HOW CAN THIS BE?? EXHAUST DESIGN FLAW IN 2008 TOUAREG 2

10854 Views 24 Replies 10 Participants Last post by noobytoogy, Apr 18, 2013

AB328

Discussion Starter · Mar 20, 2013

Saturday night I took my wife's 2008 Touareg to work because she had just came home from errands and her vehcle was already warm. After an overnight shift I tried starting it and it would only half start and shook violently before quitting. I tried a few more times and same thing. It was cold this night here in northern Minnesota and got -13 degrees Farenheit. However, it has been outside in much colder temps and never had an issue. Long story short I had to get it towed and only to find out the exhaust was completely frozen up under the vehicle. According to my service department our era of Touareg does not have drain holes in the exhaust like the new generation Touareg and as a result it was just another one of the many problems we have had with this vehicle. The dealer ended up drilling some holes for us and even seemed in disbelief about the situation. And by the way it was not packed with snow underneath and I can assure you this vehicle is babied. This is the only vehicle I have ever had do this and I'm just annoyed at what has gone wrong on this thing considering the "premium" label. I told my wife the next issue and it is gone for an American SUV and we are done with VW.

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noobytoogy

· #9 · Mar 20, 2013

volkswagendude said:
Truth be said, I seem to recall 3 years ago, having read the same problem, something about a frozen muffler lol.

After some simple interrogation questions, he admitted he didn't drive it much.

Hmmmm, never heard from the ol'chap ever again now that I think about it.

As I started reading this thread, I remembered the same post from way back whenever!

It does sound as tho' the car has only been doing lots of short journies and, as a consequence, the exhaust system has not been warming up sufficiently to dry out the condensation that all cars generate when starting from cold with the end result that the condensate has frozen, which would increase its volume as well, and thus blocked the exhaust sufficiently to stall the engine.

I've never heard of drilling holes in exhausts before, so that bit is a new one on me and, hitherto, would have been a complete anathema!

Can anyone with a T3 get out and get under to confirm whether or not they have a weep hole in their exhaust?

As for the OPs car, then regardless of the newly acquired drains, I'd take that out on a good, long, high speed run with lots of gear changes to max the revs and clear its lungs! It's been babied far too much and needs a damned good workout!!

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noobytoogy

· #11 · Mar 20, 2013

From the sound of things, you should be okay now, but the 5 milers aren't really long enough to blow the cobwebs out. You need to drive it for longer and more often!!

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noobytoogy

· #25 · Apr 18, 2013

drlove said:
considering my wife drives approx. the same distance with her civic which cost half the price and has no problems with this matter..

It could just be that the angle of exhaust gas entry into the silencer and the angle of output from the silencer is better on the Civic which allows the exhaust to purge satisfactorily and/or that the silencer on the Civic is smaller and heats up quicker than the large suitcase on the Touareg and/or that, unknown to you, the Civic exhaust has a weep hole anyway!

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