Cayenne AdBlue Consumption Query - Excessive?

[nswallace]

Hi All,

I'm new to posting on this forum but just thought I'd share this to get people's views and feedback. I own a 65 plate Cayenne V6 Diesel that I've had for approx 17 months from new since Sep 15, having covered nearly 20k miles. Since then I have had the AdBlue warning light come on 4 times (approx every 5k miles) and each time I have put in 10 litres of AdBlue. This feels like excessive consumption to me? Has anyone else experienced this kind of use? Mileage is mainly around town with the occasional long trip every couple of months.

I attended a Porsche Driving Day at Silverstone the other week and all the instructors I spoke with hadn't heard of usage like it and stated that they never need to put any AdBlue in their Cayenne's which they run for 10k miles

Any views/thoughts welcome?

Thanks
Nick

[gred]

Yes, they seem to get through a fair bit. Mine's a bit older, Jan15, with 30k on the clock. I think I've had four refills with at least 15litres a time. I do it myself, of course, no dealer margin on that one

[Herdwick]

Ours is just 15 months old, first refill was needed at 1500 miles, back to dealer who said it missed being filled at delivery, apparently they used to come full from the factory, but late 2015, they started to arrive 'empty' with no notice to the dealer. They refilled 3 the week mine was in.

We have just had to fill again at 11500 miles, put in around 15 litres, so 10k miles a tank, bought from a petrol station. First car we have had with adblue, there is only a 1500 mile warning, not very helpful if you have just set of to Europe on a 1100 mile journey fully loaded. We have the Porsche dog guard/divider, so 20 mins to remove that to get the boot floor up to refill. PITA.

[Sheepshanks]

nswallace said:

Since then I have had the AdBlue warning light come on 4 times (approx every 5k miles) and each time I have put in 10 litres of AdBlue. This feels like excessive consumption to me?

As there aren't many other replies - it's only vaguely related but my wife's Tiguan uses Ad Blue at about that rate.

For ages every time I looked at VW's Ad Blue page it had changed - initially they and the dealers said it would last between services but it soon became clear that was nonsense. However in the US, Audi, at least, was abale to achieve this - by turning it off during highway cruising!

I can't imagine Cayenne would use less than Touareg unless there was something dodgy going on. There's a VW chart halfway down this page: http://www.volkswagen.co.uk/technology/diesel/adbl...

[ClioTrophy55]

My 15 plate 3.0 V6 Diesel Cayenne (currently on c.26K miles) has had 2 refills at c.11K and c.20K miles from memory.

[nickfrog]

Sheepshanks said:

As there aren't many other replies - it's only vaguely related but my wife's Tiguan uses Ad Blue at about that rate.

Similar in our Tiguan : 20L in 8k miles.

[IREvans]

nswallace said:

Hi All,

I'm new to posting on this forum but just thought I'd share this to get people's views and feedback. I own a 65 plate Cayenne V6 Diesel that I've had for approx 17 months from new since Sep 15, having covered nearly 20k miles. Since then I have had the AdBlue warning light come on 4 times (approx every 5k miles) and each time I have put in 10 litres of AdBlue. This feels like excessive consumption to me? Has anyone else experienced this kind of use? Mileage is mainly around town with the occasional long trip every couple of months.

I attended a Porsche Driving Day at Silverstone the other week and all the instructors I spoke with hadn't heard of usage like it and stated that they never need to put any AdBlue in their Cayenne's which they run for 10k miles

Any views/thoughts welcome?

Thanks
Nick

Hi, I have a Merc GL350d and Passat 2.0tdi Alltrack, which both have Adblue tanks. I find it easier to find a petrol station which has an adblue pump, so you can fill the tank to capacity without any risk of spillage (when handling plastic bottles). The Merc takes 37L, and the Passat 15L. The Merc does around 20,000 miles before it needs refilling, and the Passat around 8,000 miles. The Passat has a display giving you the range until the Adblue tank needs refilling, annoyingly, the Merc gives you a 600 mile warning - not useful on a Euro road trip...!

I believe the Cayenne V6D has a 26L adblue tank, so should give you around 15-18k miles between refills, but obviously it depends on the nature of your driving. I believe Adblue consumption is higher when the engine is cold.

I'd find a local fuel station with an Adblue pump, and just fill the tank.

Hope this helps...

[ags11]

Ad blue consumption is also governed by fuel quality.
The better the quality of you're diesel the less it'll need.

[whipround]

just up to 7000 miles and i've got 800 miles left before I run out of Adblue.

