Who Here Has Written To VW About The BS Issue?

Just as the title sais.

I sent an email to VW regarding this upcoming issue two days ago, even though they are closed for the holidays, and by upcoming I meant as more and more of these cars will be heading into the 6 digit figures. I have no problem with my car yet BTW, but seemingly that I probably will at some point, I asked VW to hear some feedback on this up and coming $$$$ non scheduled maintenance repair, that will eventually affect ALL the 2004-2005 Passat TDI's. Something that they quietly new about, as seeing that the new BS parts have been revised with the gear instead of the chain, and also the redesign of the 2009 TDI's.

I believe that it's in every single forum members best interests, to take 10 minutes of their time, and send VW an email about this. As a "collective"(something that is truly lacking in North American society these days), to let them know, that as a customer we are here, perceptive and awake. Regardless of the fact if they don't do anything about it, this is NOT for one to decide. At least one will have done his/her part, and be done with it. To dwell, talk, and even try to convince someone that taking 10 minutes to send an email to VW about this issue is a waste of time, is obviously very very fruitless.

Perhaps many of you have already done this, but I get the impression that only a one digit %, of all the B5.5 members here have done so.

Please post the e-mail address and I will do my part. If a forum member out there has a particular skill at letter writing, I'd prefer to send a well worded and thought out letter and insert my particulars.

Not trying to get others to do my work, but trying to make a bigger impact acknowledging my poor skills in this regard. If you have a well worded letter ready to go, please post it along with the e-mail addresses and we can start the flood...

Yes, I would like some help with an effective letter and I would like to include the loss of power that comes from the failure:

causing the dramatic loss in power.....thus the complaint filed with the NHTSA...here is the case #...

and the 09 oem cars don't use a chain... gear parts and balance shaft module...retro fit...

what else.

I pulled the company adress off thier web site and wrote the CEO

The thing did not edit.

Attn: Mr Jacoby 2200 Ferdinand Porsche Dr.
Herndon, VA 20171

Use words such as:

Failure of engine components can lead to catastrophic engine failure with loss of oil pressure, broken oil pan, broken front engine seal flange, and damaged crankshaft. This can result in damage to the extent that the engine must be replaced. If this occurs while the vehicle is in traffic, it can lead to a collision with injuries or deaths.

Can someone tell me what the BS Issue is???

I believe if you don't have a Passat 2.0 TDI, like your profile indicates, navyboy, you need not worry. Feel free to search this subforum for details.
For those who do, I suggested a petition a while back. Is this more effective than individual emails?

I'm writing up a letter right now. I think the emails, ongoing tabulation of failures by members of this forum and a petition will keep this issue more at the forefront of VW's attention.

abctdi said:

I believe if you don't have a Passat 2.0 TDI, like your profile indicates, navyboy, you need not worry. Feel free to search this subforum for details.
For those who do, I suggested a petition a while back. Is this more effective than individual emails?

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True I don't own a Passat, just like to know whats going on. I did look it up and another club member sent me a nice pm explaning it all to me. I wish you all good luck with your balance shaft issue. There is a similar problem in 97-07 Kawasaki KLR650's, bad balance shaft tensioner and I tried contacting Kawasaki and I think the NTSB, nothing came about it but I think it's because not enough owners made a big stink about it. And our fix was about $100-120 including parts and tools if you did it yourself, not the thousands your fix sound like it would cost.

Sorry for rambeling on, but hound VW and everyone file a complaint/safety issue with the right government office and tell vw your going to or did!!! Maybe that'll make them take it more seriously?

Again, include your representavives in this. I use only one, but multiple fine as well, as long as you include all of them in on it so they know what the other is doing.

In our case we have a single effective Seantors (one convicted one not yet sworn in) so I wrote just here.

Representative wise, I have no faith in the single one Alaska is allotted (we need more people to get more) so the whole State is his district. Most places have more than one and you would write the one in your district.

In our case, ours mad the statement is that he only represents the people that voted for him. That makes him a pure jerk in my opinion and I will not bother.

Smokerr said:

In our case, ours mad the statement is that he only represents the people that voted for him. That makes him a pure jerk in my opinion and I will not bother.

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So, how does he know who voted for him?

I have called VW customer care on various occasions, on behalf of myself as well as some customers.

I have also written VOA.

I think we need someone who can start a formal petition and get everyone to sign it. I do not know how to go about that, however. I just know how to fix the cars...the people stuff is out of my league .

