Volkswagen.

Information and questions about driving in Andalucia, buying or importing cars and motorbikes plus legal issues surrounding taxes and licenses.
Nimrod
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Re: Volkswagen.

Postby Nimrod » Wed Sep 30, 2015 4:32 pm

If you're dissatisfied with performance and want to keep all the anti pollution gubbins on your car you can always get it remapped.
I had a Touareg TDi which suffered from turbo lag ,as had a previous poster.I had it remapped and acceleration improved,turbo lag disappeared and it was a much nicer car to drive.
It's best if your car is out of warranty,diesel cars benefit more and you should tell your insurance company.
This was in Uk and the guy who did mine had an associate in Spain.

El Cid
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Re: Volkswagen.

Postby El Cid » Wed Sep 30, 2015 4:46 pm

You are right about the warranty. Apparently, if you make any mods to the ECU on a VW it is likely to set a warning flag that comes up on the diagnostic kit at the dealer, which can invalidate the warranty.

Sid

Torrox_campo
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Re: Volkswagen.

Postby Torrox_campo » Wed Sep 30, 2015 5:29 pm

Yes I heard about the new 1.4 TSI which can run on 2 or 3 cylinders when road conditions allow to reduce fuel. The original 1.4 TSI twin-charger Golf has won best new engine for 2006 and International engine of the year for 2 years running 2009 and 2010. It has won also for best fuel economy/green engine for 2009. As I have driven the same car with different engines, I have to say the diesel did give more torque in mid range so over taking at 60-70 MPH was a breeze and it has better fuel economy. But I chose petrol since I experienced the limp mode with clogged up DPF then I read about the VW DPF problems. I believed the DPF was introduced arround 2006-2007 and the drivers were blamed for using too many short journeys. At that time I drove 25 miles to and 25 miles back to work each day so the dealer couldn't blame my driving for clogging DPF.
When changing car I looked at the Tiguan since it is effectively a taller Golf, but Land Rover 4x4 is still consider the best so I bought the fl2. To be fair the fl2 is a much heavier car than the golf, 40MPG wasn't that bad and with over 7000 Miles since I have never had any problem with the DPF. Apparently on the fl2 the DPF regeneration occured every 450 Miles but I have never fell any. I want to re-map the car but my fl2 is still within 2 years Land Rover warranty so better wait until the warranty over.

gus-lopez
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Re: Volkswagen.

Postby gus-lopez » Wed Sep 30, 2015 6:13 pm

El Cid wrote:
gus-lopez wrote:
My Spanish diesel car has the EGR completely removed & just blanking plates. The catalyst is still there as the exceptionally high temp of the exhaust ( it'll melt your crocks at the back !) means it has never given a problem. If it did then the guts would be removed.
So what you are saying is that you have removed the EGR which will result in your car emitting more noxious gases and are quite happy to remove the catalytic converter to make it even worse?

And I thought it was VW that were cheating!

I suppose you expect us all to congratulate you for such a well thought out public spirited move - or have I missed something?

Sid
I have no interest in what you think nor do I consider myself public spirited. The egr is a dirty piece of filth designed to return soot laden dirty air into the intake side of a vehicle. Hopefully this will then remove some more dirty soot at the customers/drivers expense when it all falls out of bed ; which it does fairly often. More often than not it justs jams up so allowing more soot into the atmosphere , + a vehicle that suffers performance loss & increased full useage. All it theoretically does is not subject to any test. If you have a vehicle that fails the opacity test with a working egr it will still likely fail it with the egr removed.
Go on any car/van/motorhome forum & the vast majority will have removed them 30 years ago.
On the older egr systems it was fully mechanical whereas on the newer systems it is linked in to the ecu so either has to be done as was posted in an earlier thread by a pinhole in the blanking plate or a complete ecu delete.
Everyone has been removing/blanking egr's for as long as they have been fitted.
peteroldracer wrote:And it passes the ITV?
Why would it not? There is no test for egr valves. ,only the opacity test(smoke) if it wouldn't pass this before removing then it probably wouldn't after. My smoke test always used to be around the 1,67 mark & I checked the first itv after & it is now 25% of that figure .I .e. far less smoke than before it was blanked.I doubt that any ITV tester would even know where to look for it. They only open the bonnet on my car to ascertain that the chassis number is the same as the paperwork! On my motorhome the bonnet has never been opened. :lol:
In the UK the mot has been modified to state that "if it had one fitted at manufacture then it has to be in place" but most people just put in a blanking plate & in most cases it isn't even possible to see whether or not it is fitted as there are too many covers & they are not allowed to remove any item.

