Some kind of a choke
I drive a VW Jetta 1.9 diesel automatic as a company lease car. I have had this from new since January 2008. The car has 60,000 on the clock and the majority of my journeys are on motorway - for a minimum of two hours at a time and at steady (70+) speed. Last week, a few hundred yards from my home, two warning lights came on. I stopped, looked in the handbook and noticed one was indicating a problem with the engine.
On phoning my VW dealer, I was advised to have the car recovered to their workshop, which I did. It transpired that it was a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) fault. (The AA man had indicated this to be the fault and said I should regularly run the car on a motorway in 'sport' gear to increase the revs to clear the filter VW cleared it this time under warranty, (having checked how far I had driven the car after the warning light came on).
Outside of warranty the repair would have cost in excess of £1,500. My concern is, that at the end of the lease I intend to buy the car - but at that time it will not be used for long motorway journeys. Is the DPF fault a well known one to VW? If so, I may need to change my mind about buying the car at the end of the lease.
On phoning my VW dealer, I was advised to have the car recovered to their workshop, which I did. It transpired that it was a Diesel Particulate Filter (DPF) fault. (The AA man had indicated this to be the fault and said I should regularly run the car on a motorway in 'sport' gear to increase the revs to clear the filter VW cleared it this time under warranty, (having checked how far I had driven the car after the warning light came on).
Outside of warranty the repair would have cost in excess of £1,500. My concern is, that at the end of the lease I intend to buy the car - but at that time it will not be used for long motorway journeys. Is the DPF fault a well known one to VW? If so, I may need to change my mind about buying the car at the end of the lease.
Asked on 14 March 2010 by SM, Telford
Answered by
Honest John
This is a well-known problem with the technology generally, and given your use of the car you should not have suffered the problem at all. At 70mph it should have been regenerating very nicely. But DPFs don't last forever and 60k - 120k miles seem to be their lives.
So that £1,500 in years 3 - 6 is one of the heavy expenses of running a current generation diesel that you have to put against the saving on fuel against a petrol engined car. The public is always slow to cotton on to things like this. But when it finally does, the values of used diesel cars are going to slump.
So that £1,500 in years 3 - 6 is one of the heavy expenses of running a current generation diesel that you have to put against the saving on fuel against a petrol engined car. The public is always slow to cotton on to things like this. But when it finally does, the values of used diesel cars are going to slump.
Tags:
warning lights
advice
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