Survey of Adblue issues suffered by T6 Forum Members

[Ayjay]

Along with what seems like quite a few others on here my van has had it's share of Adblue issues over the last few years (which have NOT yet been sorted by VW so it's ongoing), I was wondering whether a simple survey of members in general might be worthwhile. My thought was that it could possibly be used as ammunition against VW as and when any member ran into problems, particularly when they came up with the lie that 'they had never seen such a thing before'. I would have just started one myself but TBH, would have no idea how to do it or, indeed, whether it would have to be done by the mods rather than an 'ordinary' member. The alternative would be told be to open a new thread on the issue so that people could record their adblue experiences in one place rather than all the separate ones that seem to have have popped up over the last few years.

Any opinions?

 

[Kind of Blue]

A sort of Class Action!

Class action - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

certainly a more accurate record of who might have suffered but if people are removing Ad blue and other equipment associated with emissions or even power upgrades they would not have a leg to stand on.

 

[Dellmassive]

I've got a couple of bits to add..... I'll do it later.

 

[whodat]

No problems.

 

[Salty Spuds]

Had one problem, self inflicted, overfilled the ad-blue tank. Got the 600mile countdown of doom. Ignored it, burned some fuel & voila, a couple of hundred miles later, 6000miles. I genuinely suspect that many Ad-blue faults are operator error.

 

[nedwood]

No issues with my early euro 5 T6 Kombi, ha ha !

 

[Kind of Blue]

Had no issues but it tastes like piss! I will stick with whiskey or draught bitter!

2019 146kw 199bhp T6 Caravelle Exec 4Motion + Difflock

 

[Sasquatch]

No issues with my 2021 6.1.

Word is the 6.1 is better than the 6 in this regard, albeit still not immune. I shall keep everything crossed.

 

[Ayjay]

@Salty Spuds. I've had issues but I'm pretty sure that I've never done anything wrong with mine unless you count not waiting 30 seconds before starting the engine after a fill. That said, by the time I did start it, the MFD on that occasion was already showing 6500 miles range as, indeed, it should.
Having started this thread, I'm now away from home for a few days so I can't get at my notes which detail the various adblue problems that I've suffered but I'll publish them all on here when I'm back.

 

[jimc91]

I had 650 miles to no restart whilst in France, reset itself after a short drive, reoccurred a few miles later, I think I was down to about 550 miles to no restart, reset itself after about another 50 miles, not come back since, that was 2 years ago. I knew I had at least 4000 miles of adblue in the tank so didn’t risk refilling.

 

[manfrotto]

No issue with my 2022 T6.1.
Put in 9.5 litres at around 45000km which suggested next refill after a further 9000km. Now at 50000km and dash is saying next refill due in 5500km

 

[Ayjay]

OK, here's my log recording the my adblue issues thus far. Apologies for the length but I wanted to get in as much detail as possible. Apologies also for any inconsistencies, I had note for a lot of it but had to rely on memory for the rest. I've also got to say that none of this stuff has ever gone as far as preventing me from actually driving the van but it's definitely not been conducive to relaxed road trips which is our main reason for buying the bleeding thing in the first place.

15 June 24 @ Approximately 23149 Miles

-MFD said Ad Blue range 600 miles.
-Ad Blue tank topped up to 2 Litre less than maximum recommendation.
-MFD immediately advised 5500 miles range.

18 June 24 @ Approximately after 23650 Miles (ie. 500 Miles after adblue refill)

-Warning sound and MFD indicates refill in 650 miles with orange spanner.
-After 13 miles message MFD changed to refill in 600 miles.
-After another 13 miles MFD changed to refill in 5000 miles.

30 July 24 - MFD recommends refill in 4000 Miles.

Service by VW Van Centre at 25634 miles - also investigated above errors and advised that a software update was required to remedy.

15 October 24 @ 28918 Miles

Software update carried out by VW Van Centre. They advised that they ‘Investigated EML and Adblue lights’ and found ‘TPI Update for codes stored on ECU’ relating to fuel and Adblue injector performance. Carried out update and they advised all tested as OK.

5 May 25 @ Approximately 29384 Miles (ie. only 465 miles since above update!)

-Warning sound and MFD indicates refill in 650 miles with orange spanner.

Van next driven:

8 May 25

-After 18 miles MFD changed to refill in 600 miles.
-After 20 miles MFD changed to refill in 550 miles.
-After 19 miles MFD changed to refill in 500 miles.
-After 20 miles MFD changed to refill in 450 miles.
-After another 13 miles MFD changed top refill in 5500 miles.
-After another 10 miles MFD changed top refill in 5000 miles.
-After another 30 miles MFD changed back to refill in 5500 miles.

