P204F00 fault, VW has no fix!

[watatrp]

Had a nearly 400 mile road trip over the weekend. Here are my observations. The DSG tune made all the shifts very smooth and seemed to upshift and downshift at the appropriate times. My regens had been occurring about every 250 miles. The first regen I had after the engine tune happened after 465 miles. My fuel mileage driving this route is normally around 43 mpg. I averaged 46 mpg on this trip so almost a 7% increase. Def fluid use seems to be either the same or a slight decrease. My dpe readout on my Scangauge seems to show that it cools down much quicker when not under load. I'm seeing only positive improvements.

 

[drew_t]

My fronts chirp readily moving from a stop, and I don’t experience any hesitation. It’s stock other than I coded out the hill-holder function with my OBDEleven.

 

[watatrp]

Since my Kerma tune I've had 3 regens. First one was after 465 miles. The next two were right at 475 miles. Highway mpg is holding steady at 46 with speeds around 75 mph. DEF fluid use is decreased slightly. The tune has delivered everything they promised. Higher mpg, more torque, more hp, slightly less DEF fluid use. The DSG tune has eliminated the lag in pedal response, smooth shifts matched to the engine tune. Don't know why I waited so long to do this.

 

[x1800MODMY360x]

Since my Kerma tune I've had 3 regens. First one was after 465 miles. The next two were right at 475 miles. Highway mpg is holding steady at 46 with speeds around 75 mph. DEF fluid use is decreased slightly. The tune has delivered everything they promised. Higher mpg, more torque, more hp, slightly less DEF fluid use. The DSG tune has eliminated the lag in pedal response, smooth shifts matched to the engine tune. Don't know why I waited so long to do this.

Mine regens every 465 miles, which is the stupid dieselgate update as my Soot load is only 8-9 and regen should be at 22-24.

I would see to get rid of the DEF, I'm happy that I did.

 

[watatrp]

Mine regens every 465 miles, which is the stupid dieselgate update as my Soot load is only 8-9 and regen should be at 22-24.

I would see to get rid of the DEF, I'm happy that I did.

I've got a ScanGaugeII. Which one is the soot load? SMC (soot mass calculated) or STL (soot mass %)

 

[x1800MODMY360x]

I've got a ScanGaugeII. Which one is the soot load? SMC (soot mass calculated) or STL (soot mass %)

Scan Gauge II XGauge - EGT & Boost

The polar failed after less than a year, the car lost communication completely. So the passat now has the scan gauge. Ouch that sucks, here are the values I just pulled from my SG2. EOT (Engine Oil Temp) 07E02211BE 0462051106BE 3010 00090032FE35 DEF (DEF Level %) 07E0221ABF C462851A36BF 3010...

forums.tdiclub.com

The SMC value, Regen usually hits around 22-24g (Can't remember the exact number off my head). But I have the EGR deleted and Regens around 8-9g.

 

[DCoartney]

Thanks, Eugene. I was told the DPF would not be available until September 1st, which is finally approaching. I tried calling the VW customer care case manager today to ask why she has not returned our calls or emails. She seems to have gone radio silent. I also had to leave a message with the dealership service advisor. We still wonder if we will need to hire an attorney to help us recover all the out-of-pocket expenses we have incurred for towing, rental cars, and unavailability of loaner cars for the five times this car has been in the shop since April. The number of days the thing has been out of service has far exceeded the number of days it has been on the road this year.

If anyone knows of a good attorney for TDI cases or Magnussen-Moss warranty cases, please let me know.

Update: Volkswagen eventually agreed to reimburse us for the rental car and towing expenses as a goodwill gesture when I pursued it again. We received prompt payment once I sent the notarized form to them.

 

[DCoartney]

I guess at the end of the day, $1500 is basically half of what the car is worth. I requested Carvana offer just for laughs and it gave me $3500 offer. So I think that is probably as close as one can get to the buyback.

Don't take this personally, but I swear, some of you will go through headaches of dealing with the dealer over and over without taking into account all the opportunity cost of wasted time dealing with repairs and aggravation with loaners. I realize not everyone has the funds to splurge on a tune, but I hate to say this - this is the only solution. VW abandoned us with their dumbest Dieselgate fix which ruins out engines and creates situations with unsolvable NOx codes! The tree huggers think it is better to drive EPA approved gasoline trucks that get 17mpg than our "filthy" diesels that get close to 50, and would rather do "environmentally friendly" solution of sending cars to a crusher and using more hydrocarbons to produce replacement vehicles... Anyways, done bashing. Get the tune and start enjoying the car. It may stink a bit more in cold weather, but will still be environmentally friendly enough to pass the emissions tests and avoid giving you hard time about NOx issues.

No offense taken. We only put up with the headaches because the car was still under the extended emissions warranty and we didn't want to jeopardize that. Since receiving it back with the new turbocharger and Diesel particulate filter, it has been running reliably. However, it usually acts up on cold weather.

We are now about 500 miles out of the warranty, so we might consider the tune. We still intend to sell the car, but I would be interested in understanding more about how the Dieselgate "fix" ruins the engines and creates NOx codes and how the tune still passes emissions tests. Thanks.

 

[Tom in PT]

My experience was the "fix" lead to much more frequent regens, cooking the coolant, clogging the heater core, then EGR valve failure, then 200 to no start Ad-blue related messages. That was only after about 25,000 miles on the fix. Went to a Kerma tune - since then 12,000 trouble fee miles with no codes. Others have had a similar history. I live in an area with no emissions testing but from what I understand the car WILL pass emissions tests.

 

[drew_t]

Mine had the fix done in July 2019 at just short of 50K miles, and I bought it at the beginning of 2020. I’ve put 75K miles on it. Aside from a partially clogged heater core which may have pre-dated the fix (I didn’t know about the issue at the time I bought the car), I have not had the problems Tom describes. I did a partial replacement of the coolant at around 55K (partial because I did not, and still do not, understand how to fully drain this crazy cooling system), and more new was added when I had to replace the water pump at 60K.

I got the high pressure fuel pump and lift pump replaced free, and one broken wire fixed, but got nothing else out of the extended emissions warranty, and the car is now out of warranty. It’s making irregular tinkling noises at cold startup, which I assume means the dual mass flywheel is going to need to be replaced - oh, joy.

 

[eugene89us]

I can attest that I have gone through 2 core changes, so I am on the third core. However, as I monitor particulates in my coolant and change in color from pink/purple to orange, I have not noticed any degradation in the last year since I changed the TB and water pump in July 2022. That is a really positive sign that the coolant is not cooking as vigirously. I am still thinking about continuing preventative coolant changes annually, but I may push that for 2 years. Switch from G13 to Zerex G12++ could have also contributed to improved coolant stability.

If you're going to DIY flywheel job, please consider posting some guide pics for the rest of us that likely to follow your path. Good luck with the repair!