[nswallace]

Thanks for all the responses, all really helpful

Shame that such a supposedly premium brand is cutting costs on AdBlue at the factory - i feel this is definitely the case with mine too as needed refilling way earlier than a full tank would suggest. You wouldn't mind but when purchasing a Porsche you continually get the line of "you're not buying an ordinary car here Sir, you're buying a Porsche!"

Incidently they also seemed to not bother with the air conditioning gas on mine too, needed to go in not long after delivery - no leaks found and only plausible explanation from garage was that it hadn't been done at the factory!!

[Silent1]

Adblue is also engine load related, more engine load and you'll use more adblue, for example one of our tractors will use 50 litres of adblue in 500 litres of diesel when working, but if it's just pulling a trailer on the road it'll last for 2000 litres so a 400% difference.

[Sheepshanks]

Silent1 said:

Adblue is also engine load related, more engine load and you'll use more adblue, for example one of our tractors will use 50 litres of adblue in 500 litres of diesel when working, but if it's just pulling a trailer on the road it'll last for 2000 litres so a 400% difference.

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think it's injected as a ratio to fuel used. Is the tractor 4x more economical when not under load?

[Silent1]

Sheepshanks said:

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think it's injected as a ratio to fuel used. Is the tractor 4x more economical when not under load?

It's about 10x if not even more economical when not under load, but it seems to swing to between 10-1 diesel to adblue to 40-1 which makes me wonder if tractors do less to optimise their emissions around testing and as a result use more adblue?

[ags11]

Surely the harder the engine is working the more diesel is being used, hence more nasty emissions to control, therefore more adblue consumed to clean the exhaust gases?

My experience is on a combine, so it's hard to judge driving style as it's working hard most of the time. Worst system ever by the way,on a machine that's parked up for 8 months of the year. It crystallised mid field on me last year causing hours of down time having to get a manufacturer's reset code to allow the engine back to full power.

All because it's against the law to produce a little black smoke!
Over a certain HP adblue isn't required. Porsche need to increase their power output!!
Unfortunately I think it's around 750!

[Sheepshanks]

Silent1 said:

Sheepshanks said:

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think it's injected as a ratio to fuel used. Is the tractor 4x more economical when not under load?

It's about 10x if not even more economical when not under load, but it seems to swing to between 10-1 diesel to adblue to 40-1 which makes me wonder if tractors do less to optimise their emissions around testing and as a result use more adblue?

Thanks - I didn't properly comprehend what you wrote in your first post. If the ratio was fixed then the AdBlue consumption vs fuel used would be the same, it would just last longer when not under load. Clearly from what you've said the ratio isn't fixed.

[HarryW]

ClioTrophy55 said:

My 15 plate 3.0 V6 Diesel Cayenne (currently on c.26K miles) has had 2 refills at c.11K and c.20K miles from memory.

My 15 plate Touareg was similar, near identical drive line I believe, it needed topping up at 11k, currently at 18k and no light on yet. I'm not sure if Porsche are the same as VAG but VAG HQ mandate the dealers can only charge £1.49 per litre for filling. For less than £30 it's not worth getting your hands dirty in the Treg as you need to lift out the spare wheel to fill up. Not sure where the filling point is on the Cayenne though....
Re consumption of Adblue, boot it, particularly when cold and watch the steam cloud behind you as it squirts the Adblue into the exhaust to dampen down the belch of black soot a non Adblue equivalent would have done pre Bluemotion.

[DavidRance]

I bought a Macan seven months ago and have just had an email inviting me to call in at my Porsche dealer to have the AdBlue topped up at a fixed price of £42 inc. VAT

Is this a new policy from Porsche?

[moonigan]

DavidRance said:

I bought a Macan seven months ago and have just had an email inviting me to call in at my Porsche dealer to have the AdBlue topped up at a fixed price of £42 inc. VAT

Is this a new policy from Porsche?

I've had the same e-mail today. My car is 7 weeks old and has less than 1100 miles on the clock. Shift+Delete on that one.

[Coxey]

moonigan said:

DavidRance said:

I bought a Macan seven months ago and have just had an email inviting me to call in at my Porsche dealer to have the AdBlue topped up at a fixed price of £42 inc. VAT

Is this a new policy from Porsche?

I've had the same e-mail today. My car is 7 weeks old and has less than 1100 miles on the clock. Shift+Delete on that one.

Me too, had mine new since the end of December with 4,500 on the clock now

[Fokker]

Did 16k in my old Cayenne and topped it up twice so about the same frequency as you OP.

Its a pain but its only a quick job (unless you have a Porsche dog guard!) at home with the right tools. Quick tip, don't spill it as it leaves a nasty white residue all over the place!