16 June 2025 @ Approximately 30500 Miles

-Warning sound and MFD indicates refill in 650 miles with orange spanner.
-After 20 miles message MFD changed to refill in 600 miles.
-Orange ‘Check Engine’ light appears.

Advised by VW Carcassonne (SW France) that they cannot 'cancel' adblue warnings and that the orange check engine light appeared to be related to adblue issues. The check engine light stopped after CW had identified that the associated faults related to:

-Reductant System Performance Bank 1.
-SCR Nox Catalyst Efficiency Below Threshold Bank 1.

17 June 2025

-After approximately 46 Miles MFD advised 4500 miles.
-After a further 45 miles warning sound and MFD indicates refill in 650 miles with orange spanner.
-After 10 miles adblue range back up to 4500 miles.
-After 3 miles adblue range changes to 4000 miles.

26 June 2025 @ Approximately 31300 Miles

-Orange ‘Check Engine’ light appears (again).
-After approximately 120 miles, orange light goes away.

 

[Ayjay]

Just to add to the above post, my van was serviced last week and at the same time they were also supposed to look at the adblue / engine problems but all they did was plug into the system and confirm what I had already told them and than tell me that I had to book it in yet again for them to try to do something about it. That's another 100 mile round trip and even then, I'm probably not going to be betting any money on it being sorted that time around. The chap on reception was very nice and polite but I had the distinct impression that he didn't really know what he was talking about when trying to explain it to me the way ahead - he was reading from notes which I'm guessing were from the workshop and although he wouldn't let me see them, I managed a quick snap of one sheet when he left his desk to get my keys (but it didn't mean much to me either!). On the plus side, I've only had to wait another week for the booking so will be taking it back Friday - fingers, legs and toes crossed. He did say that I might have to pay for them to do more diagnosis work (which would be refunded in the event of a warranty repair) but I reminded him that all they were doing this time around (and the last time) is attempting to do something that they had already failed to do under warranty last year. We will see how things pan out.

I'll report back as and when.....

 

[Ayjay]

Further to the above, I collected the van from VW Swindon yesterday (another 1009 mile round trip!). All they had really addressed was the amber 'check engine' light as caused by the two faults that I mentioned at Post #12 above:

-Reductant System Performance Bank 1.​

-SCR Nox Catalyst Efficiency Below Threshold Bank 1.​

As mentioned above, the light has been on and off for a while now and was actually on when I delivered it to them last week.

I was told that they carried out a series of tests and finished their work with a 'forced regain of the SCR system'. Now I'll confess to being and idiot when it comes too this stuff but my simple brain tells me that while the 'SCR regen' might sort out the two faults casing the amber light, I doubt if it would do anything to cure the problems I've been having with the random appearance and, so far anyway, disappearance of the '650 miles adblue range' message which I would have thought was primarily caused by the sensor inside the adblue tank,

Anyhow, when I collected it, there were no warning lights present and the MFD is showing a range of 3000 miles in the adblue tank along with advice to top up with a minimum of 1.25 Gallons and a maximum of 1.75 Gallons (roughly 4.7 to 6.6 Litres), I'm probably going to take a drive to filling station with an adblue pump next week and put maybe 5.5 Litres in and then pour in a bottle of Wynn Crystal Clean and Protect Snake Oil to see what happens.

 

[whodat]

Careful with the snake oil - not worried about it doing any damage, but more worried about VW voiding the warranty if anything apart from VW adblue is added.
I would play it by the book and purchase VW Adblue (keep receipts) - with the added costs etc - but at least they won't be able to wheedle out of it by saying you used 'lower quality' products which contributed to the problem.

Normally I wouldn't worry about the brand too much (actually I tell a lie - yes I would worry about it) but in this case where there are ongoing issues ....... don't give them wiggle room.

 

[SV T6 Kombi]

Hi All, we have a 2016 T6 t30 150bhp new fuel system completly in 2018 under warranty, new full egr, pipes & cooler in 2021 and we have just had the following issues at 113k. Worried as set to go to France later this month.
1, topped add blue - showing 4500 miles.
2, 1 day later filled up with Esso premium deisel.
3, Same day had P20EE error code this reset itself on next start up.
4, 1 day later after 50min run up motorway the add blue dropped from 4500 miles to 650 miles warning & it then reset to 4500 miles 10 minutes later.

