toeter nitoe
Member
The first two years after we bought our VW California Coast in 2022 we made long trips throughout Europe: Italy, Spain, the Baltics, the Balkans, Morocco, Scotland and around the North-cape. We installed solar panels, all terrain tires, raised suspension and skid plates. These two years were in preparation for our South America road trip that we started last September.
We shipped the car to Cartagena in Colombia and started driving South through Ecuador, Peru and are now in Santiago, Chile.
We had the ADBlue tank topped up before shipping the car. Within a couple of hundred kilometers the action radius dropped from 28000 km to 14000 and less. With the OBDeleven I could read out the real tank level and that was still nearly full. I was consuming almost twice as much ADBlue as in Belgium. It was hard to find ADBlue in Colombia and Ecuador but the VW garage in Trujillo, Peru managed to find it and topped it up. Issue solved.
The real problems started as we hit the Andes mountains. I learned the hard way that the T6.1 has a minimum ambient pressure requirement of around 650 mbar for active and forced regeneration of the diesel particle filter (DPF). This corresponds to an altitude of around 3500 m above sea level. What that means is that the only way to regenerate the DPF above that altitude is to drive at a speed of 100+ km/h for a longer period of time to reach an exhaust temperature of 600 degrees or more for a passive regeneration. Image that the "DPF clogged" light comes on while on unsealed roads and hairpin turns at 4000 to 5000 m altitude in the Andes or Himalayas. The first time this happened to me was in Ecuador. I was lucky that I could descend to around 2500 m to trigger an active regeneration before the car would have gone into limp mode at 45 g of soot. The second time I had to organise a 6 hour tow truck drive from the Colca Valley in Peru to the nearest VW garage in Arequipa after active and forced regenerations failed at an altitude of around 3700 m. In Arequipa at 2300 m a forced regeneration was a non-issue. The VW car dealer in Arequipa said that this happens regularly, not only with the T6.1 but with all kinds of Euro 5 and Euro 6 diesels with a DPF.
Another issue with the T6.1 California is the fact that the auxiliary heater doesn't work above 3000 m, just when you need it at nearly zero degree temperatures. You can fire it up but after a few minutes it shuts itself off again. You can try this up to ten times then you can't even start it anymore When the VW dealer in Trujillo checked it he said that the heater went into "overheating" ten times and had to be reset via the OBD2 in the workshop.
A little bit of DPF background.
The Diesel Particle Filter catches soot particles. Before it get's clogged it needs to be regenerated by burning the soot caught in the DPF at a temperature of around 600 degrees Celsius.
PASSIVE generation happens when the exhaust reaches that temperatuur by the way you drive i.e. at at speed of 100 km/h for a longer period of time on the highway.
ACTIVE regeneration is triggered when there is +/- 30 g of soot in the DPF, diesel is injected during the exhaust cycle and burns in the DPF to raise the temperature above 600 degrees and burn the soot. It's all controlled by the ECU. The driver isn't even aware that this happens.
FORCED regenerations can only be done via the OBD2 by setting the measured soot level to 35 grams to start an "active regeneration while driving" or by a service regeneration, supposed to be done in a certified VW workshop only.
You can read more experiences with the T6.1 DPF issues at high altitude on @ChrisRatay 's facebook posts Log in to Facebook
We shipped the car to Cartagena in Colombia and started driving South through Ecuador, Peru and are now in Santiago, Chile.
We had the ADBlue tank topped up before shipping the car. Within a couple of hundred kilometers the action radius dropped from 28000 km to 14000 and less. With the OBDeleven I could read out the real tank level and that was still nearly full. I was consuming almost twice as much ADBlue as in Belgium. It was hard to find ADBlue in Colombia and Ecuador but the VW garage in Trujillo, Peru managed to find it and topped it up. Issue solved.
The real problems started as we hit the Andes mountains. I learned the hard way that the T6.1 has a minimum ambient pressure requirement of around 650 mbar for active and forced regeneration of the diesel particle filter (DPF). This corresponds to an altitude of around 3500 m above sea level. What that means is that the only way to regenerate the DPF above that altitude is to drive at a speed of 100+ km/h for a longer period of time to reach an exhaust temperature of 600 degrees or more for a passive regeneration. Image that the "DPF clogged" light comes on while on unsealed roads and hairpin turns at 4000 to 5000 m altitude in the Andes or Himalayas. The first time this happened to me was in Ecuador. I was lucky that I could descend to around 2500 m to trigger an active regeneration before the car would have gone into limp mode at 45 g of soot. The second time I had to organise a 6 hour tow truck drive from the Colca Valley in Peru to the nearest VW garage in Arequipa after active and forced regenerations failed at an altitude of around 3700 m. In Arequipa at 2300 m a forced regeneration was a non-issue. The VW car dealer in Arequipa said that this happens regularly, not only with the T6.1 but with all kinds of Euro 5 and Euro 6 diesels with a DPF.
Another issue with the T6.1 California is the fact that the auxiliary heater doesn't work above 3000 m, just when you need it at nearly zero degree temperatures. You can fire it up but after a few minutes it shuts itself off again. You can try this up to ten times then you can't even start it anymore When the VW dealer in Trujillo checked it he said that the heater went into "overheating" ten times and had to be reset via the OBD2 in the workshop.
A little bit of DPF background.
The Diesel Particle Filter catches soot particles. Before it get's clogged it needs to be regenerated by burning the soot caught in the DPF at a temperature of around 600 degrees Celsius.
PASSIVE generation happens when the exhaust reaches that temperatuur by the way you drive i.e. at at speed of 100 km/h for a longer period of time on the highway.
ACTIVE regeneration is triggered when there is +/- 30 g of soot in the DPF, diesel is injected during the exhaust cycle and burns in the DPF to raise the temperature above 600 degrees and burn the soot. It's all controlled by the ECU. The driver isn't even aware that this happens.
FORCED regenerations can only be done via the OBD2 by setting the measured soot level to 35 grams to start an "active regeneration while driving" or by a service regeneration, supposed to be done in a certified VW workshop only.
You can read more experiences with the T6.1 DPF issues at high altitude on @ChrisRatay 's facebook posts Log in to Facebook
