adblue - yellow error with spanner

[Swampy1982]

Hi,

Just after some advice, anything experience you have and would like to share would be appreciated.

A brief story -

Adblue 1500 miles to go error comes on

I brim the adblue tank

75 miles later I get a yellow error "adblue fault, 600 miles to restart" with a spanner

Car runs fine, I have done 25 miles on it.

I called the AA today to see if they could clear the error, he came out, and said its a common problem with the 2.0 TDI, and its likely an adblue pump or NOX sensor

The car is 3 years 1 month old, and on 75k miles so out of warranty. I have booked it in with Audi on Friday.

Whilst I have been waiting I have googled the error, and it appears that loads of people have had the same fault, apparently this is a well known and common issue. I appreciate that googling car problems is like googling health issues, it starts with a cough and next thing you are writing your will convinced you have months to live.

So my question

1 - Have you had similar issues with a 2.0 TDI - What did you do, and was it an easy fix
2 - Have I got Bob Hope, or no hope of getting a good will repair at Audi (of course I will ask as car has full history with them, and I don't expect you to know what any given Audi garage will offer, i'm more after any experience you have of similar out of warranty repairs)

All advice/opinions welcome.

[Swampy1982]

clockworks said:

Had the same problem with my 3.0d Touareg. It refused to recognise that I had added 12 litres of Adblue, and kept counting down.

The local VW dealer wanted to drop the Adblue tank and remove the level sensor, pump, etc. I insisted that they check through all the VW service bulletins before they started ripping a 2 year old car apart, as I'd read on a forum that it was a software issue.
Luckily they did as I asked. A quick update, and it was fixed.

That there my friend is the advice I was looking for, I will make sure that they dig through the technical bulletins before removing bits! Really appreciated, thank you.

[Swampy1982]

Waving Ian said:

Hi,
I had the same just a couple of weeks ago! Quick trip to the dealer who reset the error and installed a software update and all sorted.

Cheers

Perfect, great to know! Can I ask what make/engine you drive please?

[Swampy1982]

Sheepshanks said:

cuprabob said:

I don't think any of the EA189 engines use AdBlue.

So it's one of the early EA288's then? I know it's longitudinal (is the car an A4/6?) but I think it's basically the same engine as in VW transverse models. I'm just interested as wife has a similar age Tiguan (with EA288 and AdBlue).

Car wasn't on the list for the emissions recall, it's an a4, not sure which EA it is though, sorry.

It's a 65 plate so b8.5 if that helps.

[Swampy1982]

Sat in Audi now, service lady seemed very similar with the issue, says they will try the soft were reset, if not will give me a call.

Have an A6 for the day, so not all bad.

I dangled the carrot of the service that's due in 2000 miles and reminded them I've always been loyal with such

[Swampy1982]

So on the plus side - repair done FOC as they just updated the software and waved the inspection fee.

On the down side... a day in the new A6 has convinced me I need one...

[Swampy1982]

Me too... we will see what happens I guess, worst case it will have to go back and I'll have to pay for them to fix it. But for now the error has gone and it drives fine.

[Swampy1982]

Andy Zarse said:

What happened? We just had a knock sensor wave bye bye after I filled up with adblu, five months out of warranty.

Depending on your service history, worth asking dealer for a goodwill repair.

My bmw that replaced my audi had a similar issue 6 months out of warranty but full service history so repaired under goodwill without a second thought from them.