New to NMS

Hey all, new over in this section of the forums, was hoping to get some general info. I myself am going to be sticking with my MKIV wagon, but my wife is heavily interested in the NMS passat.

Since I'll be primarily be taking care of it, was wanting to know what are the common failures with these common rail engines? I know there were some issues with the cp3 pump, and some turbo issues, how often do they occur? Any other big items?

Ohhh NMS Passat for year 2015 are far better than earlier Passats. I have a 2015 Passat TDI myself which is 3rd gen diesel and I have MK6 2014 JSW TDI which is first gen diesel.

Lets see what others chime in.

I had ad blue heater failure once thats very common in Passats. It happened a week after I purchased her and that was in June 2018 with 20k miles and she still runs beautiful today with 43k now.


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I'm primarily trying to stick with mid-2015 and older, being as I don't want to buy another VCDS cable. Current one the lady is looking at is a 2014 with 78k on the clock. Looks new that's for sure. But then again, so does my car

I have not had any issues with my 2014 Passat outside of warranty. I know nothing about 2015's and why they would be a better car then what I have and had no major issues with.

From what I remember, my friend had first year Passat TDI brand new, it was little slow and not a lot of fun to drive, traded it in and found out the turbo and ecu from factory was not correct. Turbo was too small. Newer Passat got better turbo version and ECU’s, he traded in his first passat for 2015 and he said whoa its far better. More power and smoother acceleration.

Dealership told him about the first passat’s issues. Then he told me.


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calimustang said:

Dealership told him about the first passat’s issues. Then he told me.

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No facts here. This is the same old somebody told somebody and he told me so it must be true. Really?

Also I remember now, 2012-14 Passats have 2nd gen diesel engine. 2015 is 3rd gen diesel.


MichaelB, you are blocked. I am not going to waste my time reading your unnecessary and rude comments.


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calimustang said:

Also I remember now, 2012-14 Passats have 2nd gen diesel engine. 2015 is 3rd gen diesel.


MichaelB, you are blocked. I am not going to waste my time reading your unnecessary and rude comments. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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OK just believe somebody and feel you know it all because somebody told you. That makes you an expert. You may block me but others won't, well somebody told me they won't so I believe it because somebody told me!.
"Dealership told him about the first Passat's issues. Then he told me."

Hey not trying to start a debate of he said she said, just trying to familiarize myself with these cars.

Nero Morg said:

Hey not trying to start a debate of he said she said, just trying to familiarize myself with these cars.

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Well, I told you about the one I own.........so nobody told me anything. I just related my experience with my car. Anthing you can think of to ask I will tell you based on my ownership of a 2014 Passat SE

Well we're about to head out and look at a 2014 SEL. Might be coming home with us if the wife swoons enough over it.

Just out of curiosity, how's your regen cycles look? Often? Seldom? My little lady's only driving 5 miles to work, then on the weekends visiting her folks 25 miles away.

Nero Morg said:

Well we're about to head out and look at a 2014 SEL. Might be coming home with us if the wife swoons enough over it.

Just out of curiosity, how's your regen cycles look? Often? Seldom? My little lady's only driving 5 miles to work, then on the weekends visiting her folks 25 miles away.

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Awesome! Good luck! TDI don’t like to be driven little. They do better when driven a lot. Weekend drives sounds better.

I tend to drive at least 150-300 miles per day.

I cant say much on regens because my girlfriend drives my 2015 Passat everyday since I gave the car to her on Aug 2018 as I bought 2014 JSW TDI.

She did once ask why are the fans on? I explained about regens. She even thought the car was still running LOL it was hilarious to see her face.


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Nero Morg said:

Well we're about to head out and look at a 2014 SEL. Might be coming home with us if the wife swoons enough over it.

Just out of curiosity, how's your regen cycles look? Often? Seldom? My little lady's only driving 5 miles to work, then on the weekends visiting her folks 25 miles away.

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Try to drive it a little more than that both daily and on weekends. I think you will be very happy with said car. Regens for me is about once in a tank full of fuel every 300 miles or so and I take many short trips too. And if your wife likes it.........well all will be well in your household.

Well... Car came home with us. Now I get to learn the service intervals. Guess the DSG is due for a fluid change. These things have timing belts? Or timing chains? Balance shaft issues? Blah. So much more to learn.

Nero Morg said:

Well... Car came home with us. Now I get to learn the service intervals. Guess the DSG is due for a fluid change. These things have timing belts? Or timing chains? Balance shaft issues? Blah. So much more to learn.

