Fan Issues

[gixerboy100]

Hi Guys,
I've got a 1.6 TDI DSG, and was wondering if anybody has had any problems with the fan coming on and staying on?

My daily commute to work is only 6 miles but on 4 occasions recently the fan's come on half way into my journey, the only thing that alerts me is the engine revs higher than normal (1000rpm) and the "stop Start" stops working?

Its almost like the ECU gets its knickers in a twist because if I turn the car off and back on again it resets itself and the fan goes off. If I don't restart the fan carries on until I get to work or home and even then the fan carries on for a good 10 minutes.

I'm not to sure this is the norm as it's my first Diesel, just to add there's plenty of coolant in the system. I got the car from new its now got 1175 miles on the clock, and wondered if something is faulty or maybe the system needs bleeding?

Anybody else out there had any problems before I contact VW and make a pleb of myself

Thanks Guys

 

[vwman]

Sounds like normal active regeneration of the diesel particulate filter especially with just six mile journeys.
The fan will be clearing accumulated heat when the engine is switched off during a regeneration.

 

[gixerboy100]

Sounds like normal active regeneration of the diesel particulate filter especially with just six mile journeys.
The fan will be clearing accumulated heat when the engine is switched off during a regeneration.

Thanks for the reply,

And that does make sense but I've literally had the car 5 weeks an in that time its gone from London to Norfolk and 2 weeks later London to Stafford. Would the particulate filter get clogged that quick with my daily commute - I only ask because our company van done 16,000 miles before we had clogging issues.

But thank you its definitely food for thought

 

[Stripey]

Sounds like normal active regeneration of the diesel particulate filter especially with just six mile journeys.
The fan will be clearing accumulated heat when the engine is switched off during a regeneration.

What he said!

 

[gixerboy100]

<---- feels like a pleb now lol

 

[tom1]

Thanks for the reply,

And that does make sense but I've literally had the car 5 weeks an in that time its gone from London to Norfolk and 2 weeks later London to Stafford. Would the particulate filter get clogged that quick with my daily commute - I only ask because our company van done 16,000 miles before we had clogging issues.

But thank you its definitely food for thought

The car will do a regen every 500 miles, I usually "force" the regen to happen just after I go over the 500 mile mark by driving in S mode up and down some nice country roads having a bit of fun. You should also notice that you can hear more turbo spool when the dpf is in regen mode, that's another sign along with the fuel dial dropping fast

 

[vwman]

Thanks for the reply,

And that does make sense but I've literally had the car 5 weeks an in that time its gone from London to Norfolk and 2 weeks later London to Stafford. Would the particulate filter get clogged that quick with my daily commute - I only ask because our company van done 16,000 miles before we had clogging issues.

But thank you its definitely food for thought

This new generation Golf will regenerate the DPF from as early as just 60 miles on the clock

 

[liviu2004]

Hi Guys,
I've got a 1.6 TDI DSG, and was wondering if anybody has had any problems with the fan coming on and staying on?

My daily commute to work is only 6 miles but on 4 occasions recently the fan's come on half way into my journey, the only thing that alerts me is the engine revs higher than normal (1000rpm) and the "stop Start" stops working?

Its almost like the ECU gets its knickers in a twist because if I turn the car off and back on again it resets itself and the fan goes off. If I don't restart the fan carries on until I get to work or home and even then the fan carries on for a good 10 minutes.

I'm not to sure this is the norm as it's my first Diesel, just to add there's plenty of coolant in the system. I got the car from new its now got 1175 miles on the clock, and wondered if something is faulty or maybe the system needs bleeding?

Anybody else out there had any problems before I contact VW and make a pleb of myself

Thanks Guys

What you do is to ruin your particulate filter. You should not stop the regeneration process in the middle of it, on purpose.

 

[Stripey]

The car will do a regen every 500 miles, I usually "force" the regen to happen just after I go over the 500 mile mark by driving in S mode up and down some nice country roads having a bit of fun. You should also notice that you can hear more turbo spool when the dpf is in regen mode, that's another sign along with the fuel dial dropping fast

It is my understanding that it will only do a regen if it needs to, not after a certain mileage/time? If the normal day to day use of the car is adequately burning off the particulate (or the tearing around country lanes!) then regens are not needed? Or are they?

