Volkswagen Problems and News Tagged #diesel

The right half-shaft grease boots in 2012-14 diesel Passats are leaking grease.

And as luck would have it, those same cars have a heat shield that is too short to stop the leaks from hitting hot exhaust parts.

When that happens, you'll really be burning up the quarter mile.

But wait, there's more about the recall from CarComplaints.com:

"Engineers also determined diesel particulate filters overheated because they were being overloaded with soot caused by failures of the upper boost hoses. VW learned Passats made up to July 2012 had higher failure rates of the upper boost hoses and if the hoses fail, compressed air from the turbo chargers can escape before entering the combustion chambers."

This leads to more fuel being injected than needed, which results in soot and a higher likelihood of the engine overheating.

Jetta owners can expect a fix in July 2017.

Federal investigators couldn't figure out why perfectly good fuel pumps were failing in some Volkswagen (and Audi) vehicles.

The investigation lasted 4 years and had VW's full cooperation.

The pumps seemed fine and even came with built-in margins for fuels that were slightly out of specification. What the pumps couldn't handle is owners filling up their diesel engines with gasoline.

For the love of everything, don't do that!

Using gas for diesel engines would be like trying to replace my morning coffee with soy milk. Sure, I could swallow it but the result wouldn't be pretty. A little gas in a diesel engine will burn quickly and create a very low power output. A lot of gas in a diesel engine can cause the engine to blow or, you guessed it --- fuel pump to fail.

In 2013, VW started a service campaign to install bright yellow stickers near the gas cap to warn owners not to let this happen.