Volkswagen's EA189 diesel engine fix gets approval, recall starts in early Jan'16

MANILA: Volkswagen’s fix for the affected diesel engines have been finally approved by the Federal Motor Transport Authority based out of Germany. The company is likely to start the recall campaign for the affected EA 189 four-cylinder TDI engines available in 1.6 and 2.0 litre variants in January, 2016. The company will also contact its customers and inform them about the recall, answering all their queries.

In the recall plan, cars assembled with the 1.6 TDI will be installed with a new mesh “flow transformer”. According to VW, the flow transformer improves the measuring accuracy of the air mass sensor whereas the engine software update will be a minor one for the 2.0 TDI. The process would take less than an hour to complete.

Volkswagen has released following timeline regarding UK recalls:

Engine	KBA Approval	Scheduled dates of Fix roll out
EA 189 2.0-litre	Jan/Feb 2016	01/03/2016
EA 189 1.2-litre	April/May 2016	01/06/2016
EA 189 1.6-litre	July/Aug/Sept 2016	01/10/2016

The updates were especially in order to ensure that the TDI engines meet emission requirements without affecting the performance or fuel economy. The automaker hasn't tested all the variants yet.

However, VW plans to reveal the “final tech solution” for the rectification of the 1.2-litre TDI by the end of this month. Just like the 2.0 TDI, the fix might be a simple software update. For the affected European owner, no financial compensation shall be offered whereas the owners in North America would receive a good package.