EGR flexi-pipe: Exhaust Fumes In Cab, Hissing From Engine Bay.

[osman]

Just had mine done today, It was the rear EGR pipe split , Work carried out under extended warranty 2018 4 Motion 204 . circa 38K mileage .
When I first noticed it I thought it was other vehicles and eventually realised it was mine. Tried booking it in at main dealer in November found its quicker getting a doctors appointment on the NHS . Think I waited 6 weeks. Although they did suggest that I should call breakdown as strong fuel smell in cab is considered a danger. I just didnt use the heater, it was occasionally I could smell it but it was a getting progressively worse .
I needed the van so planned a suitable date, at the time I didnt know what was causing it but reading on here it was pointing towards the EGR pipe either front or rear being split. Tried to confirm this by looking to see if it was leaking but didnt see anything. I was told they also clean and wash out the EGR at the same time part of the cost of replacement under warranty so happy days. Would have been £504 if I had paid
Van feels much more responsive now as well. Never know it might even improve fuel usage

The problem is a pita they won’t do anything about it unless you complain about it and of course it only really happens during a regen …it’s not an issue that prevents the van running or passing an mot etc just a horrible experience for the human beings inside the vehicle ! I wish I had complained about it more whilst I had the all in warranty . I had so many things done but this went under the radar due to me not making enough fuss about it …

 

[osman]

After a regen happening two days in a row .. and a sickening stink yet again today I decided to take a couple of pics I could not see any signs of fumes coming from this pipe however it’s quite blackened … it was windy the fumes appear to be coming from the drivers side of the engine .. but could not see any source that was obvious .
Just wondering if anyone who has experience with this issue could possibly tell from these photos if this is the problem ..

 

[James147]

Morning all, my van started hissing Friday and is now showing warning light for catalytic converter 102 euro5 I know most if not all of the failures on here have been for the 204 so not sure if it’s the same fault it seems to be when it’s trying to build boost I have had a good look in the engine bay but cannot see or hear anything obviously wrong, however Vw cannot see it for a month and seemed more interested in checking my brakes and tyres when they can see it so I am left wondering if driving it for a month with an obvious problem is going to cause catastrophic failure (I’m going to ring round the independent garages on Monday for an early spot)so my question is how long did anyone have to drive their vehicle with this fault
Cheers

 

[wuckfitracing]

Bugger, mines gone. Snows forecast and the garage is full, I do like a challenge. I`m going to stop watch how long it takes.

 

[wuckfitracing]

 

[wuckfitracing]

Off to the stealer tomorrow for a new one as they couldn`t confirm which one I needed without seeing it FFS.

 

[wuckfitracing]

Quality control inspected by Merlin the Birman cat. Fitted in under 11 minutes.

 

[daveg72]

Could the issue with gas escape from this pipe also give error code P20EE do you know?

 

[Phil_j89]

Could the issue with gas escape from this pipe also give error code P20EE do you know?

No

 

[Shadrack]

Hi to all,
Firstly I must apologise as I started a thread on the egr pipe before finding this one. I don’t know how to delete or merge.
As I had said my rear pipe had split right on the 30k miles. I was quoted by the dealer £595 to replace.
I now have my replacement with washers, screws etc and I am about to replace as soon as I receive spline tools etc.
Big thanks to Phil & others on my previous thread for help with part identification, screws etc.
Also I must thank members who have really helped me in this thread by posting their experiences, photos etc, some really useful stuff.

My camper is a 204 DSG also with Aux heater. So I am guessing a challenge or patience as Phil had stated.

Once again, thanks again to all.

---

[Edited by moderator - the thread linked]

Bolt types sizes for rear egr pipe?

Hi Guys Could somebody give my a heads up on the bolt sizes or types that secure the rear egr pipe. I have a 2016 t6 Cali 204. I will be picking up a replacement pipe(04L131521BH) with bolts and gaskets etc from my local dealer, I am not sure if I have correct size of spline sockets to hand...

www.t6forum.com

 

[Shadrack]

Hi to all,
Firstly I must apologise as I started a thread on the egr pipe before finding this one. I don’t know how to delete or merge.
As I had said my rear pipe had split right on the 30k miles. I was quoted by the dealer £595 to replace.
I now have my replacement with washers, screws etc and I am about to replace as soon as I receive spline tools etc.
Big thanks to Phil & others on my previous thread for help with part identification, screws etc.
Also I must thank members who have really helped me in this thread by posting their experiences, photos etc, some really useful stuff.

My camper is a 204 DSG also with Aux heater. So I am guessing a challenge or patience as Phil had stated.

Once again, thanks again to all.

---

[Edited by moderator - the thread linked]

Bolt types sizes for rear egr pipe?

