It appears from other VAG marques from other forums that there are some issues with engine noise and stuttering. They are trying to collate as much information as possible so if anyone on here is experiencing any issues then please contact via the e-mail bellow:-

Can I ask anyone who has this engine and has experienced issues with it to please post the details in this thread? Specifically excess noise and stuttering under part throttle acceleration.

This issue has been reported by several people with this engine in the Golf, A3 and A4, myself included and so far no cause or resolution has been identified. I'm in contact with Audi CS about it but if I can build up enough information from as many "victims" as possible this will obviously aid in getting the matter resolved.

Can I ask anyone having this issue to drop me an email ([email protected]) with their name, model and registration as I'm going to compile a list of customers with the problem to beat Audi CS over the head with and possibly even send to one of the magazines if I don't get any joy soon.

That doesn't look good does it :(

Any techies on here heard of this one?

I think VW have issued a batch of ECU updates for stuttering etc.

Also the usualy DPF issues causing headaches.

As long as there is a fix in the pipeline then hopefully the stutter can be knocked on the head like the Fabia vRS issue

Its more and more likely these problems will arise until the PD engine is eventually replaced.

Most of these problems seem to arise when the PD engine is forced to comply with EU emissions regulations. Most if not all V-TDI engines are CR now.

The clock is ticking..............:(

I'm surprised they developed the 2.0TDI engine with PD knowing full well how the emissions laws were going to get more stringent.

I have to admit that I've noticed the stuttering with my new vRS TDi.

I originally put it down to the engine being tight when running in, but I was beginning to have second thoughts now that I've done around 2000 miles and it's still happening.

Is this something my Skoda dealer will have an ECU update for?

It's booked in for some other work next week, so I'll ask the question then.

Bagpuss.

I haven't had any issues yet (only done 500 miles).

If there is a problem and the car is not right and they can't fix it/update ECU I will be handing my keys back to the finance company and walking away - thank you very much!

What do you guys mean when you say stutter? Do you mean like a slight vibration and low key noise when you floor the accelerator? Cuz i experience this!

The term stutter was given to the slight hesitation that is experienced at low revs under acceleration.

As a side note I happened to see a document which said that there is an ECU update required for 2200 affected UK TFSi Octy's. I know SEAT have been 'flashing' them and I think VW have been as well.

Hoping to get more info soon.

Word of warning - It will relieve you of your remap if you happen to have one.

I haven't had any issues yet (only done 500 miles).

If there is a problem and the car is not right and they can't fix it/update ECU I will be handing my keys back to the finance company and walking away - thank you very much!

If that's not an idle threat, how much would it cost you (deposit, payments made already)?

Well technically this is not the solution for a financed vehicle.

What you do is tell the finance company that unless they complete the contract (as your agent and supply "fitness for purpose" vehicle etc) then you will be witholding further payments.

How common are these engine problems? I'm considering a vRS PD170 but am concerned if the engine is basically a duff design (bear in mind I'm used to Honda reliability).

How common are these engine problems? I'm considering a vRS PD170 but am concerned if the engine is basically a duff design (bear in mind I'm used to Honda reliability).

I am getting a bit concerned myself, having ordered mine last weekend !! .

Having contacted dealer voicing my concerns, and mentioning the comments from this site's members, they have tried to assure me that NOT EVERY 170 DIESEL has problems

and that they are doing quick fixes on the common problems encountered (glow plug. EMS lights on ! ).

But they cannot deny there are gremlins in the power plant ! .

I have just returned my 56 plate Audi 170bhp 20 TDI , (which I think is the same engine)

PLEASE CORRECT ME IF THATS NOT RIGHT GUYS....

And that seemed to struggle in first gear when starting off , and if you didn't give it a lot of revs, it stalled and juddered ! . To much welly and you just wheel spin and got Traction control lights flashing at you , with little forward movement achieved. So it was sometimes a bit of a pain .

After driving Audi for ten years plus, I drove the vSR 170 last week at my local dealers, and within minutes decided to buy one.

They really are a well made top quality vehicle , and handle like a dream, but I must say when you read some posts on here about the problems.... you cannot help but have concerns .

Bob the dog .

You can get similar issues of nothing/too easy to stall vs belting away from the standing start on the 2.0 PD140 too, so I don't think that is a PD170 issue, more likely something to do with the drivetrain design combined with the engine power/torque delivery.

I have a vrs tdi and have had no problems whatsoever (touch wood) and i am sure that there are thousands of theses engines knocking about with no problems, my brother in law has the audi a4 with the same engine and he also loves it and has had no problems.

It seems to be the same with every prolem like this, you get a handfull of similar problems and people start to condem it as a mass produced problem and write the engine (or whatever the part may be) off, even though its actually only a very tiny percentage. IMHO it just seems to get blown out of proportion and this would not put me of buying one.

Dont get me wrong, i agree that the problem should not be there in the first place, but they just do, even the japanese manufaturers cant say its never happend to them.

Whilst I am having problems with my vRS, I'm still very pleased with it.

As well as the stuttering problem, I've now had the flashing glow plug/check engine message as well. The car then goes into limp home mode. When I came out this morning to drive it, then all was well again. It would just be nice to understand why it's doing it.

I've got it booked into the supplying dealer from Tuesday to Thursday next week, so hopefully this will give them enough time to get to the bottom of it.

I'll report once I get it back again.

Bagpuss.

If you have VAG-COM the details are now available to carry out the DPF cycle yourself.

Yours may well be the relay problem BagPuss.

