what to do ?

[grombo]

hi .... new t6 being delivered sept.
Was soooper excited till i read that new diesels don't like short journeys. I do multiple short cold start journeys ever day .... I've a 1k deposit on a finance deal with vw.
I phoned the dealer with my concerns and was told he had never heard of any problems with short cold start journeys ....
Typical that a few weeks from delivery a petrol version is coming to the market .... I've tried to read the small print on the finance deal but to be honest i can hardly see it let alone understand it.
What to do ? in an ideal world i would like to transfer my deposit to a petrol t6 and cancel my previous order, but after tentatively putting that to the dealer he wasn't sounding so friendly ! Should i (can I)walk away from my 1k and reorder else where , do i take delivery and hope it can cope with my driving needs, or do i buy some rope to stop the worry. Any advice would be most appreciated. peace & love x

 

[Keeff]

I would phone the finance company as they are buying the van not you and will have more hold on the dealer. You only buy it from them .

 

[grombo]

Thanks keeff but I paid the deposit to the dealer on the vehicle order and the advance payment will be to vw commercial vehicle finance on collection .

 

[Chopman]

Maybe just ask the dealer to confirm in writing that there are no issues with you using the vehicle for multiple short cold-start journeys.
They should either be able to confirm this in writing, or, let you transfer your deposit to a petrol vehicle.

 

[bullock]

The concern is presumably the DPF? I don't believe it is a Diesel engine concern, as my 2.2 diesel EU4 2006 Honda Civic (90000 miles) has never complained about all the short journeys!

The main reason my engine didn't make the grade for EU5 regulations was the lack of a DPF, but the only vehicles these days without DPFs are Petrol or electric

If you rarely leave the city then a DPF may not be for you due to its necessary regen cycles; could lead to expensive problems later on?

Personally I'd walk from the deposit if I felt sure that I would get the best long term vehicle for my needs (but bare in mind the lower mpg from the petrol)

 

[DaveyB]

My thoughts are that you may end up with issues with the DPF possibly not completing its regen cycles. Personally, if the dealer won't play ball, because let's be honest they'll still be able to sell it off the forecourt, I'd walk off, you'll lose your deposit, but until the vehicle lands at the dealer and they get you in to do the finance paperwork, you are not committed to buy that vehicle.
The slightly more cynical side of me says, hang in, go to pick up the vehicle, find something missing, then reject it. They then have to supply you a new vehicle and or give you back your deposit. Let's be honest it's a reasonable bet to take based on the amount of people reporting items missing such as seat armrests, wrong spec engine, scratched and dented panels/ paintwork. Seems to me as though you don't need to look too hard to find something wrong.

 

[grombo]

hi bullock
Yes defo a euro 6 worry as my current 2.5 diesel on an 03 plate hasn't missed a beat in over ten years of multiple cold start short journeys . Mph isn't an issue as i only cover 5k ish a year

 

[rmo69]

My shop is in Nottingham city centre, I have to deal with a fair bit of rush hour traffic. My experience is that when I get to work or home and the van is doing a regen, the fan comes on and stays on for a few minutes, if it hasn't finished its regen cycle it picks up when I get back in the van until its completed. The most annoying thing about it for me is how much a regen cycle seems to hammer the MPG. If you are doing so many cold short runs that it can't perform a regen, then you'll get the DPF light come on occasionally, meaning that you'll have to do a 15 minute run keeping revs between x and y etc. until it clears itself.

A mate of mine works on power train for Bentley, and last year he mentioned that petrol engines would soon be required to have a DPF equivalent fitted to conform to further regulations. Whether this is true or what sort of time scale the roll out would be, I don't know, but I've no reason to doubt him. I would definitely want to know if a new petrol T6 had any such device on it, because the average MPG is definitely going to be a lot lower, especially if you're hauling any heavy loads or towing. Could be a frying pan/fire scenario.

 

[grombo]

i hear you rmo69
i might get a trade bike

 

[Scot]

Take the van that you have ordered as obviously it's what you wanted.
The van will have a warranty and with the deposit you are willing to walk away from and lose you could buy an extended warranty.
Enjoy the van.
Scot

 

[Keeff]

what to you call short journeys. my wife drives are euro 5 4x4 to work ever day only 3 miles. We just drive it about 10 miles when it need a region. On the euro 5 t6 you could ask for a light on the dash to show when it is in regen. This was for delivery drivers so they didn't turn the engine off. You could see if the still offer this on the euro 6. It doesn't need to be driven fast just running around town will clean it but will need the time to do it . doing 80 mph on the motorway just cools it down. Turn on the air-con,heated screen front and rear all this will help. My last transit custom turned the heated screen on as standard when doing a region.

