He's never heard of the dash recall - but smoke began pouring out of the center vents on his late-'01 TDI as he drove home this evening. It got pretty heavy/acrid before he realized it was coming from inside the car. But then it stopped again before he got a chance to do anything about it. So he drove on home, parked it away from the house, and called me. He said that aside from a bad smell, everything seemed fine with the car.

Brothers are stupid: I told him he needed to get the battery disconnected pronto or risk the whole thing going up in flames, but he reasoned that (a) the damage is done to the harness already, (b) it's parked well away from anything flammable, and (c) he has insurance. And (d) he hasn't got the radio code... what a dumbass.

Or maybe not: If there's no recall mechanism in the Irish market, he might be better off with a clear total loss rather than arguing the case with the insurance company.

Stay tuned. What a pity, it's a great car.

<img src="http://www.slattery.smugmug.com/photos/64381782-L.jpg">

 

*sigh* He should disconnect the battery after a Vag-com scan to see what may have gone up. :/

 

It is a nice car -

 

spec'd cars because only the NA spec'd cars have the aluminum knee bolster/support to protect the driver's knees/legs, and the aluminum knee bolster/support is the thing that has the sharp edges which rubs and cuts into the headlight wiring harness - which can cause a short, then an electrical fire.

I believe the smoke in your brother's car maybe coming from something leaking, then burning in the engine compartment? Since it's a diesel, it's probably more likely?

Honestly, in North America, I believe Audis (and in general, European cars) seem to be less reliable than Japanese cars because European cars have to be modified quite a bit to suit the North American regulations in order to be sold here - and those modifications are more of an afterthought than part of the original design. This aluminum knee support is a perfect example. This can explain why Audi is perceived as a very reliable brand in Europe, but not in North America.

On the other hand, most Japanese cars exported are designed with North American standards in mind, since North America is the biggest market for most Japanese brands - some "Japanese" cars are even made in the US for this reason - the market is so big that it's worthwhile to setup factories in North America. There are Japanese car models available only in Japan - they're not exported to North America or elsewhere - because they either don't have a market in NA or they cannot be easily (and reliably) modified for the NA market.

 

agree, only spoiler is /

 

I guess there's an air temp sensor on the cabin air filter housing. Somehow it got knocked loose, managed to short itself out, and melted the connector plastic housing, making a great deal of acrid smoke but otherwise doing little harm. Mind you, they only found that out AFTER tearing down the entire dash in search of burnt wiring and finding none. In hindsight, he might have known it was in the ventilation system since the smoke was issuing from all the air vents. He found a replacement in the scrapyard for 30 euros, soldered it in and all's well again. Nice!