The diesel catalyst is the same. There is no specific test for it just the smoke opacity. Many removed them as they were blocking up due to short journeys; or badly sited by manufacturer from the outset meaning that a high enough temperature could not be obtained to burn off the soot; Others just removed them when highly modifying the turbo system.Most just cut them off & welded in a plain piece of pipe.
In the UK now this also is subject to the "if it started off with one.." so now anyone who binned one has to reinstall one but it is usually just an empty cylinder. As long as it passes the smoke test then it conforms with the requirements. Again they are not allowed to dismantle anything to ascertain that it actually has a catalyser in it.
As to the dpf well ...... I know people who use vehicles exclusively on the motorway, high speed ,high temp: so shouldn't have any problems, yes they have continually suffered from blockages.
They are trying to make an engine that was designed to run on anything , refined, fantastically economical & to emit air cleaner than you'd get on life support. It cannot be done. I think even the euro 5 was a fair bit of subterfuge & 6 is all smoke & mirrors. Any insider will, off the record , state quite clearly that there is no possibility of any improvement.All the talk of euro6+ etc can only be accomplished with some chicanery. I.e. you can achieve it at testing but on the road you need another set of parameters.
Todos somos Lorca.

El Cid
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Re: Volkswagen.

Postby El Cid » Wed Sep 30, 2015 6:36 pm

gus-lopez wrote:[
They are trying to make an engine that was designed to run on anything , refined, fantastically economical & to emit air cleaner than you'd get on life support. It cannot be done.
I wouldn't disagree with that. Clean diesels are a myth and will never be achieved.

I am going to get one of these to solve the problem and, amazingly, it comes from the Land of the Free!

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/tesla/mode ... and-prices

Sid

Nimrod
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Re: Volkswagen.

Postby Nimrod » Wed Sep 30, 2015 7:12 pm

The technology exists for us to all be driving hydrogen fuelled cars.....emissions = H20.
So why aren't we driving them?
Could it be the multinational oil companies?

El Cid
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Re: Volkswagen.

Postby El Cid » Wed Sep 30, 2015 7:21 pm

Not economically viable - yet.

Sid

gus-lopez
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Re: Volkswagen.

Postby gus-lopez » Thu Oct 01, 2015 3:03 pm

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... tests-show

See they are nearly all in the frame now.
Todos somos Lorca.

El Cid
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Re: Volkswagen.

Postby El Cid » Thu Oct 01, 2015 4:06 pm

I'm not sure what the point of that test was. Everyone knows that the current EU test is seriously flawed and gives results that are miles away from reality. The press and even the government have been saying that for years. Even the ads for the cars say you should not take the results seriously, but that they can be used for comparisons.

So, surprise, surprise, many cars do not meet the "real world" test, but there is no reason why they should do as it is not yet a requirement for them to do so. That's still a couple of years away (mainly due to pressure from all the manufacturers to delay it).

The key point about this whole fiasco is that VW admitted cheating on their cars by changing the ECU software. It made a huge difference in the US because their acceptable levels are far lower than even the next version of the EU regs and it is highly unlikely that the old E189 engines would ever be able to do it legally.

There is no evidence so far, that having this software affected the EU tests as, so far, they have not rerun the EU tests after VW removed the dodgy software. Of course, if you compare the EU test with a real world test, the results will vary.

We just have to wait until VW carry out their changes to the software and see if it affects the existing EU results done with the old software (which is what happened in the US which is why they got caught). If there is no significant difference, then it just proves that VW were very stupid to put the software on all cars with that engine when in fact, they only needed to do it on the US spec models designed for export to the US.

We have only seen the tip of the iceberg on this so far.

Sid

gus-lopez
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Re: Volkswagen.

Postby gus-lopez » Fri Oct 02, 2015 4:29 pm

El Cid wrote: We have only seen the tip of the iceberg on this so far.

Sid
You are right there !
Todos somos Lorca.

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Mowser
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Re: Volkswagen.

Postby Mowser » Sat Oct 03, 2015 7:29 pm

Image

(Not my spelling of Volkswagen!)
Dave

Miro
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Re: Volkswagen.

Postby Miro » Tue Jan 19, 2016 5:25 pm

I see Renault are recalling some cars due to emissions irregularities.
Hardly surprising. If VW were doing it, it seems inconceivable that other manufacturers were not up to similar tricks. Just surprising it's taken so long for anything to come out. So, how many more will get found out, and what will happen, I wonder? If the VW scandal threatens to bring the German economy to it's knees, I guess a similar Renault scandal will do the same to the French economy. So presumably the only solution is to declare an amnesty, void all the tests and start again. Bit like the banking crisis isn't it? :?
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peteroldracer
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Re: Volkswagen.

Postby peteroldracer » Tue Jan 19, 2016 5:39 pm

Perhaps this will be good for those long-established British car manufacturers - Nissan, Toyota, Honda, BMW - which will of course be completely innocent.... :wtf: :wink:
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costakid
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Re: Volkswagen.

Postby costakid » Tue Jan 19, 2016 9:15 pm

They are all cheating. Its been happening for years. Tic Tac Tow springs to mind.


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