DEF Injector/Line leak: crystallized in engine

[c3kTDi]

Folks,

Here are some pix of what I saw when I opened the hood at 81,000 miles. I performed the 80,000 mile services myself (oil/filter change, air filter, DSG oil/filter change) and there was no evidence of any leak. I -did- top off the DEF tank. I'm wondering if a bad batch of adblue would cause this failure...or was it just bad timing. Shrug.

Pix...never mind. I see that this forum will not allow me to directly post images, but they have to be hosted by an online service.



Suffice it to say, there's a handball-size urea crystal on my DEF injector between the coolant expansion tank and the engine. (Right where the line bends and joins the DEF injector.)

The dealer didn't want pictures. Wants it brought in before they'll order parts. (3 to 7 day delay for parts to arrive according to a tech.)

Stage 2 fix was done ~25,000 miles. Extended warranty good for 11 years (so up to 2026) and/or 162,000 miles.

I'm figuring the line swap (TSB 26 19 01) should take about 2 hours of work, but due to warranty submission and parts delays, it could take two full weeks.

 

[akjdouglass]

Seems to be a pretty common failure. Luckily, mine failed before covid... dropped it off one day, picked it up the next.

 

[c3kTDi]

Dealer did the repair in a day. Can't say it was a top-notch level of work.

Crystal residue still all over engine. They got 80-90% of the crystal mass, but left the residue everywhere other than on the immediate injector and feed line.

There's some fabric heat shield on the back of the engine: that got moved/removed and not fully replaced and had some snaps broken.

I'll spray the engine out tomorrow, and hopefully be done with dealer service.

 

[akjdouglass]

I sprayed mine clean after the repair. Worked well and didn't take a lot of effort to get it all off.

 

[BKmetz]

Back in June I took my car in and had the DEF line replaced under TSP-26-19-01.

This is the before photo with most of the DEF residue removed so the tech could verify the leak.


And here is the after photo. To give the area a good cleaning I simply poured warm water over the area and all the DEF residue
melted away.


My son had the same repair done on his Passat a few months before me. All I care about is that VW honors the warranty.

 

[Lightflyer1]

Mine going in for the same.