VW/Audi folks....I need your help.

[wavinwayne]

I have been trying to rid my '00 VW GTI 1.8T of a persistent CEL & DTC P0411 - Secondary Air Injection - Incorrect flow detected.

I have pretty much narrowed it down to a faulty Combi valve, or a faulty -N112- solenoid valve.

I was going to replace the -N112- valve, but I do not have a good way of replacing the vacuum hose in this picture. I'm referring to the one that the red arrow is pointing to.

It is molded with a 90° bend as shown, & it has a larger I.D. on one end. Does this hose have a VW part #? If not, how would you guys suggest I go about replacing it?

 

[ChiTDI]

Wayne
You may find your answer here. Good luck.
http://www.vwvortex.com/

 

[wavinwayne]

ChiTDI,

I've posted this over there already. I'm getting nothing from the 'texers.

To make things worse, the parts guys at my local VW dealer seem clueless. They shouldn't be, though; The same guy has been working that parts counter for as long as I can remember. But when I went in there yesterday to get a new -N112- secondary air injection solenoid, he didn't have a clue what I was talking about. Even when he had it in his hands, he didn't know what it was.

I'm not holding out much hope that the dealer will have this hose. They will probably just look at me with that "Huh?" look when I go over there today.

 

[ChiTDI]

There is an active group on Fred's (tdiclub.com) that really get into the maintenance issues with VWOA. Many of them shop for parts at Impex. You could call Impex and talk with them about who knows what and who does what.
Wish I could be of more help. Sorry.

 

[wavinwayne]

Willy_G,

Interesting idea!

I may just try that, depending on the VW parts dept. response today.

 

[moribundman]

Hmm, Audi parts, including hoses, have a part number printed on them. VW doesn't? I doubt the hose diameter is critical. You should be able to build something with a plastic elbow, a step-up hose connector and two sizes of vac tubing.

 

[wavinwayne]

UPDATE:

I called my VW parts guy & he told me the only way to get that particular hose is to order the entire set of related vacuum hoses. Total cost = $120.87 + tax. GRRRRRR!!!!!

It's always something with my VW......ALWAYS. I think I may sell it & buy something a little less time & money consuming. I'm just sick of always haveing to "fix" or "tweak" something on it. I should have done more research before I bought the thing.

For the time-being, I'll probably do what you suggested, moribundman.

 

[ikeepmychevytoo]

...yeah, vacuum is much easier than pressure. If you go with Willy's idea and if you can unbolt the assembly they may also crimp the custom-made hose for the ultimate OEM look.

 

[moribundman]

quote:

---

It's always something with my VW......ALWAYS. I think I may sell it & buy something a little less time & money consuming.

---

I hope Little Red didn't hear that.

 

[wavinwayne]

Me too.

 

[tdimaniac]

you might want to ask on passatworld.com, audiworld.com, newbeetle.org forums as well. someone there might have the ekta catalog and can get the part number for you there.

 

[Mud]

Wayne, if I remember right, that can also mean that the secondary air pump is not working for some reason, usually corrosion at the connection or even a blown fuse. I've had this on daughter's 02 A4 1.8T.

The secondary air pump is used at cold starts only and does not affect driveability. It's an emissions related component, as I mentioned, actived only on cold starts.

I have had a hard time pinpointing the root cause of the code. The fuse on her car is located under the ECN which is accessed from under hood. It's on the drivers side cowl area. Fuse was OK. Connections were OK. It also has that same hose and I will come up with an alternate before spending $$ on some rubber vaccum lines and metal tubing. As far as I could check the hose was OK though.

So ... I clear the code, and about a week later it shows up. She drives it like that since there are no real problems with driveability. Maybe later we will get to it, but for now I'm leaving it alone!

And you are right - these are very $$ happy maintenance cars. I'll take my Crown Vic ANY day!

 

[Willy_G]

Oh biy! The wrath of Wolfsburg. The infamous old VW trick of a molded hose with 2 different sized ends!

Remove the hose. Take to an industrial/hydraulic hose shop (usually on the industrial side of town near the tractor-trailer & forklift dealers, or big racetrack), tell them what chemicals and pressures it is subjected to and have them fab one up. I'll bet they could to it much cheaper than the VW parts system can supply it for!

 

[wavinwayne]

I felt guilty for saying I might sell "Little Red", so I just ordered a Bentley service manual for it. That thing is 1900 pages thick.

I've decided to stick with "Little Red" for the long haul.

 

[moribundman]

More people should complain to VW and Audi of America that their parts prices are genernally ridiculous. I have often OEM parts sent from Europe, because, despite added shipping cost, that's still cheaper than buying the parts here! In many cases it appears that VWoA and AoA mark up the prices for parts by up to 100%! Availability of spare parts also sucks. Once you've waited a month for a part, you begin questioning everyone's sanity, including your own.

 

[jsharp]

There's a lot of markup on these parts as mori said.

Don't feel too badly though, it's not just a VW thing. I needed a pressure side power steering hose for my '80 Corolla. No aftermarket company made it at the time and the only way it was available from Toyota was as a 1 piece assembly including the cooler loop below the radiator.

$175 in the late 80's

I cut the ends off of the hose and bought some metric tube fittings to fit the rigid cooler loop side and the rigid p/s pump side connections. That allowed me to adapt it to AN fittings. Had a $20 high pressure hydraulic hose made up at an implement store and I was all set for about $40...

 

[Willy_G]

I needed a coolant hose for an old Audi 5cyl. It was the "molded wye" hose. List was $123, in 1995! I went ahead & had the shop install it, however I should have gotten one from the 4cyl engine, and some overflow tubing and made a wye hose with a brass tee, for about $15 total. You live and learn.

A few years back I had to replace the turbo oil lines on my 5000 turbo. I think list for the braided hoses was $375+ at the time. I took the old hoses to a racecar/hot rod supply house (About a mile away from the Indpls. 500 race track, on Gasoline Alley…an actual platted street!) and got new hoses fab's for about $75.

What I am getting at is sometimes you gotta abandon OE, for what is practical, prudent and available.

 

[Sparkman]

How about a trip to the local junkyard?

 

[FowVay]

Wayne, if you have access to a VAG-COM then the diagnostics for this component is fairly simple. The service manual shows a 5 step procedure to isolate the problem. VAG-COM will make activating the air pump independently of other motors/solenoids possible and will show what is not working in the circuit.

BTW, the generic code of P0411 crosses over to Volkswagen code 16795. Maybe you can do a internet search for DTC 16795 and get a few hits to help point you in the right direction. Of the two gasser vehicles that I've had this problem with, both vehicles had inoperative solenoids. One was due to corrosion of the copper coil windings and one was due to a tiny in-line wire filter that was corroded and plugged. Replacement parts were in the $80 range for both vehicles (a Passat and a Rialto camper with VR6).

If you're going to keep the car or ever expect to own another VW I strongly recommend spending the $250 for a VAG-COM. They pay for themselves in very short order. I believe Uwe Ross has a Hex-Com capable product for $249 and the prices go up from there.

 

[moribundman]

I got VAG-com (no the full version), and its worth every penny. I had to buy an adapator cable, the software from rosstech (http://www.ross-tech.com/) was free. I run VAG-com on an ancient Toshiba Tecra laptop.

An alternative to the full VAG-com is ProDiag, a PalmOS-based diagnostic tool for VAG vehicles (www.shadetreesoftware.com/).