Hi Guys Could somebody give my a heads up on the bolt sizes or types that secure the rear egr pipe. I have a 2016 t6 Cali 204. I will be picking up a replacement pipe(04L131521BH) with bolts and gaskets etc from my local dealer, I am not sure if I have correct size of spline sockets to hand...

www.t6forum.com

Hi Guys,
Quick update, I have now replaced the rear pipe with the latest.
As warned, not in anyway a quick job as previously warned. My camper is the 204 DSG with an aux heater, so no real room to work.
It took me around 3 hours with plenty of breaks. It’s not a difficult or complicated job. You just need patience and patience as a lot of the time I was working blind even tho I had the use of an endoscope.

I picked up on an earlier tip to use tape on the spline bit. I firstly offered the pipe to its location with all bolts loosely in the holes and held in place with an elastic band and sellotape.
Once I managed to get all four screws to bite it was a matter of nipping up. I was able to torque to 20nm with a fine bicycle torque wrench.
The splines needed are 8&10 mm. I purchased 1/4” drive splines and found it relatively easy to guide the smaller diameter extension to the bolts.
Before I started I put a load of cloth etc under to catch any dropped bits. (I was lucky there).
If I had to do it again, maybe not so much sellotape to hold bolts as it was not easy to turn bolts to get them to initially bite. Also I would make sure I would have a small 1/4” cordless ratchet to hand. The back of my one hand took some stick on the clips, fixings etc.

I really want to thank all on this forum for creating such a knowledgeable database. Also to Phil and others that have helped me directly in these threads.
It’s this club and its members that gives me the confidence to tackle the unknown.

Thanks again to all.

 

[technograndad]

My 2018 camper started leaking fumes into the cab when stationary or reversing, didn’t notice it otherwise but it needed changing. It’s a DSG 150 and others have said it’s pig and I have to agree. Working from the top I could finger feel all 4 bolts and loosen 3 but the lower ‘underneath the bellows’ one defied all attempts to reach with any combination of the tools I had. In the end I took advice from this thread and seated my long spline tool into it, precariously, and managed to get a small 10mm ring spanner onto the end of that.
What followed was about half an our of 1/4 turns until it finally came out. The others were reachable with a small ratchet wrench (thank heavens!).
Yes I lost the spline tool down into the pit of doom a couple of times but a magnet on some stiff wire retrieved it.
Reassembly wasn’t bad, I got the difficult one in first, just a few turns with fingers, then the 2 easy ones the other end to align and finally the top one by the bellows.
Tightening the difficult one was another 20 minutes of 1/4 turn using the long spline tool and ring spanner and by then my arms were aching. What a job, worst ever.
Great sense of achievement though

 

[robleady]

For once, an MOT advisory - "minor exhaust leak, possibly EGR valve gasket" - turned out to be accurate!
Can anyone give me a rough idea on what I should be looking at for the price of the replacement parts?
I'll probably have a go at fitting myself based on the other comments in this thread.

 

[TallPaul_S]

For once, an MOT advisory - "minor exhaust leak, possibly EGR valve gasket" - turned out to be accurate!
Can anyone give me a rough idea on what I should be looking at for the price of the replacement parts?
I'll probably have a go at fitting myself based on the other comments in this thread.

View attachment 240503

The part numbers should be back in this thread somewhere. As for fitting, that highly depends on what model van you have. Judging by your photo I'm guessing it's one of the simpler ones with no rear Aircon/DSG/extra turbos etc. on a Caravelle with an extremely crowded engine bay it's a several hour job done from below. On a basic van, it's a 20 minutes job done from above!

 

[robleady]

The part numbers should be back in this thread somewhere. As for fitting, that highly depends on what model van you have. Judging by your photo I'm guessing it's one of the simpler ones with no rear Aircon/DSG/extra turbos etc. on a Caravelle with an extremely crowded engine bay it's a several hour job done from below. On a basic van, it's a 20 minutes job done from above!

I've found the part numbers, but the prices people have put in the previous posts seem to be varying from £90 -> £150+
Just want to make sure I'm not being ripped off.

 

[Shadrack]

I've found the part numbers, but the prices people have put in the previous posts seem to be varying from £90 -> £150+
Just want to make sure I'm not being ripped off.

I have just replaced my rear egr pipe due to a split. The dealer quoted me almost £600 to fix .
As mentioned earlier there is little room to work if you have aircon, aux heater. Lots of pipes etc. which unfortunately is my Cali. I bought the genuine latest upgraded pipe with gaskets and bolts. The cost of all bits from vw was circa £170
My job took me a good few hours (see 431 above), its patients you need to tackle the work, loads of it.
Beware of some other outlets where the part can be bought from. I did see later versions of the faulty part(but not the latest) available.
Hopefully this upgraded more flexible pipe can deal with the high temperature variations without splitting again.

