D4 VEA 'check engine' light / EGR fault thread

[Arianne]

Neat idea Roy, don't know why it took so long to invent it. The delay between v1.0 (Bacofoil across the front grill of the car) to v2.0 (Volvo's venetian blinds, no doubt being supplied by parts supplier 'Hillary's') seems to have been a long one.

Just hope it never gets jammed or fails in the closed position!

Arianne

[RoyMacDonald]

Originally Posted by Arianne

Neat idea Roy, don't know why it took so long to invent it. The delay between v1.0 (Bacofoil across the front grill of the car) to v2.0 (Volvo's venetian blinds, no doubt being supplied by parts supplier 'Hillary's') seems to have been a long one.

Just hope it never gets jammed or fails in the closed position!

Arianne

Well Arianne, surprisingly my 1926 Rolls Royce had one. The vertical bars on a RR radiator are not just for decoration but are the louvers and rotate flat to shut out the cold air. Not sure why the idea fell out of favour. Probably cost.

All the best.

Roy

[Arianne]

Wow! Respect.

[RichardXC60]

Originally Posted by craigv60

I'm not 100% certain but I don't think Volvo is changing the actual EGR valves or cooler units anymore, I believe they're now only altering the coolant pipework to and from the EGR cooler (with the T-piece) to prevent the overcooling and internal condensation build-up that has been gunking up the internals ... and there's probably an ECU update that goes with it.

My Check Engine Light came up at exactly 36,000 miles last week - it didn't surprise me as having done 21,000 miles in the previous 11 months, in January I covered about 200 miles stop start motoring in cold, damp weather.

In reply to your comment though, my Volvo dealer - Caffyns in Eastbourne (very nice bunch of people) having read the fault codes have ordered up both a replacement EGR and cooler for fitment on Wednesday this week - I was surprised when he said it would probably take them two days to carry out though.

[RichardXC60]

Sadly, although this is my first Volvo, I am not new to EGR woes.

The EGR on my Boxer Diesel Subaru Legacy went at about 80,000 miles, we were travelling home through Germany on a Saturday afternoon - the dreaded check engine light came up and the car went into "limp home mode" with no warning at all - extraordinarily dangerous on a very fast moving German autobahn.

The repair on that was over £600 - which leads me back to many comments made here about warranties just about to expire on the first VEA D4 powered Volvos and just who is going to pick up the bill if they continue to fail after "the fix" - which my September 2014 XC60 D4 is going in for in two days time.

With the Subaru Boxer Diesel being such a rare engine, we never got to find out if there was any pattern of failure there and at five years old and 80,000 miles I accepted it as wear and tear and bit the bullet.

That simply is not going to be the case with my XC60, following this thread it appears remarkable that it has reached (exactly!) 36,000 miles without failing - although, having purchased it in January last year (at 14,000 miles) I suppose it is entirely possible that the first owner had already had this problem looked at.

It is a tragedy that the D4 engine suffers from this common problem as, in every other way it is a simply superb power plant - especially having had it Polestarred (from 181bhp to 200 and a similar 10% hike in torque), although averaging just under 35mpg over the last 22,000 miles isn't much to boast about!

[RoyMacDonald]

Originally Posted by RichardXC60

Sadly, although this is my first Volvo, I am not new to EGR woes.

The EGR on my Boxer Diesel Subaru Legacy went at about 80,000 miles, we were travelling home through Germany on a Saturday afternoon - the dreaded check engine light came up and the car went into "limp home mode" with no warning at all - extraordinarily dangerous on a very fast moving German autobahn.

The repair on that was over £600 - which leads me back to many comments made here about warranties just about to expire on the first VEA D4 powered Volvos and just who is going to pick up the bill if they continue to fail after "the fix" - which my September 2014 XC60 D4 is going in for in two days time.

With the Subaru Boxer Diesel being such a rare engine, we never got to find out if there was any pattern of failure there and at five years old and 80,000 miles I accepted it as wear and tear and bit the bullet.

That simply is not going to be the case with my XC60, following this thread it appears remarkable that it has reached (exactly!) 36,000 miles without failing - although, having purchased it in January last year (at 14,000 miles) I suppose it is entirely possible that the first owner had already had this problem looked at.

It is a tragedy that the D4 engine suffers from this common problem as, in every other way it is a simply superb power plant - especially having had it Polestarred (from 181bhp to 200 and a similar 10% hike in torque), although averaging just under 35mpg over the last 22,000 miles isn't much to boast about!

MPG does't sound right. Something wrong there, either with the car or the driving style. My D5 auto returns 41 to 44 mpg depending on the weather.

If your car had a new EGR it would be down on the cars history I think.

Roy

[Craigy]

Yeah 35mpg is really not good, I don't exactly drive economically and I get 45-50 mpg.
I'm touching lots of wood when I say that mine has been fine and I'm on 34000 miles, more than possible yours hasn't had the problem before.

[Considered1]

Although not a technical answer I would be surprised is there is no link between 20Kplus miles p/a at 35mpg = no EGR issues, as it never got cold enough!, used regularly in the manner in which it should be driven, possibly!

[RichardXC60]

Originally Posted by Craigy

Yeah 35mpg is really not good, I don't exactly drive economically and I get 45-50 mpg.
I'm touching lots of wood when I say that mine has been fine and I'm on 34000 miles, more than possible yours hasn't had the problem before.

That is interesting is yours an auto by any chance?

Theoretically there shouldn't be much difference but the auto should keep the engine in its most efficient range. Mine seems to vary little according to how it is driven, although according to the trip computer, contrary to following the change up light I am getting better consumption by keeping revs between 1800 and 2500rpm.

In truth my Polestar D4 has so much power and torque that you really don't need to drive it hard which is exactly why I was expecting much better of it by way of fuel consumption.

Incidentally it has also been run almost exclusively on a diet of BP and ESSO premium diesel, now using standard Shell, again there appears to have been a marginal improvement both in consumption and smoothness - although I hope that hasn't speeded the appearance of the dreaded EGR problem!

[RichardXC60]

Originally Posted by Considered1

Although not a technical answer I would be surprised is there is no link between 20Kplus miles p/a at 35mpg = no EGR issues, as it never got cold enough!, used regularly in the manner in which it should be driven, possibly!

There's a link ok, if you look back through this thread you'll find the lower the milage the D4's do, the more egr replacements they have had.

As ever was, diesels really remain only completely suitable for higher milage drivers, which means that Volvo is paying a high price here for its lack of petrol options through the range.

Ironically I bought my XC60 along the lines that if Volvo don't know how to build a decent, long lasting diesel engine then nobody does! Do I regret not going for the D5? Probably!