Hello Community,

I was driving home from Dortmund, Germany to Denmark this Friday and sadly it began to snow heavily around Bremen. After doing about 400km (in snow) my 2003 Superb 130 TDI started acting weirdly. When i hit the speeder, the engine just did not respond at all and i was only able to run at about 37 mph (60 km/h). Stopping at the first service station in Denmark i began to check the car. I noticed that the air intake pipe from the air filter was collapsed. Found my LED lamp and looked into the intake on the front and saw, that it was filled with snow. So in -10 degrees Celsius i started de assembling the air filter box and pipes, where after removing the filter itself in, this is what i saw:

No wonder it didn't work... lol

That will not help it

Whoa. That's quite a lot of snow there. Once removed was all ok?

Whoa. That's quite a lot of snow there. Once removed was all ok?

Yes sir, no problems after snow removed.

Very impressive!

The US versions of the B5.5 were fitted with a snow screen. Perhaps the Wolfsburg brigade don't think it snows in NW Europe...

Somebody ought to tell them all about trees, leaves, gravity, rainwater, foam seals - and now snow.

rotodiesel.

Very impressive!

Yeah, I would agree with that, had plenty of snow problems myself but more 'lowering' related as opposed to in the air box.............

Hi all,

according to my understanding, this can be related to the problem, that has been discussed in Finnish consumer rights protection oriented TV- and internet media "Kuningaskuluttaja" (the King consumer)

Since my interpreting skills aren't very high and my knowledge of the technical terms of the English language is somewhat quite poor, I hope ya'll be mercifull to my translation of a finnish article about condensing water damaging WV made turbo diesel engines. It doesn't quite flow, but I hope it's the content you're after, not the gift wrap, so here goes:

Engine damage caused by humidity, terrorizes diesel vehicles produced by the Volkswagen Group. The importer hasn't notified car owners about this problem, although it could be avoided with a very cheap mod.

A seat owner from Riihimaki is quite sad. His family Seat Leon engine began to clatter strangely one day. The workshop revealed that this was a bad engine damage deal.

The price of renovations was about 5000 euros, even though the car was only a couple of years old.

-A defect that just totally destroys the engine, of course, was a surprise, "said he

Damage had been caused by water that reached the combustion chamber. Seat Leon is a diesel vehicle, in which the air passes through so-called intercooler before it gets to the cylinder. In winter weather intercoolers can accumulate condensing water from the air humidity. The hell breaks loose, if the moisture reaches all the way to the cylinder. The result could be anything from an engine running uneavenly or at worst an expensive engine failure.

A familiar problem in the workshop

To the garage that went through the Seat's motor, this was a familiar case. So the man began to suspect that there may be a broader type of defect. And that's what the case was about, finally revealed.

Based on internet forum conversations, the same water condensing trouble may occur in the following cars: Volkswagen Passat 1.9TDI (year models 2006 and 2007), Seat Altea 1.9TDi (2007, 2008) and the Seat Leon 1.9TDI (2007.2008).

Common is a manufacturer of cars, the Volkswagen group. Finnish importer VV-Auto Group confirms that the list of the cars at risk is right. In addition, similar water condensate problems may also occur in other models. They are part of the Seat and Volkswagen vehicles, produced between 2006 - 2008 equipped with 1.9 and 2.0 TDI engines burning diesel.

Importer reminds that the engine damage is incurred only a small percentage of these risk models. A more general consequence of moisture is a failure to run smoothly or the fact that the car will not start because of the frozen pipelines.

-Intercooler engine damage was caused as we know, 16 times last year, says VV-Auto Group Service Manager Juho ValliVaara.

In total we are aware of a few dozen engine breakdowns so far. Ringing round a few VW-authorised garages indicates that there may be a lot more of these cases, because the problem sounded so familiar to them.

Skodas also at risk

Intercoolers that accrue to the problem caused by moisture is also possible in some diesel-Skodas. This phenomenon is technically possible, at least in Skoda Octavia 1.9 TDI model years 2005 and 2008.