 

[Ayjay]

@SV T6 Kombi. As you might gather if you've read my other posts, I'm not too convinced that I won't get a repeat of either my engine light or adblue range issues but I'm not going to let that stop us from driving down to Croatia at the end of the month. As I've said a few times on this forum, driving a T6 can sometimes be just like playing a game of chicken - so far, it's always been the first one to blink. What's changing for me though is that my All In warranty expires tomorrow. On the plus side, its does mean that that I won't have to rely on the braindead monkeys in the VW workshops any more to sort things out as and when problems do arise.

 

[SV T6 Kombi]

@Ayjay, I think I tend to agree with you we are new to the T6 world as only purchased 2 months ago & already all steering & suspension changed under warranty luckily. We're not going to let it stop us, just made sure we have good European breakdown cover.
Thanks for the response

 

[Ayjay]

AYJAY'S ADBLUE ISSUES - AN UPDATE - THE SAGA CONTINUES (see belowe and the previous two posts).

Further to the above, I collected the van from VW Swindon yesterday (another 1009 mile round trip!). All they had really addressed was the amber 'check engine' light as caused by the two faults that I mentioned at Post #12 above:

-Reductant System Performance Bank 1.​

-SCR Nox Catalyst Efficiency Below Threshold Bank 1.​

As mentioned above, the light has been on and off for a while now and was actually on when I delivered it to them last week.

I was told that they carried out a series of tests and finished their work with a 'forced regain of the SCR system'. Now I'll confess to being and idiot when it comes too this stuff but my simple brain tells me that while the 'SCR regen' might sort out the two faults casing the amber light, I doubt if it would do anything to cure the problems I've been having with the random appearance and, so far anyway, disappearance of the '650 miles adblue range' message which I would have thought was primarily caused by the sensor inside the adblue tank,

Anyhow, when I collected it, there were no warning lights present and the MFD is showing a range of 3000 miles in the adblue tank along with advice to top up with a minimum of 1.25 Gallons and a maximum of 1.75 Gallons (roughly 4.7 to 6.6 Litres), I'm probably going to take a drive to filling station with an adblue pump next week and put maybe 5.5 Litres in and then pour in a bottle of Wynn Crystal Clean and Protect Snake Oil to see what happens.

OK, so more news on the Ayjay adblue front. After the 50 mile drive from VW Swindon to home with no adblue related lights or warnings, the van sat on the drive for a few days before I went to a petrol station a couple of miles from home and put 6 litres of adblue in (the MFD recommended a max of 6.6). I waited 30 seconds or so, started the van and the MFD immediately displayed 6000 miles (which I reckon was probably about right given that it was a not quite full tank and it usually registers 6500 when full). I wanted to give the van a longer run out so on 15 August we did the almost 80 miles round trip from home to the Malvern Campervan Show and by the time we got home had not seen any further engine lights or adblue warnings - so far, so good.
The van sat unused again for until 21 August when we set out on to see some old friends who live in Weymouth (about 115 miles one way) and 86 miles in the dreaded 'Ad blue 650 miles' warning flashed up on the MFD followed by me getting told off by my wife for using a lot of very foul language, mostly to describe VW Swindon and, indeed, VW in general (I won't even hint at the worst words used!). 9 miles later the 650 warning went away and a 5500 range replaced it. For the rest of the drive to Weymouth and back home yesterday, we saw no further warnings but the range had dropped to 5000 by the time we parked on the drive - ie. the adblue range dropped by about a 1000 miles during an actual driven distance of 300.
I'm now a bit torn over what to do. The VW warranty has now expired but I have made it very clear to VW Swindon that I still consider the [now expired] All In Warranty to be liable as it's a long standing issue which they failed miserably to sort out when the warranty (and it's predecessors) was still alive. The fly in the ointment is that we're booked on Le Shuttle next weekend for a month long trip down to Croatia and back and the chance of VW sorting anything out before then are nil (if, indeed, they are even technically capable of fixing a routine and let's face it, nowadays well known issue). I'll call them on Monday (they only have desk monkeys working on Saturdays) and see what they say but I suspect we will be setting off on the trip with the spectre of more potential problems hanging over our heads.

 

[SV T6 Kombi]

Hi Ayjay, hope your journey has gone well, we set off on our France, Belgium & Netherlands run & 2 hrs in clutch concentric slave went, full new clutch fitted by Salop vans (dealer we bought off & under warranty) in 4hrs. No more ad blue issues since the Nox sensor & DPF replaced & covered around 1500miles so far.