I too am guilty of 'people stuff' issues, but am trying to fix that before I expire. I often come off the wrong way even though I don't mean it that way (navyboy).
I wonder where we can find examples of successful petitions and drives and use that as our basis?
I just got the new issue of DasAuto, which showcases Stefan Jacoby, the prez and CEO of VOA, the target of our petition.

This site appears to make it very easy to start and get signatures on a petition:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/

Does anyone know what the affected number of cars in the U.S. is? What about the number of affected owners on this forum?

Before we go through the effort of starting a petition, if there are only a few thousand cars and we only collect a couple of hundred signatures, I don't think that's going to have much of an impact. If it's an order of magnitude above that, well that's a different story.

Should we start a petition, I'd want to make sure a link to the petition is not only posted here but on other relevant forums. Also, sending it out to the automotive press wouldn't hurt either.

We should also let VW know exactly who in the automotive press we're sending the link to. That might put some pressure on them immediately without waiting for all the signatures to be collected.

I think we should also remind them that as much as we all seem to like our TDI's, loyalty isn't a one way street and pretty soon, VW is not going to be the only diesel game in town.

Good points on collecting data about total BHWs, which will all eventually fall victim to this poor design, 100%. The current number based on threads here is 5-10%.
The only org with all the BHW owners on a list is VW?
As for a draft, a few here have already written something down. If those were made available, we could pick and choose points as well a provide other input. There should be only one master editor though.

They'll all fail eventually, just a matter of when.

Just shy of 20k BHW Passats were imported total, IIRC. Most were 2005s, as 2004 was not a full model year availability with the diesel engine here.

If we get 5 to 10% of those total imported represented in a formal letter, that would seem pretty substantial to me and make it clear there IS a problem. But not only that, the info that we have now about the fix almost PROVES that somebody knows there is a problem.

Great idea on creating a letter to send to VW. I think that we should also send a copy of this letter several of the automotive shows on Speed TV or something. We should also let VW know that we have done this.

Well, here is a start...

To whom it may concern:
I am one of the proud owners of a North American 2005 Passat sedan powered by the BHW 2.0 liter turbo diesel engine. My family has had many wonderful miles driving this car in our home town and on many extended road trips. I bought this car with the intention of keeping it for at least 200,000 miles nor being the last VW turbo diesel powered automobile.
A potential issue has come to my attention that some engine parts related to the balance shaft assembly and the engine oil pump system drive can fail as early as 45,000 miles. And if the failure of said components do fail, severe engine damage can easily occur forcing the driver, at minimum, to pay an unreasonable and very costly service bill. If a driver experiences a sudden loss of power from the engine during a typical highway pass, merging on a roadway or [insert something catastrophic here] the cost would be unfathomable pertaining to the loss of life, far surpassing the cost of a new engine and the labor to install the engine.
What has bothered myself and many other owners of 2004 and 2005 Passat Tdi models is that the balance shaft assembly and engine oil drive assembly that came in VW factory (OEM) North American Passat Tdi models are no longer used in any 2009 North American 2.0 liter turbo diesels. I have found that the engine oil drive assembly is now a newer design using gears instead of a chain to drive engine oil pump pressures. I have also found that VWAG has not manufactured a car with the chain driven engine oil pump drive for some time in non-North American Tdi powered models.
Another troublesome issue is that there has not been a service bulletin to VW automobile dealers offering a retro fit [



I have to put my daughter to sleep. Please feel free to edit and/or add to this letter if you think it is worth a shot. I'm not done. If you think this letter is stupid, please say so, my ego can handle it.

JungleDeath said:

What has bothered myself and many other owners of 2004 and 2005 Passat Tdi models is that the balance shaft assembly and engine oil drive assembly that came in VW factory (OEM) North American Passat Tdi models are no longer used in any 2009 North American 2.0 liter turbo diesels.

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To me, it would actually make more sense to point out that when the part fails, the origional replacement is no longer available, and what is available is upgraded parts with no information provided on how to install or why they've been upgraded (not to mention why the TB interval was changed to 80K miles).

I'm with oilhammer here, they wouldn't have fixed a problem they didn't know existed. Was/ Is there a plan to tell the owners of BHW's about this potential catastrophic failure in design, or are they just expecting that they (all NA BHWs) will get upgraded as they fail.

I have to agree about all of us writing a letter to VW about this problem being a good idea. I don't know if it should be identical typed letters, similar letter written by hand, or what. I don't think emails or online petitions is the answer either, but I have a sneaking suspicion that if we put our heads together, we can come up with a soulution that can generate a little attention.