Also, in some Skoda Fabia and Superb models the same sort of technical solutions are used, which can cause condensation, at least in theory. Still, "Helkama" car importer is not aware of the problems for these models. "Helkama-Auto" received four warranty claims concerning engine damages caused by water condensate during last winter

The importer did not inform the car owners

Costly engine damage, according to VV-Auto, can be easily avoided by cheap means. The bow of the can be equipped with a traditional mask, which reduces the snowy airflow and raises the temperature of the engine compartment.

VV-Auto claims that the mask should also prevent condensation of water in the pipes / hoses.VV-Auto says, the mask is a sufficient protection as there were no reports of any faults with the cars equipped with this screen. Some models are also available with another type of intercooler, which shouldn't be subject to this moisture condensing problem, that seriously jeopardizes the engine.

So there are means of protection. So for the importer to warn its customers of the problem and to tell them how a car should be protected would seem like a self-explanatory decision. But, VV-Auto has not reported the risk to the car owners by any means, such as direct letters.

-The problem occurs in a promille range of all sold cars, we do not want to confuse the large client base with warnings of faults, which occurrence are negligible, says VV-Auto Service Manager Vallivaara

-Althougt permamemt failures are few, would not it be nice to the customer, if there would be none?

-It is undeniable.

-So, why wouldn't you inform them?

-According to current understanding, this is such a small matter that it is not considered necessary to inform, "says Vallivaara

The faulty Seat owner is surprised with such a statement. In his case the problem really is not that minor at all because of high costs of renovation that he had to pay for about a half by himself.

-The car was almost new when the engine failed, says he.

Engine repair costs are high

The engine is part of the car, which should last throughout the lifetime of the car. If it does not, in principle, the seller or the importer are often responsible for the repair, even if the warranty would be over. This principle relates to the responsibility for error stated in the articles of the Consumer Protection Act.

VV-Auto Group announces that it and the vendor stores want to be responsible in cases of permanent engine failure. But the engine repair often comes in high cost to the customer, even if the seller would follow the law exactly.

Indeed, if the condition of the engine is better than before the repairs, the customer is required to participate in repair costs. So the best thing to do is to try to avoid the costly damages altogether

It is also worth remembering that the seller's or the importer's responsibility for the error stops, if you buy a car from a private person.

The original can be found (and raped with Google language tools, as there are user comments on their faulty engine experiences, which might be interesting) here:

CLICK ON THE LINK

Edited 11 March, 201016 yr by BluesPre

So, in summary, they're saying that in certain weather conditions, it's possible for air in the intercooler to be chilled below the "dew point", so that water vapour condenses out, and then for that water to get picked up and delivred to the engine?

So, in summary, they're saying that in certain weather conditions, it's possible for air in the intercooler to be chilled below the "dew point", so that water vapour condenses out, and then for that water to get picked up and delivred to the engine?

I believe so. We had a cold winter this year, around -20 Celsius for an extensive period of time. So snow powder in the air intake box, moist air condensing on cold surfaces etc could end up in factual water in tne turbo pipelines. The owners also mentioned that extensive stall running times have a huge negative impact on the engine in such weather conditions

I guess, the pattern is "cold weather with lots of fine snow" -> "weather warming up = very moist air" -> "water condensing"

Based on what I've seen on the photo above, it's no surprise if you get a s**tload of snow and water in your system, even if it wasn't for the intercooler. So, a good thing to do is to install a snowscreen behind the grille to cut the heavy flow ow snowy cold air to the engine bay

Edited 11 March, 201016 yr by BluesPre

I woould think this is theoretically possible for any car with an air-air intercooler, particularly if it's possible to draw snow into the engine air intake.

I woould think this is theoretically possible for any car with an air-air intercooler, particularly if it's possible to draw snow into the engine air intake.

Yup, any intercooler diesel engine can accumulate water. For some reason, VW diesels are more prone to this failure than others. Never heard about a Volvo do that (although, it's chinese now, so probably they'll screw it up some way )

The point is, it's acknowledged as a common problem at least in Finland, so act before it's too late. If weather conditions become similar to what we had this winter, it's a lot cheaper to put a piece of cardboard between your front bumper and radiator than to repair a faulty engine. Same deal as with the pollen filter grommit clogs - if it hasn't leaked yet, don't worry it will