Engine noise, rattle, oil light. Engine (turbo diesel // passat) does not seem normal and much noisier than usual. Other fiends with tdi's have had major concerns with their cars (same circumstances).
2005 Volkswagen Passat engine complaints
Page 3 of 3: complaints 41 to 62 of 62, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Loud noise in the lower half of engine prompted evaluation by mechanic. Problem was from failure of chain driven balance module. This failure was due to faulty design that vw has admitted to by virtue of no longer manufacturing this unit and replacing it with a totally re-engineered balance shaft module that is gear driven. Complete failure of this unit while operating the vehicle could result in a collision that potentially could be fatal. Vw refuses to be responsible and admit their error in design to the public, hoping to avoid a costly recall campaign. In the meantime vw owners are having to pay $2500 to $3000 for this repair. At the same time this is a recognized problem with the same engines in europe and vw has re-engineered the parts for north america for replacement. Vw needs to be held responsible for this design failure and the affected engines in north america need to be repaired at vw's expense before someone gets killed.
Imminent failure of major engine component due to poor vw design. This involves the oil pump drive chain mechanism that should be replaced with vws new gear drive via a recall. Broken chain drives are piling up yet vw refuses to acknowledge the potential harm and damage that could occur. Visit http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=233651 for details.
I am an owner of a 2005 passat tdi gls wagon with 58,000 miles on it. I am writing to seek help in getting volkswagen of america to recognize there is an inherent problem with the engine's balance shaft assembly. I am a tdiclub.com forum member, which has participants that are career mechanics who work on tdis specifically. Through their experience they noted this problem will sooner or later affect the some 20,000 2004-2005 passat tdi's with the bhw engine code. The balance shafts in this engine are driven by a hex shaft off the chain driven oil pump. This unfortunate design subjects the chain to stresses it cannot withstand. On various volkswagen (vw) forums, especially tdiclub.com, there are a significant number of chain failures being reported. Of course, when the chain driving the oil pump fails, the engine is starved of essential lubrication. Recently, volkswagen in europe recognized the problem and designed a repair which changes the chain driven oil pump to a gear driven oil pump. This appears to be a permanent fix to the original design defect. Here in the states, you can no longer order the original chain pieces as a replacement. The repair is quite expensive. Parts will cost in excess of $1,400 and labor will be in excess of $1,500. I believe it is now obvious that all the bhw engines will fail unless the gear driven oil pump/balance shaft modification is undertaken. Our own passat has been getting a bit louder this past year which is the first sign of this imminent failure. It is unfair to expect owners of these vehicles to pay for the repairs. The problem originated with a flawed design which will lead to total engine failure. This could lead to a serious accident if the failure happens while the car is on the road. The federal safety agency cannot let this happen to american owners. Volkswagen of america has to recognize and inform the passat tdi owners of this problem, and help to rectify the situation to the satisfaction of their loyal owners.
I have recently come to the need of having to replace a critical part of the engine oil system in my 2005 passat tdi. For various reasons, not the least of which is an inferior design, the balance shaft assembly on this particular engine (2004-2005 model years) will cause oil flow to the engine to cease, disrupting safe travel of the car immediately, regardless of the speed of travel. This failure is exceptionally dangerous at highway speeds of 70+ MPH. If this failure were to occur at highway speed, the driver would notice a sudden deceleration and a need to move to the shoulder abruptly. Not only would this endanger the driver and occupants of said vehicle, but other drivers on the roadway as well. Volkswagen has yet to issue a statement, recall or warning to owners of this particular vehicle, nor is it mentioned anywhere in the owner's manual as part of a vehicle maintenance program.
Design flaw of 2004-2005 passat tdi vehicles sold in USA and canada involving the balance shaft module and its chain driven oil pump design. The chain has been reported to fail with no warning. Vw has issued new design to replace the old but has not commenced and recall as of yet.
2005 vw passat tdi had a loud noise coming from the engine like marbles in a blender. The car also shook violently. It got progressively worse over time until it was unbearable. The noise and vibrations were constant - whenever the car was running. I finally took the car into the shop and it turns out the timing chain that drives the oil pump and balance module was bad. The shop had to replace the entire oil pump and balance module due to a redesign from vw. The new design is now gear driven. The old parts are available at the shop that did the replacement. It looks like vw did upgrade the parts back in the early part of 2008 but they have not notified their customer base nor have they issued any recall. If the chain were to break there would be oil starvation to the engine because the chain drives the oil pump. This could lead to catastrophic damage and also life threatening injuries if this were to happen while the vehicle was in motion. I'm very lucky that I repaired my car when I did. Total cost for the repair was around $2400.00.
