Excessive soot and an imminent 3000km roadtrip

[LackenbyH]

Advice wanted...also posted a comment on this thread 2016 204 4motion...but thought I'd start a new one hoping for some quick replies

I'm based in east Berkshire and got my local VW specialist who's been looking after our old T25 Westfalia for 10+ years to service our 2016 T6 4Motion BiTDi Caravelle, full oil / filter change, etc.. When we purchased the van in Nov25 we got a Millers oil sample done and got the all clear, ~6K miles later with no warning lights on and only a little oil topped up in that period I've had another sample done and it's come back all clear for metals in the oil, but soot at a 'critical' 2.3% level...before I got the report back, but after the oil service I drove a 6 hour round trip along the M4 through those annoying 50mph sections to get a Kombi-Rak fitted and the EML came on with the Carista giving me the P040100 (Insufficient EGR Flow) good news message!

So excessive soot levels in the old oil but no EML, fresh oil and a long, low rev 50-70mph drive to/from Wales and then the Insufficient EGR Flow warning appears.

We have a 2 week, 3000km European road trip planned for 1st Aug and I'm now worried about the engine giving up on us...any thoughts or suggestions on what to do welcomed...Do we need a new EGR before we go? Can I rely on the Carista to clear the fault if it returns and allow us to get round Europe? Any other thoughts as time to get a fix is slipping away?

 

[temporarysecretary]

Because the fault is the flow only options are clean or replace.

If clean dont waste time with additives it would be an off the van chemical clean.

If replace, unfortunately we have to see EGRs as a consumable these days despite coming with a £2k cost.

The oil on these does get sooty really quickly. My last oil analysis on 7k miles had soot at 1.4%

Some may be driving style etc but also a good chance thay a coked up EGR wont be fully sealing when closed and exposing more exhaust more often.

 

[LackenbyH]

Because the fault is the flow only options are clean or replace.

If clean dont waste time with additives it would be an off the van chemical clean.

If replace, unfortunately we have to see EGRs as a consumable these days despite coming with a £2k cost.

The oil on these does get sooty really quickly. My last oil analysis on 7k miles had soot at 1.4%

Some may be driving style etc but also a good chance thay a coked up EGR wont be fully sealing when closed and exposing more exhaust more often.

Thanks for the quick reply....what is the risk of just going on our roadtrip without getting it replaced or cleaned? I can't really afford £2k currently having been out of work for 4 months and don't think I'll find anywhere local that could fit the job in before we're due to go away anyway.

Is it safe to assume this sort of thing won't be covered under warranty?

 

[temporarysecretary]

Possibly covered under your purchase warranty depending on what the garage specced your warranty to include.

Whether or not they can get that sorted in less than a few weeks.... and not just fight it/fix cheaply.

It could go into limp mode abroad. Which will mean a recovery and still needing to get the work done to get home unless you have top tier recovery package.

If you have the basic tools required and not afraid to get hands on as a minimum id be pulling it off and giving it all a soak. if yoy search the forum specifically for that error code you will get more specific info of how that is done.

The other avenue is to delete it but is illegal and would still cost 600+ it would buy you some time to take the pressure off.