VW Australia extends recall to 70,000 diesel vehicles

VOLKSWAGEN Group Australia (VGA) has announced a voluntary recall of a further 61,000 diesel vehicles for a software update to amend its emissions cheating device.

In addition to the 9000 Amarok pick-ups recalled in February, VGA’s recall of diesel vehicles – which includes the Volkswagen, Volkswagen Commercial and Skoda brands – has reached 70,000 in Australia, while Audi Australia announced its own recall affecting around 16,000 vehicles in October.

The 1.6- and 2.0-litre Volkswagen Group vehicles equipped with the EA189 diesel engines built from 2008 onwards are part of the latest recall and the list includes the Volkswagen Golf, Polo, Passat, Jetta, Tiguan and Caddy, and Skoda Octavia, Yeti and Superb.

While the software fix is free and will take about half an hour to implement by a Volkswagen dealer technician, the German brand will only be able to service around 35,000 vehicles in the first wave with the remaining affected vehicles likely being revised early next year.

According to Volkswagen Australia, “the update implements changes to the software which manages the vehicle’s engine and, in some vehicles, involves a minor hardware update”.

The hardware changes only affects 1.6-litre engines and involves a new filter in the air intake to help the ECU process more accurate air/fuel ratios.

Updates to the software will not affect engine performance or fuel economy.

“Major progress has been made in this process,” Volkswagen Group Australia managing director Michael Bartsch said. “Our confidence in this solution is based on the experience of thousands of Amarok owners in Australia and more than 1.7 million customers internationally who have had the update implemented.

“The type approval authorities in Europe conducted a review and certified that following the update, the fuel figures and Co2 emissions originally listed by the manufacturer were confirmed.

“Engine performance, maximum torque and noise emissions were unaffected.”

Volkswagen confirmed in September last year that it had installed a cheat device on diesel models, with about 3.7 million vehicles impacted globally.