Eventual failure of chain driven oil pump and balance shafts, resulting in a sudden loss of power and destruction of the engine, leading to a potential life/safety situation in this 2005 passat tdi. This method of driving the oil pump and balance shafts is a volkswagen acknowledged engineering flaw as noted in technical product information bulletin 2016429/2. Not wishing to replace an engine that as a result of said failure, might potentially place myself and passengers in a life threatening situation, I have proactively changed out the chain-driven oil pump/balance shaft module for a gear driven assembly at a cost to myself of $3000. I believe vw needs to step up and issue a recall for this model.
I currently lease a 2005 vw passat. Warranty offered: 5 yr/ 50,000 mile. Approx. Nov 7, 2008 vehicle dashboard began to register "stop oil press low". Immediately pulled into closest gas station and purchased a synthetic oil for vw thinking this would solve the problem. On nov 17, 2008 dashboard lit up again with same message and immediately brought vehicle into vista vw, pompano bch, florida. Was instructed that issue was possibly due to faulty oil pressure dip stick cylinder and need of oil change. (cylinder replaced and oil change completed) prior oil change was completed at vista vw pompano beach. Vw mechanic placed a clear oil change maint. Sticker with incorrect mileage due at next oil change. Oil change should have occurred at 38,000 miles vs. 45,000. Vista vw stated I would need to pay for a diagnostic test to be completed (approx $166.00) as well as an hourly charge for labor (approx. $110 p/hr) not including any and all repair to be paid for upon completion. This due to warranty expired. Brought vehicle in at 792 miles over 50,000. Due to the expense that I would have incurred it was not feasible for me to go ahead and perform this diagnostic test hence causing me to leave no further choice but to decline service. I attempted to trade my passat in early and release a new vehicle and was unsuccessful in doing so. Approximately 1 month later I was at gunther vw coconut creek and informed finance mgr that I now have an engine light on. I was told to try and drive the vehicle back home and see if the light goes out. That maybe it's a faulty sensor. Upon arrival at my residence the vehicle completely shut down and engine failed. The following day I had the vehicle towed to a mechanic. My mechanic stated that the approx. Cost for repair would be anywhere between $8,000 - $10,000. I immediately began research and found there is a lawsuit from the consumers of vw passats in regard to this exact same mechanical issue & vw will not comply with this issue.
I have not had failure yet, but there are several individuals who own the same exact car I own, a 2005 vw passat tdi. There is an ongoing concern at several news groups including www.tdiclub.com and other diesel enthusiast newsgroups about the oil pump chain unit that is in the vw bhw 2.0 turbodiesel engine. Many of these cars when they get out of warranty at 60k will start to have engine noise which is indicative of the oil pump chain unit chain weakening. This condition leads to complete failure without general warning. This is a disaster waiting to happen. Vw in europe has developed a fix for this engine that involves installing a gear system instead of the chain and tensioner system for the engine balancing system. There are several episodes of people having the engines fail while on the road. I am concerned as an owner of this particular engine vw passat. There were about 12 thousand of these imported into the USA. I know of at least four individuals who have had this situation happen to them and their passat. The repairs are not cheap in the neighborhood of $3000 at a bare minimum with up to 9 thousand for a new motor, even despite owners using the proper specified motor oil.
Ltr from senator murkowski on behalf of constituent who has concerns re the safety of the 2005 vw passat tdi station wagon. *nj the consumer stated there is a design issue with the engine. The consumer stated vw used an unusual combination of a chain driven oil pump (normally gear drive) and associated with that a counter balancer to reduce vibration in the diesel engine. The oil chain is prone to failure, and the balancer shaft is not a tight enough fit. The consumer stated the repair is costly and there is no real fix for the issue.