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Just follow the service manual and everything will be just fine. Don't think there is a better oil than 504/507 spec. Don't feel you have to Mod this car just take care of it and it will most likely take care of your needs. Timing belt after 8 years or so it's spec at 130k. Sleep well knowing that you just bought a good car. Skip the old school ALH crowd and how the newer cars are junk.

Lol. It's interesting, the guy who sold us the car said it was a timing chain. I didn't believe him because my tuner said they were belt as well.

Don't get me wrong, I love my ALH a lot. This new passat is definitely neat. But it'll be my wife's primary car. I want to make sure it's reliable and well taken care of.

The Passat didnt have nearly as many failures of the HPFP as the Golf/Jetta did. And all of the ones that I know of (only 3 that I personally know of) they were all confirmed failures due to gasoline contamination.

So I do not believe the HPFP is an issue on the Passat.

The Turbo failures were more prevalent on the 2012 and very early 2013's. The later 2013 - 2015's werent nearly as problematic.

The 2012 - 2014 has an adblue heater that is separately replaceable and is kind of a known failure point. We hope that is solved with the newest revision of the pump, but time will tell.

the 2015 Passat adblue heater is built into the tank and is not separately replaceable. They havent been as failure prone, but again, time will tell.

Either way, the adblue system is covered under the Dieselgate emissions warranty.

And since you brought up the Dieselgate emissions warranty just now, the 2015 has a better warranty. 11 years or 162k miles for everything fuel, adblue, engine, or turbo related. The 2012 - 2014 is covered for 10 years or 120k miles.

Lastly, the 2015 Passat gets the 150hp CVCA engine while the 2012 - 2014 Passat gets the 136hp CKRA engine.

But all this is moot since you brought the 2014 home. LOL.

Its still a good car, but it will get sh*t mileage with those 5 mile drives every day. When I was making that commute, I was getting about 28mpg average on the tank.

See that there, that's the info I was looking for, I really appreciate your input. Only reason we went with the '14 is because the price was just right. Now I can rest easier knowing I don't have to worry about the turbo and pump as much.

Now to teach my wife not to idle the car a bunch... And make sure our lovely Oregon gas attendents use the green nozzle.

Actually, if I am not mistaken, you can pump your own diesel.

It doesn’t have the same law attached to it thanks to truck drivers.

Of course, you may get some push back, but just tell them “Piss off, it’s a diesel. I can pump my own.”

Yeah we can definitely pump our own. But I don't think the missus will. So I moved the green round tag they put over your fill ports that says DIESEL ONLY from my car to hers.

Congrats on the new ride! LOVE my ‘14 sel premium

Timing belt on my ‘14 passat

06bluebeetletdi said:

Timing belt on my ‘14 passat

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How difficult of a job would you say it is? Hardest part for an ALH is getting the engine mount out, otherwise easily a day project. Similar difficulty/time?

If you have diesel geek timing belt tools kit, it will put your mind to ease. I have that set for my old 2011 JSW, my friend who did the CP3 and TB at same time, he said the tools I gave to him as shown on the link below made his job effortlessly easy.

https://www.dieselgeek.com/products/metalnerd-vw-common-rail-timing-belt-tool-kit


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Doing my TB on my old 13 took me 6 hours. I imagine the next time (if I hadn't sold it back to VW) would've taken half of that. I used the Metalnerd tools.

Here's a tip I wish I had before doing my TB: make sure the car is in neutral before starting any work. I forgot, had the fuel lines disconnected, turned the ignition on to shift, and diesel squirted everywhere. I ended up pulling the shifter boot and using the manual release to put the car in neutral.

Timing belt definitely doesn't sound too hard, I'll have to invest in the metalnerd tools when it gets closer to that mileage.

What about fuel addative? I run either power service or liqui moly diesel purge in my ALH, can the same be said for the common rail engines?

Yes, power service is a good choice. And a good idea with the common rail fuel injection system (in my non-professional untrained opinion)

The water pump was leaking at 53,000 miles, coating the timing and serpentine belts in coolant, vw covered everything under the power train warranty.

Coolant clogging has been an issue on 12-14 NMS, I'm skeptical about the same issues on '15.

On a recent 1600 mile highway run the wife allowed me to geek out and I used Torque to view the PIDs of our '15 SEL. Charged intake temps were constantly 200F and peaked around 280F climbing long hills in western VA. That's gotta be murder on the coolant for the W2A IC, yet there is no designated change interval.