Repair and maintain one of the most versatile vans around.

The Volkswagen Transporter occupies a unique position in the marketplace; it is both a solid and reliable workhorse for those who need to carry cargo or equipment while it continues the brand’s enormous lifestyle heritage, as the base for a new generation of VW campers, day vans and modified vehicles. The model covered here – the sixth-generation Transporter, dubbed the T6 and the subsequent facelifted version, the T6.1 – is the latest in a line of Transporters which began in the 1950s.

Introduced in 2015, the T6 is powered by two versions of essentially the same engine, a 2.0-litre turbodiesel though one is fitted with a single turbo and the other, twin turbochargers. We look at panel vans as well as the passenger-carrying variants, including the crew-cab Kombi and the Caravelle premium version and we consider how to rectify some of the Transporter’s common problems, such as leaking window seals in the rear windows and carbon build-up in many of the engine components. We also detail preventative maintenance to help prevent these problems occurring in the first place.

MODELS COVERED

• 2.0-litre Turbo diesel engine (engine codes CAAA/CAAB/CAAC/CXFA/CXGB/CXHA/DNAA/DNAB)
• 2.0-litre Bi-turbo diesel engine (engine codes CXEC/DMZA) Covers major mechanical features of Caravelle, Multivan and Shuttle configurations.

EXCLUDES

• Features specific to 4Motion all-wheel drive system and automatic ‘DSG’ gearboxes