I have not had failure yet, but there are several individuals who own the same exact car I own, a 2005 vw passat tdi. There is an ongoing concern at several news groups including www.tdiclub.com and other diesel enthusiast newsgroups about the oil pump chain unit that is in the vw bhw 2.0 turbodiesel engine. Many of these cars when they get out of warranty at 60k will start to have engine noise which is indicative of the oil pump chain unit chain weakening. This condition leads to complete failure without general warning. This is a disaster awaiting to happen. Vw in europe has developed a fix for this engine that involves installing a gear system instead of the chain and tensioner system for the engine balancing system. There are several episodes of people having the engines fail while on the road. I am concerned as an owner of this particular engine vw passat. There were about 12 thousand of these imported into the USA. I know of at least four individuals who have had this situation happen to them and their passat. The repairs are not cheap in the neighborhood of $3000 at a bare minimum with up to 9 thousand for a new motor, even despite owners using the proper specified motor oil.
The balance shafts in this engine (2005 vw b5 passat tdi) are driven by a chain off the motor which also drives the oil pump. This unfortunate design subjects the chain to stresses it cannot withstand. Ours let go at speed with my family of five on board. Fortunately no one was injured at the sudden deceleration in traffic. A fix has been mandated in the ecu but not in the us. There is no current official "fix" from vw america. The expectation is the engine will self destruct and the customer will be required to purchase an entire $5000-8000 motor with a replacement gear assembly. Volkswagen technical product information 016429.
I own a 2005 vw passat gls tdi sedan diesel and the oil pump balance shaft assembly including oil pump drive chain, tensioner, and sprocket are bad and making a horrendous noise. The vehicle has just over 60,000 miles but, is out of factory warranty. The vw dealer the vehicle was taken to has no idea of such a problem. My research has proven otherwise. It is said that if such a failure occurred at highway speeds, disaster could result. Apparently, there is a fix for this issue which entails the removal of the whole oil pump chain drive assembly and replacing it with a gear driven assembly. I feel this should be considered a factory defect and safety issue to where vw issues an immediate service bulletin followed by a mandatory recall campaign.
This reference a very specific vehicle, I.e. Namely the 2005-2005 vw passat tdi (diesel) car, both sedan and station wagon version, with the vw bhw engine. What started out as an occasional need to replace the chain that drive the oil pump, became a certainty that the chain would break. If the chain breaks, you loose oil pressure immediate, and the engine is going to seize (not to mention the chain itself flopping around in the crank area which could lodge in the drive system and do the same). In any situation where you are accelerating, that is going to be catastrophic , and certainly any higher speed on a freeway/highway being the same) vw has recognized the issue and has now issued a tsb on the problem, but has not instituted a recall. The change is to remove the chain drive system and convert the engine to a gear driven oil pump. This is extremely expensive. What this does to the counter balancer shaft is unknown (I.e. What caused what to fail has not had any indication from vw). Ww should immediately be mandated to recall all these vehicles with the tdi bhw engine and or issue a recall notice that the vehicle should be brought in before the 100k timing belt change interval listed in the manual and have that tsb changed to a recall and safety repair. Any owner hearing the signatory noise of the failure developing should have that repaired immediately, but it should be replaced not latter than the 100k point. This is based on a survey of a few at 40 to 60k, most have it developing by 100k (if not failed or close to failure at that point. All other vw diesel engine use a gear driven oil pump system.
Tl*the contact owns a 2005 volkswagen passat. While the vehicle is idling, the engine makes a chain rattling noise. The failure has not been diagnosed. The current mileage was 48,000 and failure mileage was 43,000.
August 2007 I got an oil change from the 10 minute oil change place in north arlington, nj. The first week of october my engine seized due to sludge. I always get my oil changed on a regular basis (3,000 miles) not the suggest 5,000 in my car manual. The 10 minute oil change place does not have a computer system to produce records and unfortunately I have only one receipt from the august 2007 oil change. So I went through all my old charge card receipts and debit receipts from my bank to prove that I did get my oil changed. However gensinger volkswagen in clifton, nj and volkswagen of america the corporate office said that my receipts were not "proof enough" that it was my car even though some of my receipts had the oil change place twice in one month which proves that I got an oil change & my husband got an oil change. So since october 2007 my car has been undriveable and has sat in my driveway ever since. I have continued paying for my lease and my insurance on this car even though my car is undriveable. This 2005 passat has only 25,500 miles on it and this engine should have never seized. Volkswagen passats are known for heavy sludge in their engines and yet this company does nothing about it! I now have to pay for a new engine before I turn this leased car back. Please do something about this awful company.
