Help - Lumpy Idle during DPF since recall

Hi,

Hoping someone on here can maybe point me in the right direction!

I currently drive a 1.6tdi, 2011 Ibiza. I got a letter from SEAT last year about the recall but never got it done due to work etc. Then got another letter about 4 months ago and a call from the dealership making it sound like this had to be done, so I left it in and got it done, thinking nothing of it. This was obviously mistake number 1.

Since I have left it in, I have had serious MPG issues averaging around 30 mpg atm, whereas before I was getting 50+. I can live with this, however I am getting a really jerky, lumpy idle when the car goes into DPF Regen mode (which it seems to be doing every 4 or 5 days...) whereby the rev counter bounces from 800 - 1200 and back again when idling. The car drives completely fine when it's moving. It's just when it's stopped.

I opened up the engine bay yesterday when it was doing this yesterday and quite frankly it scared the life out of me. The engine was jumping and shaking like crazy and almost seemed like it was going to stall.

I have videos of all of this but unfortunately cannot post links yet.

The car has already been in twice to the dealership with this issue and they can find no fault. I would like to go in the third time armed with some sort of idea as to why my car is suddenly acting like this after the recall. Having done some research I think it may be the EGR but would ideally like a second opinion if possible.

Thanks,

Chris

So an update on this - have since spoken to SEAT UK and they have asked me to bring it back in for free diagnostics.. Which I've already had done twice and they've found no issues. But I've booked it in for next Monday anyway, as well as sending the videos onto the dealership.

SEAT were adamant that the MPG would not be affected by the recall. However would not comment on the potential issue with the EGR valve.

This will be the 3rd time in 4 months the car will have been into the dealership and still no closer to finding a resolution. I loved the car before I started having all these issues - but now I feel like this will be my last unfortunately.

R3k1355 said:

Isn't this a common story for people who've had the recall done?
Crap MPG, EGR issues and constant DPF regen???

Sounds very much like the new ECU map throws in tons more fuel to get NOx emissions down, but in turn the causes loads more crap built up in the DPF and EGR systems - something everyone predicted would happen ages ago.

Personally I'd take the car to someone like Darkside and have a performance ECU map put on instead because I can't see Seat reverting your car to a pre-recall state.

Click to expand...

Funny you should say this.. the car's fuel light was on yesterday when it was shaking, it was telling me roughly 10 miles of fuel left.

I couldn't get near a decent service station so just stopped locally and threw a 10r in to keep me going. Lo and behold, as soon as the fuel hit the tank, the shaking stopped. So I think you may be on to something with regard the ECU throwing in a ton more fuel.

@Propane, when you say the passive regen, do you mean the regen when the car is actually moving, IE it is no longer burning off when it's taken a long run on the motorway?

I try to use good fuel as much as possible - however I live in Northern Ireland and this can be difficult to find. We don't even have a shell garage here.. I mostly try and stick to the Tesco Premium Stuff. I'll be honest I'd no idea when it comes to fuel until I found this forum.

R3k1355 said:

Isn't this a common story for people who've had the recall done?
Crap MPG, EGR issues and constant DPF regen???

Sounds very much like the new ECU map throws in tons more fuel to get NOx emissions down, but in turn the causes loads more crap built up in the DPF and EGR systems - something everyone predicted would happen ages ago.

Personally I'd take the car to someone like Darkside and have a performance ECU map put on instead because I can't see Seat reverting your car to a pre-recall state.

Click to expand...

Just reading this back also - what difference would a performance ECU map make? Sorry - I'm completely useless when it comes to cars - I've taught myself a little with these issues but still learning

propane94 said:

Seat are legally not allowed to revert it back. Hence why so many get it remapped to basically removed this update by a 3rd party.




You should never let a diesel run low on fuel as it starts to pull the sludge through from the bottom of the tank. This might be partially to blame on the rough idle issue here. A good rule of thumb is when you hit 1/4, put more in.



Yes, the car will always need to do an active regen ~every 300 miles, it is now the only way to clean the DPF for me.

Click to expand...

Ah.

This I feel may solve my issue. Looking back on when this has happened, it has only ever happened when I have been low on fuel. Guess I'll have to be more vigilant with fuel from now on

Spoken to my insurance company RE a remap, unfortunately they do not cover cars which have been re-mapped, even though I explained it was for an issue I'm having and not for performance. Bit of a nightmare to be honest.

Thanks for the help guys - I'll keep the fuel level up and see if that alleviates the issue!

I've just spoken to my mechanic (who doesn't work in the dealership) and he has said much of the same R3k, that the sludge would only be an issue if the car is constantly being ran on low amounts of fuel.

I do think there is a correlation however between the fuel and the issues I have been having since the recall. If indeed the "fix" is to simply dump more fuel in, then surely when the car is low on fuel the car will start to struggle. I will be putting this to SEAT next week when I leave it back them. Customer Services on the phone were adamant that SEAT where not taking responsibility for a loss in MPG - however I fail to see how if the car is constantly dumping more fuel in during the DPF cycle?

Does anyone actually know exactly what SEAT have changed with the recall in terms of the ECU?

I never normally let the tank run that low - the light comes on normally at 30 - 40 miles remaining and I head straight to Tesco to refill - the benefits of working 5mins from a Superstore I guess

On this occasion the light had come on Sunday night and I was going to work the following day - so I let it run down a bit.

I am struggling to believe however that the issues I'm having are purely because the engine is struggling for fuel.. Once I get to 15 posts I'll post the links for you all to see.

Is it obvious I'm posting on here to try and get to that magic number?

RUM4MO said:

Well reply to this one as well, by the way, I'm not going to claim that I know supermarket fuels are all crap, but maybe consider looking for lots of loose change under your seat and treat that car to a full tank of Shell's Bestist and so £est smelly stuff - and see it that helps at all, as an experiment?

Click to expand...

The issue is that I live in Belfast and to my knowledge there is no Shell here. I normally fill up with the Premium stuff from Tesco.

What about the likes of BP Ultimate? I know I can get that handy enough?

R3k1355 said:

Ring up a remap company and ask them directly.

They will have had a couple of vehicles in with the 'fix' and probably took a look at the map before sorting it out.
They will be able to tell you what VW did.

Click to expand...

Just find it very strange after a 2 years+ that there is no info on this online in terms of what exactly VW have done.

If I'm being honest I also don't see how SEAT can diagnose this - it only happens when the car goes into regen mode. So unless by some stroke of luck it happens to do this again next Thursday when the car goes in, I've a real bad feeling that they're just going to do as the last two times and say "Sorry we can't find any issue with the car."

15 posts. Videos to follow.

Engine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrKOZZgWp0M&feature=youtu.be

Revving by itself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm36an-WSBk&feature=youtu.be