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.

[clockworks]

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.

[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.

[Waving Ian]

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

[RammyMP]

That’s worth knowing, my 2.0 tdi is coming up to 3 years old and needs a service soon, I’ll ask them to do the software update.

[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?

[Sheepshanks]

Swampy1982 said:

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)

Is this the EA189 emissions issue engine, and have you had the 'fix' done?

[cuprabob]

Sheepshanks said:

Swampy1982 said:

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)

Is this the EA189 emissions issue engine, and have you had the 'fix' done?

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

[Sheepshanks]

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).

[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...

[Sheepshanks]

Hmmm...wonder how it can work OK for 3yrs and then need a software update?

[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.

[Waving Ian]

Swampy1982 said:

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

It's a Passat BiTDi 4 Motion

[Waving Ian]

Sheepshanks said:

Hmmm...wonder how it can work OK for 3yrs and then need a software update?

It maybe just bad luck but the guy at VW didn't seem particularly surprised. The cynic in me wonders if it's built in to keep cars in the dealer network. Mine was serviced only a couple of months previously and surely checking for such updates is routine.

Was under warranty so no complaints

[Sheepshanks]

Waving Ian said:

It maybe just bad luck but the guy at VW didn't seem particularly surprised. The cynic in me wonders if it's built in to keep cars in the dealer network. Mine was serviced only a couple of months previously and surely checking for such updates is routine.

The 'checking for updates' thing is a bit of a nonsense - I have a Merc and it comes up all the time on Merc forums, with owners thinking their car gets all the lastest software loaded every time it goes in.

In practice, unless there's a specific service measure (like the emissions update VAG had) dealers only do software updates if a customer complains about something and the guided fix calls for a software update. MB dealers won't even do the sat nav updates that are free for the first 3yrs unless the customer specifically asks, and even then they're often told there's no time and to bring the car back (ie they're fobbed off).

In the AdBlue case, I can only imagine they've done something like changing a sensor parameter so something that was throwing up a fault now doesn't. Whether that's a permanent fix or it just kicks failure further down the road (so out of warranty) who knows?

[clockworks]

I wondered the same thing - how did my car (presumably) work for over 2 years and 26k miles before having this problem?

My guess is it's something to do with me not following the refilling procedure to the letter. There's a sticker by the Adblue filler (under the boot floor) stating that the driver should add at least 5.7 litres, or the car won't recognise that the tank has been topped up. I did this (actually added 10 litres), but what I didn't do was turn on the ignition and wait 30 seconds before starting the engine. I had no idea that I had to do that. Seems odd that whoever wrote the software thought it would be a good idea to ignore the reading from the tank sensor unless the car was sat, ignition on, for 30 seconds before starting the engine, and then ignore the level sensor for the next 1500 miles before finally killing the car. Hopefully VW got fed up with unnecessary service visits under warranty, and have re-written the code, rather than just getting the dealers to do a reset each time it happens.

Recommendation on a forum is to top up the tank every 6000 miles, so the warning light never comes on. That's what I'm doing now.

[Waving Ian]

Have to be honest I didn't know about the '30 seconds' until I read the handbook when the light didn't reset. Don't understand why the technology needs to be any more complicated than a windscreen washer bottle!

Never mind, live and learn

[jamesleonard74]

Ok I know this is an old thread but I need some help. After adding 10 litres of adblue to my 16 plate Audi A7, it failed to stop counting down until d day if not restarting. Like others here I figured it was a sensor or diagnostic issue. Audi have literally just come back with a new adblue injector needed coating £888.... am I being completely fleeced here?