Engine warning light - P0401

[james_bt6]

Drove the van into town earlier and on the way back the engine warning light came up on the dash in orange.

Once home, I plugged the Carista in and got the following fault code:

P0401 - Exhaust Gas Recirculation "A" Flow Insufficient Detected



Freeze frame :



Calculated load: 51 %



Coolant temperature: 90 °C



Intake manifold pressure: 160 kPa



Engine rpm: 2400 RPM



Vehicle speed: 101 km/h



Intake air temperature: 18 °C



Air mass value: 47.65 g/s



Absolute throttle position: 83 %



Time since engine start: 568 sec.



Fuel rail pressure: 114200 kPa



Ambient air pressure: 101 kPa



Battery voltage as seen by the engine ECU: 13.17 V



Relative throttle position: 69 %



Outside temperature: 18 °C



Absolute throttle position D: 44 %



Absolute throttle position E: 44 %



Commanded throttle actuator position: 100 %

I then reset the faults so the light went off on the dash, took the van out again and gave it a good blast up and down the A1 (75mph most of the time) van drove lovely, and no different than usual.

Is it something to be worried about/something I need to get seen to or can I just keep driving it normally in the hope it was a glitch and won’t show up again?

TIA

 

[Dellmassive]

most likely the EGR clogged.

will need flushing or replacing.

a common thing on a T6.

what the age and millage?

 

[james_bt6]

late 2018 and roughly 57000 (I think) - is it an expensive job or is it worth just having it coded out?

 

[james_bt6]

Or would some RedEx help?

 

[Dellmassive]

Or would some RedEx help?

No

 

[Dellmassive]

late 2018 and roughly 57000 (I think) - is it an expensive job or is it worth just having it coded out?

It's about a £600 part.

Around 1k Fitted.

That will give you another 60k / years.

And normal for a T6 of this age, just standard maintenance.

Personaly I'm not a fan of deleting etc..... I just do the maintenance.

Had mine done on both vans, about the same miles and years.

 

[james_bt6]

So much money!!!

 

[Dellmassive]

So much money!!!

part of the cost of running these vans.

just maintenance, all modern diesels have similar setups.

.

a common job, have a look at local vw indys, you get it done much cheaper.

 

[icn05]

I had the same code recently, garage I took the van to reckoned readings didn’t suggest a clogged EGR, on further investigation he found a split in the EGR to exhaust manifold rear pipe which he replaced along with new gaskets. He did show me the part complete with split.

Time will tell but so far so good, although age of van /mileage suggests it won’t be too long before the EGR does cause issues

 

[james_bt6]

I’ve not done anything since resetting the initial warning light and nothing has come on since… Possibly living in blissful ignorance currently, but it feels so good and a lot cheaper lol. I had it priced up at a local garage and a full replacement would cost £1,240.50 so saving up until the inevitable happens!

 

[icn05]

After having the rear EGR pipe replaced a few weeks ago everything had been fine. Van started & completed a regen earlier today, I had Carista plugged in and the P0401 message returned but showed as Pending. No engine warning light though…not sure why? As in is it normal to show on Carista without engine warning light?

 

[Dundee_Kev]

P0401 message returned but showed as Pending. No engine warning light though…not sure why? As in is it normal to show on Carista without engine warning light?

That's normal procedure for most management systems. They need to do certain drive cycles to verify the fault. As a general rule, if it's pending it will turn into a permanent code and pop the light on.

That's all assuming you had cleared the code initially. If you never cleared it, then it's seeing it as possibly fixed but will keep it's eye on things and if reading are still good it will end up being a history code.

 

[icn05]

That's normal procedure for most management systems. They need to do certain drive cycles to verify the fault. As a general rule, if it's pending it will turn into a permanent code and pop the light on.

That's all assuming you had cleared the code initially. If you never cleared it, then it's seeing it as possibly fixed but will keep it's eye on things and if reading are still good it will end up being a history code.

Thanks - Yeah the fault was cleared after the pipe was replaced.

 

[Dundee_Kev]

Thanks - Yeah the fault was cleared after the pipe was replaced.

You'll better write to Santa early so he can knock up a new egr in his workshop for you!

 

[icn05]

You'll better write to Santa early so he can knock up a new egr in his workshop for you!

Just what I needed when I’ve got best part of £5k to fork out to have the pop top replaced thanks to the original converter

 

[mmi]

You'll better write to Santa early so he can knock up a new egr in his workshop for you!

I'm afraid the Santa doesn't understand the issue because in his sledge the EGR cooler is bypassed during the season.

[T6_measured] 01-Engine - Built-in test for EGR

So it seems - inevitable P0401. Well, visited a VW garage to be tested - the van had accumulated 30 events in ECU's memory since July 2021 (since 20 months now). Eventually managed turn on the emission light at event number 31 - thus had a priviledge to have EGR flow tested. The result -...

www.t6forum.com

[T6_measured] Winter specialities

Spot the winter specialities:

www.t6forum.com

 

[icn05]

I'm afraid the Santa doesn't understand the issue because in his sledge the EGR cooler is bypassed during the season.

[T6_measured] 01-Engine - Built-in test for EGR

So it seems - inevitable P0401. Well, visited a VW garage to be tested - the van had accumulated 30 events in ECU's memory since July 2021 (since 20 months now). Eventually managed turn on the emission light at event number 31 - thus had a priviledge to have EGR flow tested. The result -...

www.t6forum.com

[T6_measured] Winter specialities

Spot the winter specialities:

www.t6forum.com

My brain went into meltdown half way down the page

I’m totally clueless about this stuff I’m afraid..