2.0TDI Engine - EGR cooler failures

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A lot has been posted on internet in past few years. I hope this post will help some owners.

High engine oil consumption, unexplained coolant loss, engines prematurely worn out are the topics often posted in this section.

Leaking EGR cooler will damage your engine and cause high oil consumption, even completely destroy your engine slowly or very fast, if you do nothing.

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Impact of internal coolant leak on engine.

The coolant leak that isn’t external means that the coolant is leaking into the engine ; either the oil, exhaust or(and) intake side.

Coolant leak into the engine oil - quickly degrade the engine oil and such contaminated oil is no longer suitable for 15,000km service interval - excessive wear occurs.
Changing the engine oil and filter at 1/2 intervals obviously extends the life of the engine and may delay failures. It also explains why some owners are lucky enough and their engines last even when there’s a coolant leak into the engine.

Slow EGR cooler leak into the part of EGR cooler where only exhaust gases should be cause the coolant to get sucked into intake and into the cylinders where in a short time causes cylinder walls pitting, rusting, where in the small cavities created, engine oil that would under normal conditions be wiped down into the oil sump by piston rings, stays and burns in the combustion process.

A small amount of coolant in combustion will not cause any immediate problems for the engine. The engine may even have slightly more power, because of steam. That’s very generally said. But, in the longer run, it will reduce the engine’s life and cause other problems.

Larger amount of coolant entering via failed EGR cooler will hydro lock the engine and cause immediately no start. If the engine hydro locked partially, the results could be connecting rods bent just slightly and the piston(s) no longer run true in the cylinders. The engine may still run reasonably or poorly. Such engine will have a lot of metal particles in oil as result of pistons scraping cylinder walls on one side.

Anyone with an unexplained coolant loss should get their engine oil analysed, it is inexpensive and can save you lot of money in the long term, (DIY is possible).
You may even claim a new engine from VW Australia.

USED OIL ANALYSIS | PRODUCTS | CASTROL AUSTRALIA

Some tips;
Make sure you use UOA (Used Oil Analysis) kit from a reputable/recognised organisation.
Make sure that you always collect detailed paperwork when you had any warranty work done by your dealer, no matter how friendly relationship you have with them.

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Reserved space

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Any T5, T6 any 2.0TDI Amarok, Golf 6, Golf 7, Passat, Tiguan etc. that has a high oil consumption or needs new engine, because of the engine is prematurely worn out, has probably legal right to request repair or compensation from Volkswagen, because of poor design of the EGR system.

[Sunny43.5]

I bought this subject up with my independent VW mechanic , his opinion was that removing the parts may affect the temperature the engine runs at . His thought were that VW build the engines to run at particular temperatures and changing that could cause issues with certain components going outside the design parameters .

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I bought this subject up with my independent VW mechanic , his opinion was that removing the parts may affect the temperature the engine runs at . His thought were that VW build the engines to run at particular temperatures and changing that could cause issues with certain components going outside the design parameters .

A bit off topic but...

Removing of the EGR is also illegal, so we won’t discuss it in here. After all, we’re law obeying citizens here, living in the cities and want to truly protect our health.

A bit of history about the EGR.
First it appeared around the hippies time in 1970’s.
Maybe they’re so excited about smoking the weed, that when someone was high, he got an idea to make his engine to swallow it's own smoke. Ever since the manufacturers were/are pushed to use more and more EGR and the EGR coolers were introduced maybe some 15 years ago, to handle that increased amount.

So, quick answer to whether it’s needed or not. Is no, it’s not needed. Though the engine ECU runs the EGR and will look for it if you remove it. You’d have to tap into the ECU, to make it to forgot the EGR. The hardware can’t be just removed/blocked off.

May be some climate fanatic could tell us, how much pollution is voided, how much less impact our engines (that are high on EGR) have on the environment, minus all the energy and resources needed to produce extra engines and parts to repair failed vehicles.
Oh, and if the one wants to be really accurate, don’t forget all theses cars once the EGR/emission system is failing or failed are still in use often for a very long time, sometimes years before it gets repaired/scrapped and they will produce many times more emissions than if they’re designed without it. So, think about that too.

[Mtwem]

Thats a great question, generally that type of research is a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and measures the environmental impact of a product across all stages of its life, and often weighed up against alternatives, or no action at all. Could be worth looking into and whether the automotive industry would have funded such research.

[Transporter]

Most of the research is done to prove something and most likely steered towards the outcome they want to achieve. In other words, it could be rigged.


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[Foxpuppet]

Question on this,

The EGR valve in my 2010 T5.1 failed in 2013 with around 40k on it. Replaced under warranty
Have just had the warning light for this come up again at 180k and Local VW says it’s the valve and cooler needing replacement.

What is the lifespan for these parts? Been quoted 1500 by dealer to repair.


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[Transporter]

Question on this,

The EGR valve in my 2010 T5.1 failed in 2013 with around 40k on it. Replaced under warranty
Have just had the warning light for this come up again at 180k and Local VW says it’s the valve and cooler needing replacement.

What is the lifespan for these parts? Been quoted 1500 by dealer to repair.


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The lifespan of EGR coolers varies greatly. Some fail at 30,000km, some last over 100,000km and anything in between. I'd probably go with an aftermarket part rather than genuine.