Smell Of Diesel

[Hendry]

Just acquired my dads old taxi, 09 plate VW Jetta Sport 2.0 TDi CR 140bhp DPF (mk5 Golf shape) with 145,000 miles.

 

Basically the story goes that he's spent a fortune on it recently, new clutch and dual mass flywheel, 4x new tyres, wheel bearing, new heater motor, diesel pump, and it snapped its aux belt which caused the timing belt to not snap but skipped a couple of teeth, so had cylinder head work, 9 new rockers and 7 bent valves (or the other way about) new timing belt kit, water pump and aux belt kit.

 

It also a few months ago was leaking diesel from a pipe or hose or fuel line (he's not mechanically minded so can't remember) anyway the DPF light came on so I talked him through a regen, it seemed to sort it out, light went off, but came back on again a couple of months later, it wouldn't regen, he put some diesel Redex cleaner through it and it went off again, but then came back on again, he again put Redex through it, it belted a whole load of black smoke out the exhaust, seemed to run better but the light stayed on, eventually the glow plug or coil light started flashing, and the EML came on, "engine fault garage" message on dash as well as "diesel particle filter instructions" message, so went to a diesel specialist who had it weeks, £550 bill and they couldn't fix it. As it's taxi test has by then ran out and it was over 7 years old it couldn't be replated due to council rules (has to be under 5years old when first licenced as a PHC, can only be used until its 10years old, and after its 7 years old must be tested twice a year instead of once) so he had to buy a new car, we were going to chop the VW in when buying the replacement from a dealer but due to being ex taxi and what they classed as a non runner they would only give £200 trade in, my dad didn't want that after all the money he spent on it, so I found a well regarded independent VAG specialist, owner is a VW master tech who had worked in all the main VW and Audi dealers Ian Skelly, Appleyard, Arnold Clark, Ingram, Lomond Audi, Glasgow Audi. He had it a week and reckoned the DPF needed replaced (diesel specialist told us the DPF was fine, but wouldn't regen as the computer was saying it was stuck on 47g of soot in the DPF) anyway he said before fitting a new DPF he would clean the old one, so it was flushed twice with some stuff that was 44quid each, still no joy, so ECU was flashed and low and behold the car would now regen, problem solved, £350 later. He did say the DPF was quite old (apparently 100k is about when they should unofficially be changed) but until it actually goes don't replace it as its £670+vat just for the part. Car runs great now, however if you start the car, drive it and then say sit with the engine running for 5/10mins there's a strong smell of diesel fuel which wasn't there before, I checked and it's not leaking, it's getting mpg figures which are about right, I assumed maybe because the car had been sitting for so long because it was effectively unsafe to drive before being fixed, not had a decent run etc it needed an Italian tune up and a long run, waited till it was warmed up, thrashed it and then went a good 70mile motorway run at a constant speed, 50 then 70 mph to hopefully "blow the cobwebs away" and because that's what diesels are designed for, not short stop start journeys. So it doesn't smell of diesel while driving but the cabin still smells strongly of it after it sitting idling for 5/10mins. Any ideas what it could be?

[sierraman]

Tank breather blocked?

[UltraWomble]

Just acquired my dads old taxi, 09 plate VW Jetta Sport 2.0 TDi CR 140bhp DPF (mk5 Golf shape) with 145,000 miles.

 

Basically the story goes that he's spent a fortune on it recently, new clutch and dual mass flywheel, 4x new tyres, wheel bearing, new heater motor, diesel pump, and it snapped its aux belt which caused the timing belt to not snap but skipped a couple of teeth, so had cylinder head work, 9 new rockers and 7 bent valves (or the other way about) new timing belt kit, water pump and aux belt kit.

 

It also a few months ago was leaking diesel from a pipe or hose or fuel line (he's not mechanically minded so can't remember) anyway the DPF light came on so I talked him through a regen, it seemed to sort it out, light went off, but came back on again a couple of months later, it wouldn't regen, he put some diesel Redex cleaner through it and it went off again, but then came back on again, he again put Redex through it, it belted a whole load of black smoke out the exhaust, seemed to run better but the light stayed on, eventually the glow plug or coil light started flashing, and the EML came on, "engine fault garage" message on dash as well as "diesel particle filter instructions" message, so went to a diesel specialist who had it weeks, £550 bill and they couldn't fix it. As it's taxi test has by then ran out and it was over 7 years old it couldn't be replated due to council rules (has to be under 5years old when first licenced as a PHC, can only be used until its 10years old, and after its 7 years old must be tested twice a year instead of once) so he had to buy a new car, we were going to chop the VW in when buying the replacement from a dealer but due to being ex taxi and what they classed as a non runner they would only give £200 trade in, my dad didn't want that after all the money he spent on it, so I found a well regarded independent VAG specialist, owner is a VW master tech who had worked in all the main VW and Audi dealers Ian Skelly, Appleyard, Arnold Clark, Ingram, Lomond Audi, Glasgow Audi. He had it a week and reckoned the DPF needed replaced (diesel specialist told us the DPF was fine, but wouldn't regen as the computer was saying it was stuck on 47g of soot in the DPF) anyway he said before fitting a new DPF he would clean the old one, so it was flushed twice with some stuff that was 44quid each, still no joy, so ECU was flashed and low and behold the car would now regen, problem solved, £350 later. He did say the DPF was quite old (apparently 100k is about when they should unofficially be changed) but until it actually goes don't replace it as its £670+vat just for the part. Car runs great now, however if you start the car, drive it and then say sit with the engine running for 5/10mins there's a strong smell of diesel fuel which wasn't there before, I checked and it's not leaking, it's getting mpg figures which are about right, I assumed maybe because the car had been sitting for so long because it was effectively unsafe to drive before being fixed, not had a decent run etc it needed an Italian tune up and a long run, waited till it was warmed up, thrashed it and then went a good 70mile motorway run at a constant speed, 50 then 70 mph to hopefully "blow the cobwebs away" and because that's what diesels are designed for, not short stop start journeys. So it doesn't smell of diesel while driving but the cabin still smells strongly of it after it sitting idling for 5/10mins. Any ideas what it could be?

TL:DR

[Mally]

Just acquired my dads old taxi, 09 plate VW Jetta Sport 2.0 TDi CR 140bhp DPF (mk5 Golf shape) with 145,000 miles.

 

 I found a well regarded independent VAG specialist, owner is a VW master tech who had worked in all the main VW and Audi dealers Ian Skelly, Appleyard, Arnold Clark, Ingram, Lomond Audi, Glasgow Audi. He had it a week

 

That's a fair CV.

I take it he left of his own accord

[myglaren]

@Hendry - could be a bit of blowby from an injector - had it on my first C5.  Wasn't much but you could clearly smell it when idling.

New fire washers soon cured it.

[alf892]

A slow leak onto something warm maybe.......almost dries as it leaks making it hard to find? Leak off lines favourite

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Unless you're doing that constant 50 and 70 stuff in 3rd or 4th gear, I'd be surprised if it's doing much blowing out of any cobwebs. In top gear you'd need to be doing twice that for a proper Italian tune up. At 100 my modern diesel is only doing About 2,500 rpm, so the only way to guarantee no dpf blockage is to use all that mid range torque Turbodizzlers excel at and redline it between 50 and 80 a bit on every journey. Motorway slip roads are perfect for this.

[richardmorris]

Possibly just a fuel filter weap? What mileage has it done? My uncle did astronomical miles as a taxi.