Volkswagen Passat 2002 - TDi Injector replacement - Sandeep

Recently having a injector fault with my 2002 VW Passat 1.9 Tdi. Following all the advice and wiring checks the problem was the faulty injector. I have since had injector #1 replaced and the car seems to be running fine.

The car has been great up till now, it has done 180K with no real problems. The cam belt has been replaced with a full service.

I use this quite heavily doing 110 miles per day commuting to and from work. I would like to know now that 1 of the injectors replaced is it likely the other 3 are likely to follow. These are very expensive and cannot afford the extra cost.

Also what other problems am I going to have now considering the cars age and the mileage it has done.

Is it time for a change of car now?

Volkswagen Passat 2002 - TDi Injector replacement - bk.bas

Passat TDi injectors of this vintage are pretty reliable on the whole (not like the later B6 models), but at 180K you can expect them to start needing reconditioning or replacing. It is not unreasonable for the amount of work they do, but there is no hard and fast rule as to how long they last. They are not cheap, but like everything in a car of this mileage you have to expect to start replacing things. It comes down to a cost ratio. Is it worth spending money on a car worth £2k, or selling it and buying a newer low mileage one, but that can still have issues! Other commom problems are suspension linkage issues (do web search lots of info) and water ingress casuing electrical problems. Suggest joining www.vwaudiforum.co.uk where you find more info about Passats than you could ever absorb! Also find good VW independant, and for diesel injector often a diesel specialist is better than a VW garage, independant or otherwise

Volkswagen Passat 2002 - TDi Injector replacement - 659FBE

Solenoid injector failure on VAG PD engines is very rare as long as the fuel system has been properly maintained. Look very carefully at the service record to see how frequently the fuel filter has been changed and also look to see what make of filter is presently fitted. Try to assess the likelihood of substandard or contaminated fuel usage.

Under average UK conditions with "high street" fuel I would recommend changing the filter for a German made component every 30k miles. This allows a fair margin of safety as most retail fuel now sold is very clean.

If there is any evidence of poor fuel system management, the probability of further injector problems is high. If the maintenance has been good, these engines will often do in excess of 300k miles on the original injectors. Impending trouble can often be detected with VAGCOM which will show injector imbalance - these engines have software correction of injection quantity to give equal crank acceleration between firing strokes.

Diesel engines are intolerant of poor maintenance.

659.