 

[grombo]

short journeys for me are all under a mile ....

 

[DaveyB]

@Pauly, have you come across anything on this before?

what to you call short journeys. my wife drives are euro 5 4x4 to work ever day only 3 miles. We just drive it about 10 miles when it need a region. On the euro 5 t6 you could ask for a light on the dash to show when it is in regen. This was for delivery drivers so they didn't turn the engine off. You could see if the still offer this on the euro 6. It doesn't need to be driven fast just running around town will clean it but will need the time to do it . doing 80 mph on the motorway just cools it down. Turn on the air-con,heated screen front and rear all this will help. My last transit custom turned the heated screen on as standard when doing a region.

If it's attainable for an E5 it may be of value to a number of folk, me included. I guess it has to be an option in VCDS somewhere.

 

[Pauly]

Havent seen anything on it and mines a E5 ?

 

[YESBOY]

The T6 turns on all the items it can and puts the engine under as much load as possible to regen without you even knowing, I'm told ideal is 2000 revs at steady pace for a 15 min journey for it to do a full cycle but the problem being you never know when it's going to start, it could be just as you pull on your drive !!!
The revs sit at 1000 rpm when parked/ or sitting at lights as it turns stop start off in regen mode rather than 800-900rpm and it smells and the fans are running at high speed to cool the engine & exhaust its ment to get up to 700 degrees !!! ( VW Assist quotes not mine )
We do a mixture of driving miles but a lot round town durning the week and few 20mile journeys at weekends but not had it long enough yet to give the verdict
I'm more worried about engine management light keeps coming on which I'm told is a fuel related issue and can be a number of items pump, pressure sensor, injectors etc ( just changed fuel pressure sensor plug and wires) fingers crossed !!! 3rd time lucky
You know where you are with a petrol engine at present but there are millions of euro 6 engines and they all can't be doing long journeys ........
But it's a hard call I believe I would go petrol if I had the choice again the mpg doesn't worry me for the mullahs we do
Good luck ..... another sleepless night ahead I'm sure I no

 

[4motion]

what to you call short journeys. my wife drives are euro 5 4x4 to work ever day only 3 miles. We just drive it about 10 miles when it need a region. On the euro 5 t6 you could ask for a light on the dash to show when it is in regen. This was for delivery drivers so they didn't turn the engine off. You could see if the still offer this on the euro 6. It doesn't need to be driven fast just running around town will clean it but will need the time to do it . doing 80 mph on the motorway just cools it down. Turn on the air-con,heated screen front and rear all this will help. My last transit custom turned the heated screen on as standard when doing a region.

Is this what they refer to in the handbook as a 'courier' version where the dpf light comes on during regen? It would be useful to know when a regen is happening, does anyone know if this feature can be turned on with vcds? Or maybe the whole dpf set up is different on courier versions?

Handbook also says you should avoid making short journeys . Petrol engines don't like short journeys much either though.

 

[Tombs]

short journeys for me are all under a mile ....

Do you have to do such a small distance in the Van? What getting a bike and saving the Van for long journeys?

I'd not worry about it, there is no way in the world VW are going to say well, sorry sir because you do short journeys your warranty is void. Get the Van, use it and enjoy it with the peace of mind you have a warranty.

 

[andys]

Absolute rubbish to say modern diesels don't like short journeys, several of us at work have run various different types of Euro 4, 5 and 6 cars and never had any issues to do with the engine, whether they were doing 4000 miles a yr or 35000. You hear the odd edge case that has loads of problems but there will always be "friday afternoon cars", I remember an E36 M3 I had in the 90s that always had problems starting when hot, and the best bods from 2 dealerships could never get to the bottom of it by the time I got rid. Ignore the scare stories and buy what you want

 

[grombo]

are you saying that vw say to avoid short journeys for environmental reasons ?

 

[andys]

Actually ignore that, I hadn't read all the thread properly and didn't see the bit where your journeys are less than a mile, a short journey to me meant under 10 miles - why on earth would you want any sort of vehicle for a journey that short? I think I walk nearly that to get back to the car park after work