Jetta TDI

Ding, ding, ding! The "drive it 500,000 miles and save lots of money" ship sailed a long time ago. Even then, someone had to be mechanically able to perform the maintenance they required.

the wife's '11 has 75k on it. It's juuuuust about time for it to go away.
 
Ding, ding, ding! The "drive it 500,000 miles and save lots of money" ship sailed a long time ago. Even then, someone had to be mechanically able to perform the maintenance they required.

If you know what you are doing, you can still do that. The '$3200' for replacement of a DPF (if that is what the car indeed needs) is $900 in parts and the rest is labor. The DPF with cat retails for $925 with a $200 core deposit. A couple of $25 flex hoses and clamps and the willingness to get your arms scratched up is all it takes to change the thing.

More likely than not, the car doesn't need a new DPF and this is just another VW dealer fleece-job. Lots of little $50 sensors on those engines, the codes on the VAG-Com unfortunately dont tell the whole story. While every dealer is supposed to have 'TDI certified' techs on staff, I have to seriously question what it takes to get that qualification. Again, with anything that is not warranty work, the place to go to for a TDI is not the dealer, but one of the 'gurus' from the tdiclub forums.
 
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(Cross post from another thread, but I really want help with this DPF thing! The light is on and we need to do something.)

We have owned a 2010 Jetta TDI since we bought it new. I like the way the car drives, and I like the fuel mileage. But MY GOD--now, at 98,000 miles, we have had two EXPENSIVE charges . . . for "maintenance items". We replaced the timing belt recently, and that was $1,200. Now the DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) light is on, so my son took it to the dealer and was told that TO SERVICE THAT WOULD BE $3,200 !!!!

Looking into this on the internet, it looks like, with other manufacturers (certainly heavy trucks), cleaning a DPF is a routine matter and easily done. With VW, however, one cannot even get to the DPF easily. I think it involves lifting the engine. He was told that several components of the exhaust system would have to be replaced. My reading on the internet suggests that others might have tried to clean or replace the DPF themselves, but a chip in the car's computer needs to be reset or replaced and that is causing some problems.

I would welcome suggestions for this. (We have not yet done the DPF thing). I bought a diesel for the "economy" of the thing! I am quite sure that this will be the last VW tha I ever own.

Wells


I hate to say this, but welcome to VW land.

We had all sorts of crap like this with the Jetta TDi.

We had an extended warranty, which I never buy, but the gut said to do it on our first EuroCar. It paid out $13,500 in repairs and labor.

That car would have been gone at the FIRST manifold crack if we were footing the bill. Two of those, various electrical problems including a burnt out moonroof motor in the first year and a complete transmission replacement in the fifth or sixth year. Various other plastic things breaking including of all things, the winshield washer fluid "orb" which was $300 to the warranty folks.

By the time we hit the transmission at the end of the warranty they were sending special investigators to make sure the dealership wasn't running a scam. Not kidding.
 
If the EPA wants to go after anyone they should go after the truck tuners that poor out the black smoke.


I only turn up my Edge when towing (no smoke, the turbo is fully spun up doing that) and for those "special" people on the left side of the bell curve that choose to tailgate on the highway.

Pretty effective at getting them off my bumper, really. Only takes a squirt in 6th gear and they magically re-learn how to drive with a proper gap between vehicles.
 
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