D4 VEA 'check engine' light / EGR fault thread

[NigelDay]

Originally Posted by RoyMacDonald

Land Rover decided it was the warm air that was the problem and did the opposite and removed the cooling system from their EGR's.

Volvo have made 12,274 new XC90's so far this year so 2 with a problem is hardly in the same league as the D4 Egr issue. They have made 19.679 XC60's so far this year for comparison. The V60 CC stats are 2,449 since launch.

We just have to remember that 2 reports are only those which have come to the attention of Forum members. A large proportion of the 12,274 XC90 owners will not be on this Forum. Despite this, it does seem the D5 is reporting fewer problems.

[Marc01]

Originally Posted by Rooster

The problem effects every VEA engine from D2 to D5 so basically every diesel engine that volvo now fit to there cars,

There is a fix on its way but due to parts production there is a delay in its release,

Production line cars get the fix first then it is getting released to dealers,

From what we were told volvo have been working really hard on a fix but the EGR cooler clogging seems to be more of an issue in the uk that other countries and volvo have been in the uk testing fixes,

It's not a UK problem, there are many reports from, Sweden, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Taiwan to name a few. Taiwan in particular has many failures with its own Facebook group possibly more than the UK.
To say this is a UK problem is just blame shifting, "it's our climate" "qaulity of fuel" "the way you British drive"
The biggest problem is getting Volvo to admit anything, they have kept very quiet and all we hear is different stories from our dealers and their technicians who are NOT Volvo! A statement from Volvo would be nice but that's like getting blood from a stone.

[NigelDay]

Originally Posted by Marc01

It's not a UK problem, there are many reports from, Sweden, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Taiwan to name a few. Taiwan in particular has many failures with its own Facebook group possibly more than the UK.
To say this is a UK problem is just blame shifting, "it's our climate" "qaulity of fuel" "the way you British drive"
The biggest problem is getting Volvo to admit anything, they have kept very quiet and all we hear is different stories from our dealers and their technicians who are NOT Volvo! A statement from Volvo would be nice but that's like getting blood from a stone.

They can't duck the issue for ever. The first time they refuse to fix a VEA fault at no cost (perhaps on an out-of-warranty car), some smart lawyer will take them to court. Whether it is in the UK or overseas, we will see. The Americans are very good at garnering this into a class action, but I suspect there are very few VEAs over the pond. The three year 'standard' warranty period is coming up this summer, give or take a few months. The immediate problem, legally, is that our contracts are with the dealers, not with Volvo. Why should the dealers be in the firing line for a Volvo denial ?

[Spitfire4]

Call me thick, and touch wood etc, but why are some cars affected and others not?

Are all cars going to have this problem at some point in time, maybe out of warranty and Volvo won't be responsible?

I was going to keep this car for a long time, but now, will have to rethink as I don't want expensive repairs bills just outside of warranty.

Also what is the common denominator between cars that are and cars that are not affected, there must be something somewhere and shouldn't Volvo be looking into that too, to see if there are pertaining factors? I have just over 10000 miles on the clock and have started wondering if the dreaded turtle is getting ready to make his grand entrance!

[craigv60]

Originally Posted by Spitfire4

Why are some cars affected and others not?

Are all cars going to have this problem at some point in time, maybe out of warranty and Volvo won't be responsible?

Also what is the common denominator between cars that are and cars that are not affected, there must be something somewhere and shouldn't Volvo be looking into that too, to see if there are pertaining factors? I have just over 10000 miles on the clock and have started wondering if the dreaded turtle is getting ready to make his grand entrance!

It's hard to say. The very few owners on here that have NOT had EGR problems tend to do a lot of motorway miles, but even then, some high-milers have had their EGR / cooler replaced.

Others use premium diesel exclusively, and still have had problems. So it can't easily be blamed on fuel quality (and standard UK diesel IS higher quality than in other European countries anyway.