Don't have VAG-COM, so can't do the DPF thing. I'm pretty sure that the DPF is okay, as nearly all of my driving is motorway and fast A-road. The shortest drive I do is about 75 minutes, so should be more than long enough to burn off stuff in the DPF (or am I wrong?).

I'll mention the relay to the dealer when I drop the car off.

Thanks again, Stu.

Bagpuss.

to all vrs tdi 170 owners:

I have one of the first vrs tdi's produced and have seen all the problems. Luckily i have access to all the diag equipment and ecu updates and get to read all the bulletins that come into SKODA dealers in Ireland.

Problems as I encountered them and the solution.

Glowplug Relay.

This appeared in the first week and did not affect the car.. just annoying light on dashboard. This was fixed by replaceing the relay complete

Engine stuttering

This always warned me that it was going to happen. No matter where i had being driving ( in town or motorway ) the engine would start to idle at 1000rpm. Then the trottle response would become erratic, the engine noise would rise and the fuel economy would fall drastically.

On a few occasions, this would disappear by itself and was starting to really annoy me.

More often than not the DPF light would then make an appearance.Having vivisted my local dealership ( and borrowed their 5051B ) I found the following fault

"DPF - function wrong"

I then did an ecu update

depending on the age of your engine, there are 2 updates available

OLD s/w version new s/s version

03g906018EB | 0232,0464 03G906018EB | 0493

03g906018EL | 9502,9617 03g906018EL | 9631

NOTE: please do not attempt this by yourself and make sure if you get it done at a dealership, that they know what they are doing as you could be left with a dead ecu and a long walk home whiile they are ordering a new ecu

and last but not least what started off looking like a repeat of the above fault turned out to be the exhaust temperature sensor ( similar to lamda sensor for petrol heads). This had the same symptoms as above but the DPF light never came on. The emu light on the dash would appear randomly and on one occasion i had complete turbo shutdown mode.

A new sensor sorted it out.

since then all is good

cb

thanks for sharing the info mate

Looking for holy grail of some economy with some performance, test drove then brought VRs TDi.

As it is only used for long runs (Have cheap tatty alternative for supermarket stock car championships!) expected to exceed combined figure and was pleased with 50 - 55mpg out of first 5 tankfulls.

Then relay fault occured, dealer took it in after 2 week wait (didn't have courtesy cars had to book well in advance if one needed. Not level of service I got from Japanese dealers!). When returned to pick it up had to wait a further 2 hours as 'the car is not behaving itself'

Since then have been getting 42 - 46mpg if lucky. Indeed in motorway dash this weekend was indicating 38mpg!

Dealer said need to wait for his 'senior' technician to return from illness, but the 'juniors' said they couldn't find anything wrong.

Don't know if its related but have also had to put 1l oil in over recent weeks, whilst not exceeding the extremely generous figure of 500ml/1000km quoted in manual this is still more than an RX8 I used to have was drinking!

I would advise any potential purchasers to think twice as I am certainly not impressed. Started well then went down hill quickly.

When you bear in mind how many of these engines must be in circulation with Audi/VW/Seat and Skoda in their various models ranges a few people with problems on a Skoda club website isn't really representative of the whole i don't think (not that that makes your issues any less annoying ), you can, and do get gremlins with any car currently on sale what i find can make these problems a bit easier to deal with is if you have a helpful dealer that can sort them out, if the dealer is useless then it is going to compound the problems.

I know this is going to put the kiss of death on my motor but i've had my Vrs Tdi since November and done 19.5k miles so far, apart from the glow plug relay issue (that practically everyone seems to have had!) and servicing mine hasn't had any issues, no stuttering, no dpf issues etc, so anybody thinking of buying one please note that there are cars out there that don't have so many problems, although now i've put that mine will more than likely throw a wobbler on the way home.

Looking for holy grail of some economy with some performance, test drove then brought VRs TDi.

As it is only used for long runs (Have cheap tatty alternative for supermarket stock car championships!) expected to exceed combined figure and was pleased with 50 - 55mpg out of first 5 tankfulls.

Then relay fault occured, dealer took it in after 2 week wait (didn't have courtesy cars had to book well in advance if one needed. Not level of service I got from Japanese dealers!). When returned to pick it up had to wait a further 2 hours as 'the car is not behaving itself'

Since then have been getting 42 - 46mpg if lucky. Indeed in motorway dash this weekend was indicating 38mpg!

Dealer said need to wait for his 'senior' technician to return from illness, but the 'juniors' said they couldn't find anything wrong.

Don't know if its related but have also had to put 1l oil in over recent weeks, whilst not exceeding the extremely generous figure of 500ml/1000km quoted in manual this is still more than an RX8 I used to have was drinking!

I would advise any potential purchasers to think twice as I am certainly not impressed. Started well then went down hill quickly.

why not mention/show post #20 to them

t

Engine stuttering

This always warned me that it was going to happen. No matter where i had being driving ( in town or motorway ) the engine would start to idle at 1000rpm. Then the trottle response would become erratic, the engine noise would rise and the fuel economy would fall drastically.

and last but not least what started off looking like a repeat of the above fault turned out to be the exhaust temperature sensor ( similar to lamda sensor for petrol heads). This had the same symptoms as above but the DPF light never came on. The emu light on the dash would appear randomly and on one occasion i had complete turbo shutdown mode.

A new sensor sorted it out.

since then all is good

cb

I've had exactly the same symptoms in my vRS the last few weeks. Had the same sensor replaced today and the car already feels better - time will tell I guess as to whether it has completely fixed the problems - but so far so good!