EGR - open circuit error

[duddy]

Hi - I bought a 9 year old diesel Skoda Yeti 2.0 TDI 6-months ago as a first-time family car.  It has less than 50k on the clock.  

 

I do lots of short city journeys.  I bought the diesel because of the all the negative press, which meant it was cheaper in the second hand market.  I'd have otherwise gone for a petrol.

 

Anyway, the other day: the DPF light comes on.  I follow the manual and blast down the road for 20 minutes at 70 mph.  Back home, turn off and on - light has gone.  Next day, turn on - drive 15 minutes, the glowplug light comes on (not flashing) and the engine management system kicks in.  Limping back to the house, notice the control system for the exhaust light is now also on.  Let it sit in the driveway for a couple of hours, try again and this time the glowplug light is flashing, along with limp mode and the exhaust warning light on too.

 

Next step, on the way to the garage, the glowplug has cleared but the exhaust remains.  No limp mode.  

 

The garage ran it through diagnostics and say it returned a "EGR Valve - Open Circuit" error.  They were very honest, it'd cost a lot to deal with in terms of labour (as I'm sure you all know, it's behind lots of other stuff).  So they've cleared the warning and driven it around with no problems.  He says take it home and see what happens.  He'd not want to look at the EGR Valve until we're certain there's something wrong with it.

 

My question:

Do you think there's a link between the DPF light going the day before, and then this problem with the EGR Valve the next day?  I do lots of short-journeys, so I'm trying to work out what I might do differently with the car (e.g. not interrupt the regen cycles!) which might prolong the life of the EGR Valve.

 

Thanks.

 

 

[Urrell]

Has the car had the "VW emissions Fix"?
If it has and it's the EGR at fault it could be due a free replacement EGR.
Are you dealing with a Skoda garage?

[duddy]

It had the 23R6 fix in January 2017, before I bought it.  The paperwork just says W-Engine Control Unit, among other stuff, and a Certificate of Completion from Skoda which says 'NOx engine control unit'.

 

The garage I've used since buying the car six months ago is a local independent, small and well regarded. 

 

When I popped in to collect the car the guy said he gets lots of these problems and it's often a sticky valve.  He might have been simplifying it a bit!  Advised I take it out for a good motorway run once a week and to come back if the problem happens again.

 

Thoughts?

[Urrell]

1 hour ago, duddy said:

Thoughts?

 

Take it to a Skoda service centre with the paperwork from Skoda about the fix and If it is the EGR valve you should get it done free instead of it costing about £1000.

[langers2k]

Wait for the warning lights to return too

[duddy]

Thanks - I'll give it a shot. 

 

Do you think it's highly likely the warning light will reappear, or can the valve really just have a fluke one-off problem?

 

And if Skoda Service Centre doesn't play ball: is fitting blanking plates and remapping a better solution than £1,000 to replace it?

[Sad555]

With the FIX i doubt very much if it’s a 1 off problem,and having to do a motorway drive to hopefully clear it is not really helpful and a waste of fuel apart from producing even more NoX and with the new MOT  APRIL /may 2018 this could cause issues and perhaps failure.so basically your between a rock and a hard place.VAG caused it then them fix it (free) and get shot of within 2years after fix date.

Edited 4 July, 2018 by Sad555

[duddy]

If it goes within the next 6-months I'd be able to pop along with my competition certificate, beyond that it's out of the 'two-year agreement' period.  

 

Do you guys use a particular code reader for the Skoda Yeti that you'd recommend?  I might need to manually clear in the future...

 

Will

[ernieb]

I spoke to someone recently who’d had the fix on his 1.6 TDi and experienced similar problems eventually leading to the EGR being replaced. I think he said the bill would have been £900! Ouch!

[duddy]

Update.

 

Skoda UK has given me a case number and case worker.  They requested the car gets taken to a specialist Skoda garage. Spoke to her earlier and she has agreed to waive the costs of diagnostics.  If it relates to EGR valve they will meet the cost of replacement as a gesture of goodwill.  The local specialist garage could only look at it in two weeks time, but the one across town will look at it in a weeks time.  The latter, though, tried to tell me if the diagnostic didn't suggest anything linked to the emissions fix they'd charge me 99 quid to run the test!  I said Skoda UK had agreed to pay regardless of the outcome of the diagnostic.

 

So, fingers crossed.

 

Duddy

Edited 27 July, 2018 by duddy

[duddy]

One thing I was wondering though, if the light for some reason doesn't come on that morning what would you do?  Phone and rearrange the appt?  

 

The light seems intermittent.  Although I know it's the EGR because I've know got a reader and I get the same fault code as the independent garage got.

 

 

 

[kenfowler3966]

It doesn't matter as the faults are recorded. That is why during a service they connect a fault reader to the car to see if any transient faults have occurred. What you mustn't do is clear the faults to see if they come back

 

Just something else to consider. 50k miles in a modern diesel over 9 years is a very low mileage. If this has all been short trips it will not have done the DPF any good either. To keep the dpf healthy longer trips at higher working temperatures are needed to burn of the soot deposits. Lots of short trips is also likely to have gunged up the EGR valve, and I bet the throttle body isn't far behind, although that apparently is practical for a diy clean up as good as new.

 

My wifes fabia diesel is doing a similar mileage but it regulary does a longer trip to York and back which seems to be keeping it healthy as it has never shown a warning light in the last 4 years. (Her car has not had the fix though)

If I were you I would get this warranty work done, keep an eye on the other components and get them done as well before the extra guarantee expires, then quick trip to a tuners to have the car remapped and remove the fix.

[duddy]

Thanks Ken.  We'll start doing some longer trips once the youngest (currently 4mo) is a little more robust.  Up the road a few hours to see the grandparents every now and then.

 

That's good about transient faults, I hadn't realised that.  Thanks.

 

I'll certainly try and get as much as possible sorted within the extended guarantee period.  

 

Remapping - this wouldn't create any unexpected problems at MOTs etc would it?  

 

Thanks again.

 

 

[kenfowler3966]

The only issue is that you must declare it to your insurance company and the premium may increase slightly.

The mot will not be affected as long as the emmisions are under the set limits, which they should be.