I would love to see VOA do somthing about the BS issue as I am a new B5 owner myself. But I am kind of a pessimist, and what are the likely results? Best case scenario would be a recall, or safety recall and your dealer would replace the BS. That would be great right? Not! I wanted to install my own hazard relay and brake switch when that was recalled. They wouldn't even let me do that! Not likely they would hand over the upgraded BS parts.

Nash_TDI said:

I would love to see VOA do somthing about the BS issue as I am a new B5 owner myself. But I am kind of a pessimist, and what are the likely results? Best case scenario would be a recall, or safety recall and your dealer would replace the BS. That would be great right? Not! I wanted to install my own hazard relay and brake switch when that was recalled. They wouldn't even let me do that! Not likely they would hand over the upgraded BS parts.

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Except the hazard relay and brake switch are only a few bucks, so even if you elect to do those yourself (like I did) it is not much out-of-pocket expense.

I haven't received a response yet.



22 December 2008

Mr. Stefan Jacoby, President and CEO
Volkswagen of America, Inc.
2200 Ferdinand Porsche Dr
Herndon VA 20171

Re: 2004 VW Passat TDI

Dear Mr. Jacoby:

I have been a loyal Volkswagen owner for many years. My cars have included a 1970 Super Beetle, 1970 Carmengia, 1996 GTI, 1999 Passat 1.8t, 2002 Jetta and my current car, a 2004 Passat TDI. I write to you today because of a problem with the BHW engine in my Passat.

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 TDI 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.

My own Passat had the oil pump and balance shaft replaced in July 2008 at 97,000 miles. Thankfully, a good mechanic detected the problem before I had a catastrophic engine failure. A $2,000 repair is never welcome, but it was better than replacing the engine.

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. The repair is quite expensive. Parts will cost in excess of $1,400 and labor will be in excess of $1,000.

I believe it is now obvious that all the BHW engines will fail unless the gear driven oil pump modification is undertaken. It is unfair to expect owners of these vehicles to pay for the repairs. The problem originated with a flawed design. This is not a small problem, as this design flaw will lead to total engine failure. In my own instance, I have paid $2,000 to replace the chain driven oil pump and now must pay an additional $2,000 for the new solution.

I would like to know what steps Volkswagen of America is taking to inform 2004 and 2005 Passat TDI owners of this problem. Good corporate citizenship would dictate a problem of this severity should be communicated to the owners as soon as possible. These engine failures could leave motorists stranded under dire circumstances.


Mr. Stefan Jacoby, President and CEO
Volkswagen of America, Inc.
22 December 2008
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Secondly, I would also like to know if Volkswagen of America intends to proactively repair these engines. It would seem better for Volkswagen of America and its customers to acknowledge the problem and correct it rather than wait for the inevitable cry from disgruntled customers. Right now Volkswagen of America is in control of its response. If you wait, a plaintiff’s lawyer will inevitably show up and establish a class action lawsuit. I trust you will agree that resources are more efficiently spent addressing the problem than paying lawyers.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your response.

Good writing KCMike

Karmann Ghia is I think what you meant to say.

vw4life said:

Good writing KCMike

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Yes. Nice job. I will add to mine the # of Vdubs I've also owned.

I got a PM with some revisions on my starter. I would like to say, if you add to it, post back here in this thread. I would like a polished letter soon to send off.

Before I send it, I want to reference my NHTSA case # in the letter.

Thank you for starting this thread vwdude.

Karmann Ghia is I think what you meant to say

Proof that spell check won't overcome ignorance. I'm even more embarrassed considering that I owned one 30 years ago.

KCMike said:

Karmann Ghia is I think what you meant to say

Proof that spell check won't overcome ignorance. I'm even more embarrassed considering that I owned one 30 years ago.

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KCMike; most of us can't remember WHAT we owned over 30 years ago, let alone how to spell it....

Guys, if you want to take a more direct approach, and minimize time/effort spent, somebody should contact the person over at Vortex who was involved in getting class action status for the window regulator situation (and another malady?). That person and their legal team is likely to be able to provide valuable insight on how best to handle this costly VAG design flaw. No sense in re-inventing the wheel...no pun intended.

May your BS run smoothly for at least 300k miles

Shoot, this BS nonsense seems trivial in comparison to this W8 Passat I have here that is gonna need about $6k worth of repairs related to its stupid chain nonsense