It's no secret that my T6 is used every day, up and down the UK racking up the miles. I was also one of the first to find the EGR Flexi-pipe split issue because of this.
So am I looking at the next fault with the T6? Maybe I'm just unlucky, but I feel as it's not something I've read about on the T6, it's my duty to add this to the pages of searchable history.
A quick synopsis of the initial problem:
A strong fume smell inside the cab, and this time it's much stronger than the EGR pipe issue. The temporary fix: Leave your air recirculate button on, or you will genuinely pass out or throw up.
We finally got it into the garage and up on the ramp, where we quickly found the issue, although not the actual problem. A full rev of the engine will blow a plume of Black smoke out from behind the turbo. It's very obvious and easy to spot.
Initially assuming it was an inlet manifold gasket, we ordered a full set of genuine gaskets, including all the associated gaskets needed for the strip down, which by the way is immense. To access the back of the manifolds and remove them, means turbos off, cat off, subframe off, and loads of other things to allow the engine to tip enough to get this huge lump out. So if you are suffering from this issue, I'd suggest not taking it to the dealers, because it took us around 8hrs to remove and we are pretty handy and have all the kit.
Removal of the turbos and all the manifolds then allowed us full access to look for evidence of where the soot was blowing from and it wasn't difficult to find several cracks in various places around the cast manifold. This is by far the worse case scenario, because these manifolds are not a separate item. They come with the turbos bolted to them and only VW can supply them at an eye-watering £2000. This I could of swallowed as it's the first major issue I've had with my van that I've owned from new and now done 135000 miles in. What I couldn't swallow was the 4-6 week wait for the parts, which had to come from Germany and that's if they actually have them somewhere.
My van is my business and without it, my work stops. I could hire a van yes, but much of my kit is part of my van and removing it would be a nightmare.
So, what we've done for now is weld up the cracks, using Brass, which has been used in these situations before with success, because the Brass will flex with the cast expanding and contracting, or so I'm led to believe. The van is currently being built back up and only time will tell if it's cured the problem, but it will be pretty obvious pretty quickly.
Below is the full unit and you can see the Black soot around the turbo actuator, which was impossible to see where the crack was, whilst in situ.
This picture is self explanatory sadly...
Obviously this could be a one off if people are lucky, but I've since been told it was common on the T5.
Yes mine has been mapped and yes it's driven a lot and its a factory 204, but I am not having that the map is anything to do with this, because that was done 3 years and 80,000 miles ago with zero issues, but it's just information for any other T6s that may suffer from this as a reference.
So am I looking at the next fault with the T6? Maybe I'm just unlucky, but I feel as it's not something I've read about on the T6, it's my duty to add this to the pages of searchable history.
A quick synopsis of the initial problem:
A strong fume smell inside the cab, and this time it's much stronger than the EGR pipe issue. The temporary fix: Leave your air recirculate button on, or you will genuinely pass out or throw up.
We finally got it into the garage and up on the ramp, where we quickly found the issue, although not the actual problem. A full rev of the engine will blow a plume of Black smoke out from behind the turbo. It's very obvious and easy to spot.
Initially assuming it was an inlet manifold gasket, we ordered a full set of genuine gaskets, including all the associated gaskets needed for the strip down, which by the way is immense. To access the back of the manifolds and remove them, means turbos off, cat off, subframe off, and loads of other things to allow the engine to tip enough to get this huge lump out. So if you are suffering from this issue, I'd suggest not taking it to the dealers, because it took us around 8hrs to remove and we are pretty handy and have all the kit.
Removal of the turbos and all the manifolds then allowed us full access to look for evidence of where the soot was blowing from and it wasn't difficult to find several cracks in various places around the cast manifold. This is by far the worse case scenario, because these manifolds are not a separate item. They come with the turbos bolted to them and only VW can supply them at an eye-watering £2000. This I could of swallowed as it's the first major issue I've had with my van that I've owned from new and now done 135000 miles in. What I couldn't swallow was the 4-6 week wait for the parts, which had to come from Germany and that's if they actually have them somewhere.
My van is my business and without it, my work stops. I could hire a van yes, but much of my kit is part of my van and removing it would be a nightmare.
So, what we've done for now is weld up the cracks, using Brass, which has been used in these situations before with success, because the Brass will flex with the cast expanding and contracting, or so I'm led to believe. The van is currently being built back up and only time will tell if it's cured the problem, but it will be pretty obvious pretty quickly.
Below is the full unit and you can see the Black soot around the turbo actuator, which was impossible to see where the crack was, whilst in situ.
This picture is self explanatory sadly...
Obviously this could be a one off if people are lucky, but I've since been told it was common on the T5.
Yes mine has been mapped and yes it's driven a lot and its a factory 204, but I am not having that the map is anything to do with this, because that was done 3 years and 80,000 miles ago with zero issues, but it's just information for any other T6s that may suffer from this as a reference.
