2005 Passat TDI Transmission Reliability?

New here, don't own a TDI yet, but we are looking at getting a 2005 Passat TDI possibly. It has 125,000 miles I believe.

I want to know how reliable it is. I've heard that VW's do last for quite a while, but they cost a decent amount when you do have to maintain them. 2 of the most common issues I have heard (3 if you were to count the timing chain, but that is bound to fail so it needs to be changed every 80,000 miles from what I heard so I'm not counting that) is:

1) The Balance Shaft Module could need replaced if it hasn't been already.
2) The transmissions are not so good.

My question about the transmission though, is it just for automatics, or are the manuals not that good either? I ask this because this car is a Manual. My experience with other manuals is that they seem to hold up better (if you're not doing a bunch of heavy towing, which this is not a full size truck or semi) than some of their automatic counterparts.

I know it probably depends how the car/ transmission was treated and taken care of, or are the transmissions in these cars just not that good, or is it just the autos?

I appreciate any help. Thanks.

Somebody spent some money converting the car to manual. Look for posts by coolairvw, dog dots and oilhammer. They all have done swaps and are in your neck of the woods.

So they didn't come from the factory with a manual in that year? Is that a good or bad thing?

At least not in the US. People import transmissions and the various bits to make them manual. As long as it was sorted out properly it is a good thing. Consider having one of those three do the prepurchase inspection.

And your car has a timing belt, not a chain. 80K miles is the replacement interval for everything in the TB path including the water pump.

Here's a thread about the first passat manual swap coolairvw did.
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=400792

He's probably looking at buying Dogdots car. Its for sale right now.

It's located near St. Louis, MO. Here's the link to it.

https://stlouis.craigslist.org/ctd/d/2005-volkswagen-passat-glx/6318326586.html

Burgess159 said:

It's located near St. Louis, MO. Here's the link to it.

https://stlouis.craigslist.org/ctd/d/2005-volkswagen-passat-glx/6318326586.html

Click to expand...

After posting that here...my advice would be don't dither too long.

A manual passat with those miles and in that condition doesn't come along every day!

thats not the one Dogdots is selling. Here is his.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=481223