but it was late and i wouldnt be able to finish the whole job. I sprayed some break cleaner in there and cleaned it with some towels and qtips.
The glow plug lights have not come on again since that one time, i cleared the codes but the check engine light came back on which I expected would happen.
How hard of a job is it to remove and clean the EGR filter, and both EGR valves? Do I need a hoist or can I just pop the hood and get that stuff out? I understand there could be a bad sensor too causing incorrect temperature readings. There was for sure some carbon build up on the outside of the front EGR valve, but I didn't get far enough to see what else would be inside. I am not experienced enough to know how bad the carbon buildup was, I will try to take photos next time I get in there.
Can I continue to drive the car and just reset the engine whenever it goes into limp mode? If I neglect this issue what will happen to the vehicle? Can I just disconnect the MAF sensor and drive it normally (heard someone had to do this to stop limp mode from starting)? All the codes seem to be related to EGR which I know the car doesnt actually need to run in theory.
Last edited:
