Adblue No Engine Start

Hello!

My 2014 Passat SEL started giving me warning to add the Adblue as it usually did. This time however, when I filled it with Adblue, it did not reset the “no engine start possible” warning, but it went all the way down to 0 miles and I couldn’t start my car after that.

The VW dealership is telling me that I need to replace the adblue pump, hose and harness, on top of the tank, and is estimating this repair at $2100; which seems sudden and excessive to my uninformed self. As I am not knowledgeable in this area, I am asking for any advice from you guys with some knowledge on the matter.

Thank you kindly!

Yep, now you know why deletes are so popular. The SCR system is full of fragile parts.

Cannot really say for sure what specific is wrong with your car, because we do not have the scan tool data from it. But it is quite common for those items to fail. As far as the cost, again, without seeing a specific breakdown of what parts and labor is, we can only guess. The pump repair kit is around $300 usually. Not sure about the hose and harness. Requires taking the rear bumper cover off and dropping the DEF tank assembly out.

My gut tells me $2100 is high, but dealers usually are. I put a transmission in a [gasser] 2017 Passat recently, and our shop did it for some $1500 or so less money than the dealer, and I got the new transmission from a dealer! They wanted to charge them for new fluid and a new cooler, both of which the new transmission comes with!

oilhammer said:

Yep, now you know why deletes are so popular. The SCR system is full of fragile parts.

Cannot really say for sure what specific is wrong with your car, because we do not have the scan tool data from it. But it is quite common for those items to fail. As far as the cost, again, without seeing a specific breakdown of what parts and labor is, we can only guess. The pump repair kit is around $300 usually. Not sure about the hose and harness. Requires taking the rear bumper cover off and dropping the DEF tank assembly out.

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Thank you. It sounds like a labor intensive job. I’m not sure of the specific code but let me see if I can post something from the estimate sheet I received. Nonetheless, thanks a great deal!!!

It is 2.2hr labor to R&R the DEF tank assembly... so add in whatever time to replace/clean whatever components on top of that.

oilhammer said:

It is 2.2hr labor to R&R the DEF tank assembly... so add in whatever time to replace/clean whatever components on top of that.

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Okay, let’s say it’s a 5 hour job. At $219 per hour = $1100, plus let’s assume the part costs $600 (you said pump repair kit is about 300 and let’s say hose and harness another 300) - that still doesn’t add up to $2100…

I'd get a list of the DTCs, and an itemized list of the parts and the labor. That's the only way anyone could know for sure.

oilhammer said:

I'd get a list of the DTCs, and an itemized list of the parts and the labor. That's the only way anyone could know for sure.

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I’m sorry, what’s a DTC?

Diagnostic Trouble Code

A quick stop over at Tunezilla's site will take care of this at a fraction of the cost. And seeing as you're in Texas, no tailpipe test to worry about...

I would first start by seeing if you have any of the dieselgate warranty left on your car. You didn't mention anything about current mileage or when the fix was done last.


Let them pay for it and replace if you do. If not then explore the other options.

I just assumed since he'd gone to the dealer, he'd already looked at warranty remedies, but maybe not! If you can get it done through the dealer for no cost, that's definitely preferred!

Check for warranty above all else. If you're out of warranty, It seems like they are quoting you basically everything in that area to cover their ass if this misquote it. I would get a list of the faults that are in the system and post them here. Labour wise, its honestly pretty easy.

if not under warranty, get VCDS and scan your car to figure out what DTCs are there and then go from there.

Thank you all…
The car has 113K miles, so quite a few.
Well, like an idiot - I didn’t think about the warranty and took it to a dumbass halfwit mechanic (to save money which backfired). He tried to but couldn’t fix it, and without telling me took it to the dealership which immediately contacted me. He messed iwith the wiring and such, I’m guessing trying to turn off adblue completely or god knows what, but he messed it up worse…

Apparently, his tinkering cancelled out the warranty on the part, as it would have been done right if I’d just thought of warranty and taken it to the dealership myself. I didn’t see these responses from you fine people prior to giving my consent for them to start the repair, but I’ll call them tomorrow and ask some of the questions you guys have advised me to do…

Many thanks to all of you and I’ll keep you guys posted.

Yikes! That mechanic should be on the hook for this and any future repairs that would be covered under the warranty that he apparently voided for the next whatever amount of miles/time that the warranty would have had.

If needed in this process or the future, we have several trusted mechs in both the Dallas and Go Sox! areas who can advise or help.

Yikes, once touched and messed around with, Warranty is done. Especially if they can see someone being in there and trying to fix it themselves. Seen it a couple times and it sucks because people forget about the warranty until its too late.

I don't think most shops even realize any of this. Dieselgate stuff isn't something that is well known outside of folks like us. I've probably sent 200+ cars back to a dealer due to them still being under warranty. The owners had no idea. And I'm pretty sure had they taken their car to any other independent shop in the area, they'd have not known either (but they probably would not have attempted to do anything anyway... which is likely for the best).

Nope... the dealers have a voiding mechanism in their system. It gets "flagged". Even if the dealer takes it in, as soon as they go to get authorization, it'll get kicked. There's a code for it, I forget what it is.

Of course, this is if the initial dealer actually put it in (which they love to do anyway).

Edit:

Found it:

Warranty Keys Facts - TD1, etc | Ross-Tech Forums

Usually if dealers see outside work being done when the car is under warranty, its documented and could be flagged with a certain T/U code in the warranty key when you look up the VIN. The most common one is the TD1 which a test plan is ran for that by the tech. Although, NOW, whenever you run a log on the car, even if you dont run the test plan, lets say code a radio or something, it will run that test plan anyways and flag it without you knowing or doing so. Its very sneaky. Although with something like this, dealer will just make note of it on their end but I dont think per say it will be flagged unless they email in to VW directly stating that this car has been tampered with and warranty is void.

Possible but it doesn't say anything about the "wiring" being touched. Parts changed to non oem and tuning make up most of the disqualifications. But they are hard to fight about it after the fact. I would chance getting the wiring fixed back to stock anyway and try.

Even then its obvious someone has been in there because to get the wiring fixed, you need to basically rewire it and it will be obvious that has been done. Dealers can also check what other dealers have done so if they dont find any history of that, then again, its obvious its been else where and touched. It would be pretty hard to get looked over unless the dealer tech doesnt care.

Even if he had taken it to the dealer and it needed a tank, I doubt they could get one.

My wife’s 2015 A3 has been sitting at the dealer for over a year now waiting for a DEF tank.

She has received no less than 7 different Audi loaners and one enterprise rental, all on their dime. She usually gets a current model year vehicle from their inventory with anywhere from a couple hundred to a couple thousand miles. She drives them until they need an oil change and then takes them back and they give her another new vehicle.

She has put over 50k miles on their vehicles since the A3 went in. We have done nothing but put gas in their vehicles.

I am very nervous about my A3 when I get it back. Sitting this long it will need brakes, coolant flush, most likely tires and it was due for a DSG oil change and filter. I do stop out every month or two and drive it for about 30 minutes to get it warmed up and keep some charge on the battery.

I have to bring my OBD 11 scan tool with and reset the miles to zero every time, but at least it puts 30 miles back on each time. This has to cost Audi a fortune as the dealer gets $35/day that they have a loaner out. They have had the car since March of 2023. 389 days so about $13,615 in rental reimbursements from Audi to the dealer.

I can’t imagine why this DEF tank is taking so long for Bosch to produce. They did offer to buy back the car and I declined. Why would I do that when we are driving their cars for free? Our Audi only has 80k miles on it. If/When they get the tank in I am going to demand all of the items that would normally be required to make the car a CPO. I don’t want an actual CPO just the services required to make it one.

Good luck getting a tank. I would be shocked if there are new ones available on the market right now.

The NMS and the A3 use completely different DEF tanks. I don't even think any of their SCR components are the same, aside from maybe the DEF injector and a sensor or something like that.

Man, I wish you could work out a deal on the rental deal... drive your own (reliable, old car), and when you finally get your (newer, unreliable) car fixed, hand them a bill for $35/day and go buy a few more (reliable, old) cars.

My wife would have nothing of it, lol. They have been giving her Q5 and Q7 premium plus models with lots of options.

I’m more nervous what it’s going to do to me when she has to drive the A3 again. She is already hinting at “trading” it for something she “likes” when it actually gets fixed. It is worth almost what I paid for it back in 2020 during the lock down part of COVID. The dealer I bought it from wanted to clear inventory. I paid 16.9k on a vehicle with 14k miles and an original window sticker of 43k.

I think she really wants a Q5 or a Q7. I have no idea how I would pay for something like what she is driving now. Even selling the A3 I would still be looking at 45-50k with the package trims they are giving her. These things depreciate too fast to pay that much.

I think she is quietly hoping they never get it fixed.