Do some research on this forum, there is loads of information on this subject from many helpful and very experienced members.

Good luck with your challenge.

 

[robleady]

I have just replaced my rear egr pipe due to a split. The dealer quoted me almost £600 to fix .
As mentioned earlier there is little room to work if you have aircon, aux heater. Lots of pipes etc. which unfortunately is my Cali. I bought the genuine latest upgraded pipe with gaskets and bolts. The cost of all bits from vw was circa £170

I've been quoted £245, fitted, by a local independent VW specialist, which seems reasonable based on the prices I can find for the genuine parts online (anywhere from £150 to £200).
I do have one of the easier to work on vans, but would need to buy the right spline tools for the job, so probably makes sense to let them do it!

 

[robleady]

Finally bit the bullet, and replaced the pipe myself, having found someone selling a new one on eBay for £80.
All went well, and only dropped my ratchet once

Picture from part way through to make sure I'd got the thing in the right place.



It drove fine last night, but this morning the Engine Management Light came on, which VCDS is reporting as a P0401 Insufficient Flow.

23871 - EGR System
P0401 00 [236] - Insufficient Flow
MIL ON - Intermittent - Confirmed - Tested Since Memory Clear
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00000001
Fault Priority: 2
Fault Frequency: 6
Mileage: 195371 km
Date: 2074.01.31
Time: 12:05:15

Engine speed: 2222.00 /min
Normed load value: 57.3 %
Vehicle speed: 47 km/h
Coolant temperature: 35 °C
Intake air temperature: 20 °C
Ambient air pressure: 1000 mbar
Voltage terminal 30: 14.695 V
Unlearning counter according OBD: 40
EGR travel diagnosis: strongly increased NOx emission: 0.00 kg/h
Exhaust recirc.valve 1 bank 1: posit.feedback - Act.value: -116.00 %
EGR travel diagnosis: marginally increased NOx emission: -31.30 kg/h
Mass airflow sensor 1 bank 1 airflow: raw value: 466.5 mg/stroke
Throttl.valve adapt. 1 bank 1: posit feedback - Act.value: 70.50 %
Charge press. ctrl deviation after throttle valve bank 1-Pressure_16_signed_10_mbar: -6.8 mbar
O2 sens. 1 bank 1 upstrm oxi cat: raw value: 1.000 counts

Am I right in thinking that as the EGR has had "wrong" values whilst the pipes been leaking, that it now thinks something's wrong when it's back to "normal"?
I've cleared the code for now, but wondering if there's something else I should do?

Cheers,
Rob

 

[DXX]

Finally bit the bullet, and replaced the pipe myself, having found someone selling a new one on eBay for £80.
All went well, and only dropped my ratchet once

Picture from part way through to make sure I'd got the thing in the right place.

View attachment 246965

It drove fine last night, but this morning the Engine Management Light came on, which VCDS is reporting as a P0401 Insufficient Flow.

23871 - EGR System
P0401 00 [236] - Insufficient Flow
MIL ON - Intermittent - Confirmed - Tested Since Memory Clear
Freeze Frame:
Fault Status: 00000001
Fault Priority: 2
Fault Frequency: 6
Mileage: 195371 km
Date: 2074.01.31
Time: 12:05:15

Engine speed: 2222.00 /min
Normed load value: 57.3 %
Vehicle speed: 47 km/h
Coolant temperature: 35 °C
Intake air temperature: 20 °C
Ambient air pressure: 1000 mbar
Voltage terminal 30: 14.695 V
Unlearning counter according OBD: 40
EGR travel diagnosis: strongly increased NOx emission: 0.00 kg/h
Exhaust recirc.valve 1 bank 1: posit.feedback - Act.value: -116.00 %
EGR travel diagnosis: marginally increased NOx emission: -31.30 kg/h
Mass airflow sensor 1 bank 1 airflow: raw value: 466.5 mg/stroke
Throttl.valve adapt. 1 bank 1: posit feedback - Act.value: 70.50 %
Charge press. ctrl deviation after throttle valve bank 1-Pressure_16_signed_10_mbar: -6.8 mbar
O2 sens. 1 bank 1 upstrm oxi cat: raw value: 1.000 counts

It drove fine last night, but this morning the Engine Management Light came on, which VCDS is reporting as a P0401 Insufficient Flow.

If it’s still on the original EGR at 195000Km I’d say the cooler is clogged, you did well to get that far.

 

[robleady]

If it’s still on the original EGR at 195000Km I’d say the cooler is clogged, you did well to get that far.

That I don't know unfortunately. Most of the miles were done before I owned it.
I don't recall seeing anything in the service history to say the EGR had been replaced, but it may have been.

Just seems odd that it would now report insufficient flow, when logically there should be more gas going through it.