New to me Passat B5.5

Hello everyone one. This will be my first post here. Recently my daughter who just turned 16 bought herself an 04 Passat with the BHW engine for next to nothing. Beautiful interior, exterior and a mountain of service records. This is our first TDI so I have been visiting here to learn as much as possible.

The issue this car has is burning/using coolant. The EGR cooler was replaced recently and this cured the issue for a few thousand miles. It started using coolant again and the PO sold the car to us. I bypassed the cooler, topped up the coolant and drove the car a bit. Still burning coolant.... Are there any items to look at other than head gasket? I'm not afraid to tackle it with the right manual in front of me.

What other issues should be addressed? The car has 265,000 miles and has had the timing set done less than 10k ago.

Thanks for any advice. This is a great forum and I have already learned a lot.

Lots for you to read on here regarding the BHW series motor.

Camshafts wear out and go bad.
Transmissions go out.
Balancer shaft issue.

These are the three biggies. Lots of gurus with lots of experience on this forum. Excessive coolant use could be many things -- bad head gasket, bad heater core, bad radiator or the thermostat ( temp sensor ) issue.

For the coolant loss the most common issue is the temp sensor/coolant flange at the back of the head. If the EGR cooler has been replaced I would put my money on the flange. Relatively cheap but it is a pain to replace.

Look down at the top of the transmission and see if you have pink or white residue. If so you found your source.

If you find this is your problem remove the tandem pump to get access to it and replace the gasket when reinstalling. Also replace the temp sensor and o-ring.

If you cannot find record of the thermostat being replaced do it at the same time. They get weak over time.

Head gaskets and oil coolers are rare to go bad.

Once that is resolved your next major issue to check is to make sure the balance shaft has been updated or deleted.

Thank you both for the good info! I should have been a bit more detailed as to the main issue being the coolant is being burnt. The exhaust is white clouding a bit and smelling sweet. Lol

What might cause that?

I'll start researching the other items you mentioned. Replacing the cam was on my list of must do's, but will the other items as well.

How is your oil usage?

She just bought this so I'm not sure on oil usage. It's clean but a bit low. White smoking has decreased since I bypassed the EGR cooler. I have found the heater core to be clogged... No heat and can't flush thru the core.

What color is the coolant?

It's not G12! I'm going to pickup a new thermostat, try flushing the heater core and flush out all this coolant. Looks like they used conventional when it started burning it.

Good news is, I took it for a short drive and I think it was the EGR cooler again. Hardly smoking anymore. I may have gotten lucky.

It takes a while to burn off the coolant in the exhaust system

I think I figured that out.. I think I got it all burned out. On to the heater core

Why do you think you have a clogged heater core? No heat? Gurgling sound?
If no heat try swapping the thermostat for a new VW one first when you flush the system. With that many miles you may have a weak Tstat

No heat at all. The drivers side hose to the heater core gets hot. Passenger side says cold. Tried bleeding the system and there is no flow through the core. Tried flushing with a hose with no luck. My plan was to try the CLR flush to see if it helps.

I have ordered a new thermostat and G12 coolant. Once it arrives, I'm going to flush this system a couple of time and start fresh with the proper coolant.