Greeting from Cape Town : Audi SQ5 fellow traveler

[jallen20]

Hi All,

By way of introduction, Im new to this Forum, and quite some distance away from the general hub based as you are in Australia.
G’day
Im living in Cape Town. and bought 2016 Audi SQ5 with 64K (km) Last Dec.
I’ve hardly had any use from it, as from early on the dreaded DPF and Engine check light appeared, start of all my woes and what brought me here.
Some great post by Lucas_R and Daniel_M, who seem to have been down a similar journey.

This is my 6^th Audi/VW car in succession, having had prior 2 x RS4 (B5) 2 x Golf R32’s Mk 1 & 2 & 1 S1 and now the SQ5. 1^st venture into Diesel. I shan’t make the mistake again

Looking forward to picking the brains of the very competent gurus who reside on this site.
Cheers

[ML24WA]

Welcome. I'm looking into getting into an sq5 now. Interesting experience but sounds like the most common experience. I think I'll look at the newer petrol turbo v6 variant...

Cheers

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[jallen20]

Thanks. The SQ5 is a lovely bus, but the issues associated with the DPF /ERG puts a dampener on it. It was a toss up between the SQ5 and The RSQ3, if I had the choice again I would have gone with the petrol, Hindsight's a wonderful thing!
Agree the later petrol variant would be a good choice.

Cheers

[Lucas_R]

Welcome. I'm looking into getting into an sq5 now. Interesting experience but sounds like the most common experience. I think I'll look at the newer petrol turbo v6 variant...

Do some research on the newer V6 petrol engines. They are not without their faults too. The rocker arms in the earlier ones are failing and they cost a bomb to replace all 24 of them plus the labour, gaskets etc that goes with it. The new design rocker arms are bigger/more durable.

The diesel SQ5 engines are very reliable overall. But like every modern diesel, they require regular longer drives when the engine can get hot and allow the DPF to regen when its required. Of course, using the Carista device, you can cheat a little bit in this respect.

Thanks. The SQ5 is a lovely bus, but the issues associated with the DPF /ERG puts a dampener on it. It was a toss up between the SQ5 and The RSQ3, if I had the choice again I would have gone with the petrol, Hindsight's a wonderful thing!
Agree the later petrol variant would be a good choice.

Cheers

Hi and welcome. Glad some of my posts on the SQ5 have helped. The EGR is something every modern diesel will have issues with, nothing much you can do unless you regularly clean it out or have it blanked off and and ECU tune to code it out.

As for the DPF, yes ill admit it is annoying, but using the Carista OBD2 dongle and smartphone app has been a huge help. You can check how full the DPF is and then you can trigger a regen at a time that suits you. We don't do much freeway driving, and the 25-30min drive my wife does to work is not long enough to warm the car up and let a full regen take place even though most of it is 80-100kph zone, so when the DPF is getting full which is every 500km or so, ill take the car onto a nearby motorway for 20 mins to let the regen take place.

Im sure there is somewhere closer to Cape Town who could do this, but Dark Artz Performance in Johannesburg could block the EGR, remove the DPF and tune the car to code these features out of the ECU so you don't need to worry about it again.

[ML24WA]

Do some research on the newer V6 petrol engines. They are not without their faults too. The rocker arms in the earlier ones are failing and they cost a bomb to replace all 24 of them plus the labour, gaskets etc that goes with it. The new design rocker arms are bigger/more durable.

The diesel SQ5 engines are very reliable overall. But like every modern diesel, they require regular longer drives when the engine can get hot and allow the DPF to regen when its required. Of course, using the Carista device, you can cheat a little bit in this respect.



Hi and welcome. Glad some of my posts on the SQ5 have helped. The EGR is something every modern diesel will have issues with, nothing much you can do unless you regularly clean it out or have it blanked off and and ECU tune to code it out.

As for the DPF, yes ill admit it is annoying, but using the Carista OBD2 dongle and smartphone app has been a huge help. You can heck how full the DPF is and then you can trigger a regen at a time that suits you. We dont do much freeway driving, and the 25-30min drive my wife does to work is not long enough to warm the car up and let a full regen take place even though most of it is 80-100kph zone, so when the DPF is getting full which is every 500km or so, ill take the car onto a nearby motorway for 20 mins to let the regen take place.

I currently have a 3.0TDI with the EGR blocked off (EGR failed) and the engine tuned to take car of the missing EGR. I haven't opened anything to look myself, but I'd assume everything is fine in there. I still also have the DPF, again I assume it's fine.

Sounds like doing the same things with the bitdi engine gives relatively trouble free motoring? I'll have to look through your thread to see what else can be done.

Do you know which year had AdBlue and which doesn't? I only mentioned the petrol v6 because it's newer and there is a bit more fancy tech. My wife's 2020 Q3 makes my 2012 Q5 feel ancient, not sure getting the facelift version will alleviate that?

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[Lucas_R]

I currently have a 3.0TDI with the EGR blocked off (EGR failed) and the engine tuned to take car of the missing EGR. I haven't opened anything to look myself, but I'd assume everything is fine in there. I still also have the DPF, again I assume it's fine.

Sounds like doing the same things with the bitdi engine gives relatively trouble free motoring? I'll have to look through your thread to see what else can be done.

Do you know which year had AdBlue and which doesn't? I only mentioned the petrol v6 because it's newer and there is a bit more fancy tech. My wife's 2020 Q3 makes my 2012 Q5 feel ancient, not sure getting the facelift version will alleviate that?

