P026A code and intercooler buildup

[Tom in PT]

Well, I just cleaned my intercooler and instead of green goo I find plain old black oil, quite a bit of it. And, I am now getting a high pitched whooshing or whining sound at moderate to full boost, particularly at low rpms, sounds louder on the passenger side. I bet my turbo is on its last legs. Never made any sound before. No codes at all. The car otherwise drives normally and has lots of power.

 

[bustNfuel]

My 2013 CKRA is running great at 97k...ticking time bomb! Just had the heater core and AdBlue heater replaced under warranty. Drive more, worry less for now I guess.

Thankfully I do have another means of transportation.

 

[two passat man]

Time bomb at 265,546 I replaced turbo at 253,000 and 263,000 ECS warrantied it and sent me one Nov 16th. My back ordered Turbo I ordered from dealership just showed up today.......Will be sitting on shelf standing by if ECS turbo goes out.

whoa whoa... wait a second @oilhammer ... are you saying I am driving a ticking time bomb with 143k miles?

 

[bustNfuel]

My 2013 CKRA is running great at 97k...ticking time bomb! Just had the heater core and AdBlue heater replaced under warranty. Drive more, worry less for now I guess. Thankfully I do have another means of transportation.

Well, it's time! Greenish sludge fouling my IAT sensor, and an accumulation of slimy greenish and black goop in the bottom of the intercooler. 108k miles.
I cleaned it out really well, but the IAT fouled up again within 10 miles. And it's using a little coolant. Extended cranking times, about 3-5 seconds. Typically it starts right up without hesitation.
When I cleaned out the IC, it did smell of ethylene glycol a little.

Waiting for my local VW dealer service dept to call me back with the in-service date so it can be determined if the extended turbocharger warranty will possibly cover this.

 

[Tom in PT]

If I remember right flyboybob had a few posts about this buildup situation and trying to get a new turbo due to that. I think he had to wait until the turbo blew up before it was covered - but I could be wrong and it might be dealer dependent anyway. I have been living with oil in the intercooler for a year or more and at least 10,000 miles but the turbo is still working. I drive like grandpa, so that might help. Also, if you are starting to hear a lot of turbo whine that sometimes indicates its going to go too.

If you are smelling antifreeze you might have a crack in the intercooler and its leaking antifreeze leading to all that goo, and maybe the solution is just to replace the intercooler.

 

[ED in CA]

Hi, I have a 2013 VW Passat TDI that I bought in Dec 2019 as one of the “dieselgate” cars with around 67,000 miles on it. I have had a couple issues with this vehicle that were under my CPO two year warranty. However, at around 90,000 miles it’s throwing this intercooler code. My mechanic is going to officially diagnose the vehicle to see if it is falling under this warranty. I have called VW Cares and even with the code I have given them with explanation of the intercooler/turbocharger issue they say it’s not covered under the extended warranty. The nearest VW was kind of rude when I was using their own jargon and kept telling me I’d need to come in for a diagnosis, which I totally get. My fear is that it will not be easy to get VW to fix this issues under warranty even though I can see from this forum it’s a common issue with these dieselgate cars. Any tips or tricks to get VW to not play around and to actually get them to make the warranty fixes? I have to drive this across country by August and keep thinking to just do the east fix and wait for it to happen again. But my mechanic thinks it would be better to fight VW to replace the turbocharger and have this car last a lot longer. Please let me know if you had any positive experiences with getting this replaced under warranty. Thank you!

 

[oilhammer]

If you are gunning for ANYTHING under warranty, you'll have to drop the car off with the dealer and let them look at it. Phone calls won't help you.

 

[06bluebeetletdi]

My first step for a 2013 would be to determine the original in-service date as the warranty is only valid for 10 years and 3 months from that date, an early 2013 could easily be older than 10 years and 3 months.

 

[turbo_tdi_squirrel]

The 2012 Passat is getting its codes cleared up the hard way. Well I read this thread a week ago and I replaced the IAT sensor (exact OEM (German) type from Rock Auto $58) because I was getting a code for intake air temperature out of range. Found some green goo with a bit of water in the sensor, makes sense now becuase the nights are getting below freezing and the interior of the IAT sensor walls with green goo would be a different temperature than the air. I also cleaned the tube off the crankcase into the IAT. The turbo on this dieselgate car was replaced at 125,000 miles under warranty at the VW dealership but I don't think they went upstream and cleaned up the intake hoses and sensor with the turbo exchange. They did the timing belt at the same time and I'm still "fixing" things they broke (hose holders) and missing bolts. Cleared all the soft codes (non permanent) and took it out for drive. No issues. I'll see in the morning.
When I had the TDI engine cover off today doing the IAT my son looked over and said "Dad whats that oil by the injectors?". Low and behold the valve cover is starting to go. Read a few threads about this and 11 years old might be about right for it to start leaking due to it being plastic. I am going to get the VW OEM cover and ( 03L103469R ) and found that BusDepot (www.busdepot.com) had a good price at $158.19. For an OEM part that is better than IDI parts or ECS Tuning. When I'm ready I'll get all the gaskets, O-rings and tackle this job. Looking into the injector puller tool as well.