Volkswagen Passat (2005 - ) - 07 2.0 170 oil pump balancing shaft

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
View Threaded
Fri 20 Nov 2009 17:04
07 2.0 170 oil pump balancing shaft - Confused Dave
In need of some help here....

I'm being told that my oil pump balancing shaft went yesterday and the VW garage are telling me that the engine needs stripped and replaced at £ 4k, as presumably it ceased up! The car was fine when the engine was running idle, but as soon as it moved the digital read out said stop. Helpfully the RAC got me to drive it about a bit and look to have knackered it in doing so!

I've heard through some friends that the Passat has had some issues with faults on the oil pump balancing shafts recently and was wondering if any one has had experiance of this??

Any assistance massively appreciated

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 20/11/2009 at 18:42

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 20 Nov 2009 17:14
57' plate VW 170 Passat oil pump balancing shaft - Pat L
Hi Dave, sorry to hear of your problem.

Isn't the car still under warranty? Or have exceeded 60k miles?

I have a Passat 2.0TDi 140 reg Sept 06, and I've had to have 2 new engines under warranty. The first failed due to oil pump failure at about 8 months/9k miles. I got the impression at the time that this was not an unusual problem with the 2litre diesel engine.

Otherwise I've been happy with the car and engine.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 20 Nov 2009 17:24
57' plate VW 170 Passat oil pump balancing shaft - dieselfitter
Generous of you to be happy with a 3 year-old car that's on it's third engine!!

Good job not everything in life is as reliable as a Volkswagen!!
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 20 Nov 2009 18:05
57' plate VW 170 Passat oil pump balancing shaft - rtj70
Good job not everything in life is as reliable as a Volkswagen!!


At least they took responsibility and replaced under warranty.

I wonder if Confused Dave, the OP, is still covered by warranty.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 20 Nov 2009 18:28
57' plate VW 170 Passat oil pump balancing shaft - 659FBE
Out of interest, how many miles did it make before the oil pump drive let go?

I've posted a few points in "Technical Matters".

659.

{Now merged with this one}

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 20/11/2009 at 19:07

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 20 Nov 2009 18:33
57' plate VW 170 Passat oil pump balancing shaft - DP
I wonder if Confused Dave the OP is still covered by warranty.


If it's under 60,000 miles and hasn't missed a service, it should be. I think with things like this, how the manufacturer looks after the customer is equally as important as the fault itself.

That said, of course fundamental mechanical failures like this should have been consigned to the history books a log time ago. Assuming correct service intervals and suitable fluids and filters of course.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 20 Nov 2009 21:48
57' plate VW 170 Passat oil pump balancing shaft - dieselfitter
If the warranty hasn't been invalidated, they don't have much choice Rob, so not exactly an act of generosity?
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 20 Nov 2009 18:17
07 2.0 VW 170 Passat oil pump balancing shaft - 659FBE
Google will reveal that this is a common problem.

There are lots of PD engine variants - some balancer and some not. As far as I can ascertain, the engines most at risk are the early 2.0 units with a chain drive to the balancer unit. Knowing there was a problem, VAG supplied a retrofit gear drive kit for some engines (BHW and probably others).

Later engines had the gear drive as standard. Unfortunately, it doesn't stop there. The oil pump is driven from the "slave" balance shaft via a hex coupling, which frets and wears away. No oil pump drive = engine coronary.

The earlier 1.9 engine used a chain drive to the pump and had no balance shafts. These are reliable - a smooth drive via a chain with no torsionals will last. Unfortunately, VAG seem to have forgotten that when you drive a couple of weighted shafts at 2x engine speed, you introduce considerable torsional oscillation in the drive. This destroys the chain and its guides/tensioner very quickly. The gear drive holds out for longer, but the hex coupling for the pump is subject to the same torsionals at the other end - and lets go.

Without very close investigation as to what's fitted, I couldn't recommend the purchase of any 2.0PD engine. I chose the 1.9 AWX deliberately - it's rougher but keeps going.

Perhaps VAG left the last PD engine mods to the apprentice whilst the real engine designers worked on the CR engines...

There was no PD 170 in '97. Is it '07?

659.

Edited by rtj70 on 20/11/2009 at 18:22

Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 20 Nov 2009 18:23
07 2.0 VW 170 Passat oil pump balancing shaft - rtj70
They've posted a related question in discussion and that says 2007. So edited the subject title.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link
Fri 20 Nov 2009 20:58
07 2.0 VW 170 Passat oil pump balancing shaft - daveyjp
Browsing through an Audi Driver magazine I remember seeing this as a weakness in the 2.0PD engine due to a very poor design. It tends to give up the ghost around 70,000 miles and you have no warning it's going.
Reply | Report as offensive | Link