The AdBlue on the SQ5 was introduced sometime throughout 2015 - but I don't know the exact month/week. My SQ5 was built May 2015 and does not have AdBlue. I did not know about AdBlue when I got my car, but seeing they are quite problematic (failing pumps and blocked AdBlue injectors) I would recommend finding one without it. It's just something else to go wrong and cost you lots of money. Easiest way to know if its got AdBlue is to pop the fuel flap and you will see the separate filler nozzle for the AdBlue.

And yes im on an SQ5 owners group on Facebook and they have very few problems overall. In saying that, the 3.0TDI in your car is a similar engine and in general they are very reliable also from what I know.

[jallen20]

Hi Lucas, and thanks for the welcome.
I appreciate (now) that the ERG is part of the diesel deal and something to live with. But have only reached this conclusion after much outlay with local dealers with few results.

I’ve had a new DPF fitted only for the DPF light to return within 50km, after several fruitless diagnostics, I decided to go nuclear and remove all the offending parts.
I ordered the full Darkside kit, (a) DPF delete Pipe (b)Cat down pipe (c) EGR Blanking. I have to say the Darkside kit is beautifully engineered.
I then booked in with a local tuning house, the car was running beautifully after the switch and remap, except for high exhaust fumes <Black smoke> we agreed that this was not acceptable so reversed all the delete kit and returned to the OEM settings incl Audi Map. The problem is the DPF is capturing all the black smoke prompting dash lights in short time. I suspect there is another root cause that resulting in the smokeing, basically over-fuelling.
We then agreed to clean the Swirl flap valve and front tube to Inlet. Feeling confident after the clean we reverted to remove the DPF again, only to find the full smoke, and sensor fault codes.
I should mention the Adblue had been disabled both Physically and electronically. So not the same cause as Daniel M identified, sadly.

I am now in the process of stripping down the Inlet manifold and EGR Cooler +replacing the EGR valve, as well as the G550 Pressure diff sensor, having already replaced the MAF sensor and air filter.
Im hopeful that the thorough clean will take the system back to a more manageable state where the regen will keep further deterioration in check.

[Lucas_R]

Wow it sounds like you have had a bit of a hard time so far. No wonder you are a bit frustrated.

Yes the sooty smoke will be obvious once the DPF is removed, as that is what the DPF is designed to capture. So removing the DPF will always result in black smoke - although it can be minimised with good tuning.

If you have any kind of air leak then the engine will be overfuelling, and this will cause the DPF to fill up more quickly than normal. For reference, our DPF does a regen every 500-550km on average. If you do a lot of freeway driving then it will be more like 700km as the DPF fills up more slowly with steady throttle and steady load like freeway driving. And if you do a lot of short drives, start/stop traffic and full throttle etc then it will be more like 300-400km before its full.

I would have the engine smoke tested to ensure you have no air leaks on any of the intercooler pipes etc.

[jallen20]

Lucas, you're a mine of information, and your post is the most informative i have had to date. Many thanks.
Of course Im aware the DPF is to capture the smoke, but I assumed given all the aftermarket options to delete and close EGR that it would be a serviceable solution. and therefore not smoke everyone out unfortunate enough to be behind me.

Any how I've decided to return the DPF once my tear down is back together. Last weekend I managed (with great difficulty) to remove the Manifold. Its been through my ultrasonic cleaner and come back as new, as have all the pipes etc. so at least I know there is no residue soot in the system.
My final task is to remove the EGR motor valve (v33) and check for contamination and ensure the valve is still working.
As you say I will need to make sure to give the car some regular workout.
I believe the root cause is the original owner used the car mainly for local travel which has stored up the problem and been exacerbated by me as I have hardly put any KMs on it since I bought it a year ago, mainly just moving in and out of the garage for access,which early on resulted in unpleasant fuel odors. I should have realized that I don't do enough mileage to justify a Diesel and stuck to petrol, but as is usual, My heart won over my head, (Love the SQ5) So next Ill venture out on a long run through the Karoo to blast out the gremlins.

I think your advice on the smoke test is on the money. ill check that out and get back.
Cheers

[jallen20]

Just as a follow up in the event that someone else is unlucky enough to experience the same issue.
I have just this week replaced all the Injectors with Bosch replacements. Problem solved immediately, Car started and no smoke evident. after endless cleaning/sensor/egr etc. No injector fault codes, just heavy smoke and DPF light within 30-40km of each regen.
Hope this saves someone else from going down the same route.

[Lucas_R]

Glad to hear that you got it sorted out. I know injector seals become an issue on these engines but that is usually around the 100-120,000km mark, so with your car having significantly less km's that this, I didn't expect this would be the issue. Faulty injectors themselves are much less common but obviously does happen still - and the injectors are expensive (around $700 AUD each). Did you replace all of them or just the faulty one?

So with any injector or injector seal issue, the engine will be overfuelling to try and compensate, and obviously it was overfuelling quite a bit in your instance as it was causing your DPF to get full after only 40km or so. Your fuel economy must have been really bad due to the overfuelling.

Anyway, glad it is fixed as I am sure you are also.

[jallen20]

Injector seals & copper washers were intact, I decided to replace all 6 which paid off. The original injectors show no obvious sign of failure, apart from extremely sooty tips. I shall have them analyzed and then cleaned to try to determine if any or all are defect or out of spec.

Strangely I had no negative symptoms other than the over fueling/smoke. the mileage wasn't noticeably affected and performance was normal, hence why i had no suspicion that the injectors were the culprit. You live and learn...Thanks for your Interest.