I've only noticed mine do a regen once in 8 months and that was within the first few weeks. Although saying that, it may well have done one whilst I've been driving & I wouldn't have noticed.

 

[tom1]

It is my understanding that it will only do a regen if it needs to, not after a certain mileage/time? If the normal day to day use of the car is adequately burning off the particulate (or the tearing around country lanes!) then regens are not needed? Or are they?

I've only noticed mine do a regen once in 8 months and that was within the first few weeks. Although saying that, it may well have done one whilst I've been driving & I wouldn't have noticed.

Not really sure, hopefully someone will be along to confirm if that is true. But it at least seems to be the case with my car, every 500 miles it will go into regen mode no matter what, and this type of regen cycle does seem to be much shorter than the regen cycles that I have interrupted while turning off the car from short drives. My theory is that VW has done it this way to try and stop DPF blocking issues? Every 500 miles would also be a reasonable threshold too

 

[gixerboy100]

Thanks for the replies people, I think I've got it now.

But I'd rather make an idiot of myself hiding behind my PC screen - than to do it in the dealership lol

 

[tom1]

I assume you're aware of how the dpf works and was told about it at the point of sale? What type of roads are you driving on when you go to work? and do you drive in lots of stop/start traffic on the way to work?

The reason I'm asking this is because you might eventually have DPF problems due to low miles, this won't be covered by the warranty, fixing DPF issues isn't cheap either.

 

[gixerboy100]

I assume you're aware of how the dpf works and was told about it at the point of sale? What type of roads are you driving on when you go to work? and do you drive in lots of stop/start traffic on the way to work?

The reason I'm asking this is because you might eventually have DPF problems due to low miles, this won't be covered by the warranty, fixing DPF issues isn't cheap either.

Hiya Tom - I'll be be honest I have no idea how it works, I got the impression I knew a little more than the salesman ( thanks to youtube )
I normally turn the stop start off on my daily commute as it drove me bonkers with London Traffic - but in the school holidays thought I would stick the car in Eco mode and see how much difference it made to the MPG and surprisingly made a massive difference.
Its all side roads with the normal rat runs on route to work, the stop start would work around 10-12 times.

Regards
Chris

 

[Stripey]

I found a copy of the VW service training manual for mechanics/technicians (for tdi common rail engines) on the internet. It goes into detail about the DPF which was interesting to read.

To summarise:

The regen of the DPF is performed in stages:
- warm up
- passive regen
- active regen
- customer initiated regen drive
- service regen

Warm up - this brings the oxidation catalyst and DPF up to operating temperature quickly through an extra injection of fuel after the main injection. Phase is complete when operating temperature is reached.

Passive - soot is continuously burnt without additional intervention when exhaust temperatures range from 350 - 500 degrees C. This is often at normal motorway/A road driving conditions.

Active - when exhaust temperatures are not high enough to effectively burn off soot particles, soot accumulates in the filter. When a specific soot load has been reached, the engine control module will initiate an active regen. Effectively similar process to warm up phase - more fuel burnt to increase exhaust temperature.

Customer initiated - lots of short journeys, where high enough exhaust temperatures are not reached, will cause the filter to reach threshold value. The DPF indicator lamp will come on in the instrument panel. This prompts the driver to perform a regen drive - a short journey at increased speed to ensure high enough exhaust temperatures are reached to burn off the soot in the filter.

Service - if the regen drive is not performed (or successful) the DPF lamp and the glow plug indicator lamp will appear in the instrument panel simultaneously. The text 'check engine - service shop' will also appear. This prompts the driver to take the car to a garage to get it sorted.

There is also a 'Distance Regen' which is a distant dependent regen. The engine control module will initiate an active regen automatically if during the last 466 - 621 miles (750 - 1000 km) no successful regen has taken place. This is an additional safeguard to minimise load condition of the DPF.

It seems there is no visible indication (icon/message) that a regen is taking place, only an indication that one needs to take place. As we all know, there is an audiable indication (the fan running) and a smelly indication (soot burning) but if you're driving, the only indication that a regen is taking place is slightly higher revs at idle.

(I can't guarantee the above info is totally up to date and accurate but it has gone some way to improving my understanding!)

 

[Sootchucker]

Good post Stripey. Deffo makes more sense.