Audi A3 and DPF

[Padraigog]

Hi sorry if this has been asked a hundred times but I'm new. I have a 2010 Audi A3 2.0tdi start/stop. The engine management light came on early September. It's a second car so we put off getting it checked til recently. There was no affect on the car other than not revving in neutral. Driving it is normal, full Rev range and no limp mode.

We took it to two places and both have said its the DPF. PRice for replacing it £500-£700. The fact there is no DPF light on dash, just engine management light, and the car hasn't went into limp mode makes me wonder if it could be anything else, like a faulty sensor.

As you can imagine it's a second car so would rather not throw money at it. Anyone give any suggestions or recommend places to go in Glasgow for diagnostics where they will actually show us what codes come up and what they mean?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[kambites]

You could buy your own fault code reader for a fiver. DPF will be one of the standard codes I'd imagine and even if it's not, VW publish their manufacturer specific fault codes.

[davebem]

Normally if its the DPF/related sensor there is a different error light for that. Have you tried taking it for an Italian tune up to see if the DPF will regenerate. I seem to remember there was a big recall on a3s with that engine around that year for injectors maybe worth checking up on that.

[Padraigog]

Got a fault code reader but it comes up linear error after about a minute. Tried to manually regenerate by driving at 60+ in fourth but nothing. Light still on. I'm dreading paying £500 and the engine management light stays on for something else.

As I said, car drives great still and other than engine management light it here's no other problems.

[mcford]

The not revving in neutral is by design and is not a fault, they're usually limited to around 2500 rpm in neutral.

[PanzerCommander]

mcford said:

The not revving in neutral is by design and is not a fault, they're usually limited to around 2500 rpm in neutral.

I can't help with the derv specific issues but my previous car (Focus ST) was limited to 3500 (it was a petrol mind not a diesel) in neutral. Also I have a tuner for my car and it has two rev limits that can be changed, one is the neutral rev limit and the other is the in gear/under load rev limit, so mcford is more than likely correct there; its design not a fault.

[Megaflow]

Speculating here. Second car, probably used for short ish journeys, engine management light, with no apparent loss of power.

I've got a fiver on EGR valve.

[va1o]

You should have had the DPF warning light to indicate it needs a re-gen long before the EML.

The ECU needs interrogating on VCDS to check all the measurements of the filter and scan for fault codes.

I would disagree with the above post as EGRs are generally Ok on the 2.0 TDI, it's the 1.6 which has issues with those