My personal opinion based on all the evidence in this thread and elsewhere is this: Volvo's design of the EGR cooler was inadequate, and they failed to test it properly in real-world driving conditions (cold starts, short journeys etc).

Otherwise they would not have had to make so many revisions to the parts over the past 18 months. In my view, Volvo is EXTREMELY lucky that only a small percentage of cars go into limp mode and become undriveable with this fault. As it is, it's costing them a fortune in warranty repairs: but if more cars were stranded because of the fault, it would be catastrophic for the company's finances.

I've seen some owners say on here that Volvo UK has told them that EGR-related faults will be fixed free even outside the 3 year warranty. We'll see if the company honours this.

[Flux]

Originally Posted by Rooster

Well 2017m/y diesel volvo's will have the addition of adblue so looks like they may be changing the amount of egr the VEA engines use again,

Altho i think its spa platform only

I note that quite a few newly-developed engines go for ad blue to solve this issues. Maybe Volvo were a little behind the curve in modern thinking although they did develop the new VEA before the current range of Jaguar engines (which I believe use ad blue), so maybe everyone learning as they go and just a part of the evolution of the combustion engine story!

The fact that Rooster indicates the my7 engines engines will incorporate ad blue does seem to lead to their thinking on EGR was a little flawed at best or inappropriate at worst.

Squirting 'stuff' into the exhaust system chamber post-combustion to reduce NOx does on the face of it seem a little easier to understand than the complex and temperamental working of the EGR.

Maybe a case of less being more - especially if a low(er)-tech approach does it better!

[NigelDay]

What does it take for a formal 'recall' notice to be issued ? If Volvo don't issue a 'free EGR fix' statement, irrespective of time, this must be the way to go. I'm sure they will do everything they can to avoid a blanket recall.

[craigv60]

Originally Posted by Flux

I note that quite a few newly-developed engines go for ad blue to solve this issues. Maybe Volvo were a little behind the curve in modern thinking although they did develop the new VEA before the current range of Jaguar engines (which I believe use ad blue), so maybe everyone learning as they go and just a part of the evolution of the combustion engine story!

The fact that Rooster indicates the my7 engines engines will incorporate ad blue does seem to lead to their thinking on EGR was a little flawed at best or inappropriate at worst.

Squirting 'stuff' into the exhaust system chamber post-combustion to reduce NOx does on the face of it seem a little easier to understand than the complex and temperamental working of the EGR.

Maybe a case of less being more - especially if a low(er)-tech approach does it better!

I remember reading an interview with the chief powertrain engineer on the development VEA motors - he stated that they deliberately avoided using AdBlue on the VEA diesels because of the additional complication (tank, pump, injector, etc), and the extra service requirement of keeping the tank topped up, compared with what he described as "advanced EGR functionality."

So that went well, then

[craigv60]

Originally Posted by NigelDay

What does it take for a formal 'recall' notice to be issued ? If Volvo don't issue a 'free EGR fix' statement, irrespective of time, this must be the way to go. I'm sure they will do everything they can to avoid a blanket recall.

Recalls are usually safety-related, or related to a problem that could cause a major failure if not remedied quickly.

This is why I believe Volvo has been VERY lucky that more cars aren't going into limp mode. Because limp mode only happens to a small percentage of affected cars, from Volvo's perspective it's not a big enough issue to warrant a full recall.

So they are muddling through by fixing cars on the hoof. It's still costing them a fortune, but probably less than it would if a full recall was needed.

Another 6 months of proper testing could have flushed this out, I don't really understand why they were so keen to rush out the VEA engine. Everyone would have been quite happy with the old 5-cylinder engines for another year.

[GMcL]

Originally Posted by craigv60

Another 6 months of proper testing could have flushed this out, I don't really understand why they were so keen to rush out the VEA engine. Everyone would have been quite happy with the old 5-cylinder engines for another year.

Alternatively, it's probably better they released the engine when they did as it bought them another year of real world testing. 2020 is not far away and the range average has to be down to 95g/km by then.