I have leased a 2005 vw passat. I changed my oil on a regular basis, my mechanic did not write the in mileage or out mileage when he gave me my receipt. My car broke down on the highway and vw states that I need a new motor due to sludge in the motor. The are telling me my receipts are not good enough and won't cover the motor. I have searched the web and see I'm not the only one with this problem. The palisades, ny vw are impossible to do business with. I'm not getting a new motor!
The vehicle was in for repairs at 42k miles, while under the warranty in 2004. There was an oil leak and the car was running rough. They stated they replaced a flange that was cracked, the oil pump/balance shaft sprocket, chain tensioner. When I got the car back it wasn't running right, very, very rough and loud (it's a diesel but used to be quiet). It turns out they did not balance the balance shaft with the engine, they ordered the part/tool to do this. Nearly 1k miles later, after they told me it was safe to drive, they called me to come in and have it balanced, which I did. At 65k miles, roughly 9-10 months after this initial repair, the chain snapped for the oil pump. The sprocket on the oil pump that they replaced along with the chain tensioner were destroyed. The sprocket had old and new wear, the chain tensioner ended up in pieces, and the chain should have been replaced the initial time but was not. The chain snapped. The original flange that was leaking was also leaking again. This catastrophe LED to the crankshaft needing to be replaced as well as the turbo which was immediately starved for oil and burned up too. The engine was rebuilt (bottom end), turbo replaced, new crank, and currently it still cannot be driven due to electrical or mechanical problems associated with the repair and failure. Vw of america stated the parts they replaced did not fail, and if they did they only have a 12mo/12k mile warranty on them. The warranty for the car was up at 50k miles. There are numerous complaints on the forums and message boards in regards to the balance shaft and components (chain, tensioner, shaft, hex shaft, sprocket) being faulty or failing. Many are having problems shortly after the warranty is up.
Dt*: the contact stated while driving 35 MPH uphill, there was popping noise followed by a loss of all power. After the initial engine stall, the engine was restarted, but stalled again. The vehicle was towed to a dealer for inspection. The dealer determined there was a failed connection of the inter-cooler hose and pressurized hose that connects to the turbo charger. The dealer replaced the hose fittings on the turbo charger. Updated 6/27/2006 - the consumer feels that the hose connection mechanism wasn't sufficient to support the high pressure created by the turbo.
On november 4,2005, around 7:30 pm while a I was driving my car from new jersey to new york city, a new jersey transit authority bus dangerously cut in front of my car. My wife was accompanying me. As I stopped to avoid the bus, the bus made a sudden and full stop about 15 feet in front of me. Instinctively, I put the car gear in neutral. All of the sudden my car engine started accelerating at a very high speed without touching any pedal. I pushed the brake pedal to see if the acceleration would stop. When I released the brake pedal , the car started running toward the stationary bus, despite the fact that the car gear was in the neutral position. As a result, my car moved forward and hit the back of the bus. The bus driver got out and asked if we were ok. She said she was fine and were no passengers in the bus. We were all right too. There were no policemen to make a report. The bus get a minimal damage. My car was mostly damage on the front side of the driver's side, but was drivable. About two weeks prior to the accident, I was driving the same car on the new jersey turnpike and experience the same sudden acceleration of the car engine. After a few seconds, the car continued running normally. In view of the serious events with this 2005 passat which has only around 10,000 miles, I conclude that this vehicle is prone to faulty performance and is dangerous and unpredictable on the road. I particularly blame volkswagen of america as the direct responsible party for the accident that occurred on 11-04-05, around 7:30 pm, near the lincoln tunnel , on the new jersey side, when a clear malfunction of the 2005 passat that I leased from volkswagen, provoked an accident that could have been avoided and that might have been more serious. Car reference: 2005 vw passat gls, 1,8 sedan. Serial number: [xxx], leased from three county volkswagen, 701 riverside avenue, lyndhurst, nj 07071. *nm updated 07/17/2012 *js information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6)
2005 volkswagen passat developed problems with stalling.*mr the consumer was told by the dealer, the engine was damaged.
VIN decoder
See the problems and recalls for an exact car
Buying a used 2005 Volkswagen Passat?
Check the exact car before you pay: accidents, salvage or flood titles, odometer readings and previous owners.
Check its history