"exhaust" leak in cabin? CEL light on and off every few weeks, code P2459 - dealer thinks I'm crazy

[Bembel]

Hello !

Just joined this forum since I am at my wits end an hope to get some different viewpoints than my dealer. For the past 9 months I have been convinced there is a leak somewhere in my emission system on my 2015 TDI Golf Sportwagon. I am original owner since 2017, LOVE the car, its just hit 100k miles, and I'd like to drive it forever, but I drive it for more than 30 min I can smell something halfway between warm plastic and mild exhaust, but it starts to irritate my eyes and throat, and I have to drive with windows down, ( but that doesn't help as much as I would like) , I bought an aviation grade CO monitor and generally show 2-6 PPM of CO in the cabin, but that could be from driving past trucks, The car has been in an out of my VW dealer at least 5 times in the past year and they have replaced sensors. and their technician drove the car at least 150 miles to try to reproduce the smell but they claim its not there, the AdBlue pump and reset failed recently - disabling the car, and that was replaced along with the supply lines, but within a week the CEL was on again and the interior smell was in my opinion, stronger. To it to get inspected yesterday, failed due to CEL and code came up P2459, but I was was close to the dealer so I brought it there and they re-set it and told me that the re-gen was off, but also told me it would likely be back and get get it re-inspected quickly. So the head of service still cant find the cause of the smells in the cabin, suggested I consider selling the car since he thinks that VW screwed up a near perfect car when they did the fix, and he see a lot of them in with frequent CEL due to the fix. So after that long pre-amble

1. Is there any way to test the interior of the cabin for exhaust like fumes to see if I am really crazy or not?
2. Could there be a leak somewhere that they overlooked since it seems they rely on the codes and computer more than visual inspection these days
3. Has anyone else had similar issues and what did you do?

I really don't want to get rid of this car, but it worries me to drive it a lot now, especially with my 3 year old son in it if there are fumes getting into the cabin

Any advice / opinions appreciated!

 

[RIP TDI]

Auxiliary heater melting failure?

 

[Bembel]

Thanks for the input RIP TDI. Ill ask them to check that the next time the CEL comes on, Its not so much a burning electrical smell, I think the other folks would have noticed that, its more subtle which is why this has been so hard to diagnose, what other gasses could be getting into the cabin?

 

[DivineChaos]

If you really think it's your exhaust, you can have them smoke test to your exhaust

 

[Bembel]

smoke test to your exhaust

This is an excellent suggestion, thanks

 

[TurboABA]

Try a different dealer.... finding an exhaust leak isn't that challenging, but does required a tech to actually try.... or get under it yourself with a telescopic inspection mirror and check all the connections\joints\bungs from the cylinder head to the back.... once the mirror is near the "leak" it will fog up.

 

[RIP TDI]

Thanks for the input RIP TDI. Ill ask them to check that the next time the CEL comes on, Its not so much a burning electrical smell, I think the other folks would have noticed that, its more subtle which is why this has been so hard to diagnose, what other gasses could be getting into the cabin?

Yeah, I figured it was a pretty remote possibility, but its one of those low hanging fruit items; easy to diagnose or eliminate from your checklist, but easy to deal with if it's the culprit.

 

[GolfSW98]

Check the clamp at the turbocharger, they left mine slightly loose, it will have soot on it.