Smogging Diesels in California . . .
The diesel smog test exemption here in California expires at the end of this year. Starting in '10, diesels from 1998 and later will have to be checked every two years. The check is less detailed than that for gasoline cars, since smog test stations don't have the proper equipment to test diesel emissions. The station will do a visual test of the exhaust, then hook their equipment to the car and do a check of the electronics to make sure all the readiness codes are set. VW started selling TDIs here in the US in '96 so those and '97 models will still be exempt, but most of us will be caught out.
My own '02 Golf returns around 35 mpg in the city, and over 40 on the highway. I've seen as high as 48, and none of this is going slow. However, VW really needs to get to grips with their quality control issues; like Chrysler they squeeze their suppliers until they make crap-tastic parts. The Romanian-built Garret turbo on mine cratered at 64,000 miles as I moved off a stoplight in heavy traffic one morning on Mulholland. By the time I was able to find a place to pull over it had shoved so much swarf through the engine that the engine was toast. VW warrantied it all, although it took seven weeks for them to replace the engine and turbo. The second turbo was never right, and caused the engine management system to go into "limp mode" and cut all turbo boost on occasion. I finally got fed up with this happening randomly and then being unable to exceed 60 mph, so I removed the new turbo after two months. It was another Romanian built Garret, faulty from new. VW technically owed me another turbo, but it was just easier to spend my own $1000+ on a third identical turbo supplied through a reputable Garret dealer and install it myself. The turbo dealer checked it out, then I took it apart again and verified it was OK. So far, at 125,000 miles it's still fine.
The TDI engines themselves have been fine, but I had another scare at 75,000 miles when my check engine light turned on and the computer indicated erratic injection pump timing. Normally this would be a failing injection pump, an expensive but fairly rare occurance. When I popped the timing belt cover I found the problem: the timing belt tensioner had failed after only 11,000 miles on the new engine, rendering the belt all floppy. In most instances, this would have caused the valves to hit the pistons and badly damaged the cylinder head. Luckily for me, the belt was new enough that it was still fairly tight even with the failed tensioner and the engine didn't jump timing. So, I ordered several hundred dollars worth of special tools and installed a new belt. The tensioner is made of cheap, thin metal in Canada, and the locating tang had just sheared off.
Since then, the powertrain has been fine, but I've also been through lots of grief with a failed airbag computer. It gave erratic codes for failures in four of the six airbags. It made no sense to me that all would fail at once, but had I taken it to a dealer they would have repaced all those airbags as that's the recommended procedure. Instead, I spent months driving around with my laptop in the trunk, and when the light would go on I'd pull over and log the error codes and sequence they appeared. Eventually, with the help of a professional airbag computer rebuilder, we diagnosed a bad circuit board in the computer. I replaced the computer, and all was well. His comment was "We have a lot of trouble with VW airbag computers." That particular part was again from an outside supplier. I won't even elaborate on the radio that won't turn on every once in awhile unless you pull the fuse and wait 60 seconds, or the windshield that cracked sitting in the driveway one afternoon because it was in partial shade. I like the mileage from the TDI, but it will be my first and last VWAG product - when I tabulate all the maintenance and repair costs, and lost time, it isn't a cheap car to run. I should add I bought the car new and it's never been wrecked, flooded, or abused, has been maintained by the book, and has only been driven by two adults.
The diesel smog test exemption here in California expires at the end of this year. Starting in '10, diesels from 1998 and later will have to be checked every two years. The check is less detailed than that for gasoline cars, since smog test stations don't have the proper equipment to test diesel emissions. The station will do a visual test of the exhaust, then hook their equipment to the car and do a check of the electronics to make sure all the readiness codes are set. VW started selling TDIs here in the US in '96 so those and '97 models will still be exempt, but most of us will be caught out.
My own '02 Golf returns around 35 mpg in the city, and over 40 on the highway. I've seen as high as 48, and none of this is going slow. However, VW really needs to get to grips with their quality control issues; like Chrysler they squeeze their suppliers until they make crap-tastic parts. The Romanian-built Garret turbo on mine cratered at 64,000 miles as I moved off a stoplight in heavy traffic one morning on Mulholland. By the time I was able to find a place to pull over it had shoved so much swarf through the engine that the engine was toast. VW warrantied it all, although it took seven weeks for them to replace the engine and turbo. The second turbo was never right, and caused the engine management system to go into "limp mode" and cut all turbo boost on occasion. I finally got fed up with this happening randomly and then being unable to exceed 60 mph, so I removed the new turbo after two months. It was another Romanian built Garret, faulty from new. VW technically owed me another turbo, but it was just easier to spend my own $1000+ on a third identical turbo supplied through a reputable Garret dealer and install it myself. The turbo dealer checked it out, then I took it apart again and verified it was OK. So far, at 125,000 miles it's still fine.
The TDI engines themselves have been fine, but I had another scare at 75,000 miles when my check engine light turned on and the computer indicated erratic injection pump timing. Normally this would be a failing injection pump, an expensive but fairly rare occurance. When I popped the timing belt cover I found the problem: the timing belt tensioner had failed after only 11,000 miles on the new engine, rendering the belt all floppy. In most instances, this would have caused the valves to hit the pistons and badly damaged the cylinder head. Luckily for me, the belt was new enough that it was still fairly tight even with the failed tensioner and the engine didn't jump timing. So, I ordered several hundred dollars worth of special tools and installed a new belt. The tensioner is made of cheap, thin metal in Canada, and the locating tang had just sheared off.
Since then, the powertrain has been fine, but I've also been through lots of grief with a failed airbag computer. It gave erratic codes for failures in four of the six airbags. It made no sense to me that all would fail at once, but had I taken it to a dealer they would have repaced all those airbags as that's the recommended procedure. Instead, I spent months driving around with my laptop in the trunk, and when the light would go on I'd pull over and log the error codes and sequence they appeared. Eventually, with the help of a professional airbag computer rebuilder, we diagnosed a bad circuit board in the computer. I replaced the computer, and all was well. His comment was "We have a lot of trouble with VW airbag computers." That particular part was again from an outside supplier. I won't even elaborate on the radio that won't turn on every once in awhile unless you pull the fuse and wait 60 seconds, or the windshield that cracked sitting in the driveway one afternoon because it was in partial shade. I like the mileage from the TDI, but it will be my first and last VWAG product - when I tabulate all the maintenance and repair costs, and lost time, it isn't a cheap car to run. I should add I bought the car new and it's never been wrecked, flooded, or abused, has been maintained by the book, and has only been driven by two adults.
