VW Tiguan Fumes inside car TDI

[largespiced]

My Family Wagon TDI Tiguan has a paraffin type smell coming in via the vents when sat at a junction etc. We recently purchased this from my sister in law who did mainly short journeys. When we purchased it this smell was not there.

Its currently with a garage who can not find a leak, via smoke tests etc, are are starting to look at the DPF. Would a clogged DPF filter cause a paraffin type smell?

Its a 2008 with 75k, 140bhp.

[Krikkit]

Could well be, being a 2008 it's a fuel-burning DPF (either through clever ignition management or a separate injector).

Perhaps an injector leak? Mercedes OM engines suffered poor fire seals on the bottom of the injectors leading to fume leakage.

[arguti]

We have had the same issue with a 2006 Touran 2.0 TDi (140bhp) - billowing white smoke on some occasions and ours does not have a DPF.

nobody has been able to give me a straight answer but definitely only in colder weather with a cold engine and definitely aggravated by having less than 1/4 tank of fuel - have heard it is some form of "engine warmer" that involves the exhaust but nothing exact. Also seems to come from 1/2 way down the car. HTH

[Krikkit]

This thread suggests the car has an auxiliary heater: http://www.mytiguan.com/index.php?/topic/2059-fume...

If so perhaps the exhaust routing for it is coming too close to the cabin filter?

Further details on activation regime here: http://www.volkswagenforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=...

[largespiced]

They are a VW specialist, I am hoping they know about the cabin heater but will double check with them. If you put your nose down the back of the engine you can smell the hot paraffin type fumes wafting up. It does this when the car is at normal running temp, not when cold.

They are sure a clogged DPF would cause these issues, I guess it could be radiating a smell rather than leaking? The fresh air intake does it directly above/behind the DPF.

[Krikkit]

largespiced said:

They are sure a clogged DPF would cause these issues, I guess it could be radiating a smell rather than leaking? The fresh air intake does it directly above/behind the DPF.

In which case it sounds like the DPF is leaking - smells don't "radiate".

[largespiced]

Krikkit said:

In which case it sounds like the DPF is leaking - smells don't "radiate".

Thats my thought too mate. Thanks for the replies

[x type]

largespiced said:

My Family Wagon TDI Tiguan has a paraffin type smell coming in via the vents when sat at a junction etc. We recently purchased this from my sister in law who did mainly short journeys. When we purchased it this smell was not there.

Its currently with a garage who can not find a leak, via smoke tests etc, are are starting to look at the DPF. Would a clogged DPF filter cause a paraffin type smell?

Its a 2008 with 75k, 140bhp.

short answer .. YES it smells like paraffin

Take the car for a good run on motorway /dual carriageway if possible keep it in 3 rd gear and keep it at about 60 mph for as long as you can in other words get it as hot as possible for as long as possible (italian tune up )Its the dpf trying to regenerate

Your sisters short journeys may have been longer than yours

My daughters vw polo smells exactly the same , we took it back to dealers . answer is she does many short journeys back and fore to work , her journey is about 2 miles each way dpf doesn't like it !

Blast the guts out of it and get it hot
for as long as possible cures her polo

[largespiced]

I collected it from the garage with a view to sell to wbac. Not a single smell from the car. They didn’t actually do anything! Couldn’t work out what was wrong so I pulled it back from them. Been using it for the last 3 days and all is good!

[Snailmail]

arguti said:

We have had the same issue with a 2006 Touran 2.0 TDi (140bhp) - billowing white smoke on some occasions and ours does not have a DPF.

nobody has been able to give me a straight answer but definitely only in colder weather with a cold engine and definitely aggravated by having less than 1/4 tank of fuel - have heard it is some form of "engine warmer" that involves the exhaust but nothing exact. Also seems to come from 1/2 way down the car. HTH

I had exactly same prob with my Touran. Turned out it was the auxiliary heater, so I took the fuse out for the heater and no more probs. Just not such great heating but good enough. Check the fuse isnt used for other things as well on your car first though. It just did tge heater on mine. Hope that helps.