2009 VW 1.9 TDI BLS new owner

Hello everybody and it is nice to be part of the club.
I am a new owner of a 2009 1.9 VW Golf TDI Wagon/variant with 125k miles or 200k Km.

I live in Europe and will drive around 2000 miles(3200km) monthly. Should I expect any issues from the car in terms of reliability? I have read some articles stating that the BLS engine is not that good and that got me worried.

Previous owner serviced the car every 10k, had the timing and water pump changes at 96k miles(154k Km).No other big repairs.Just serviced it myself and changed all the filters and oil.

Car drives nice and the only thing I did not yet get used to is the increased noise in the cabin and the fact that sometimes I smell diesel fumes when standing at a light(hope that's not an issue).

So , to resume I would like to get some opinions regarding the quality of the PD BLS engines .I want to take a 1500 miles/2500km round trip soon and am a bit paranoid .

Any input is highly apreciated . Thanks

The fumes you are smelling sometimes are probably from a regen.

I'd suggest start using 5w-40 oil with MB229.51 approval. 5w-30 507.00 oil might be too thin and might not protect the camshaft well in your DPF equipped engine.

Also, I suggest spending ~10 euros for a BEHR or Wahler thermostat. The thermostats degrade with age/miles and start opening earlier, causing a bit lower fuel economy. Besides, the tstat on this car is very easily accessible and can be done by yourself.

Henrick said:

The fumes you are smelling sometimes are probably from a regen.

I'd suggest start using 5w-40 oil with MB229.51 approval. 5w-30 507.00 oil might be too thin and might not protect the camshaft well in your DPF equipped engine.

Click to expand...

So far the car got only 5W-30 504/507.00 approval.
Will take a look also at the thermostat

5w-30 oils are know to eat cams in PD engines.
In addition to that, there are plenty posts in UK forums where using 507.00 oil and long-life service intervals have caused premature cam failures, especially seen n PD170's.

Your BLS engine has got three "bad" factors:
-It's a PD engine, so in general 5w-30 oil is not the best thing to use in it;
-It has got more aggressive cam lobes than say in BKC engine. This means its more prone to cam failure;
-The engine has got a DPF. This means that during the regen, exhaust temperatures rise, causing excessive heat in cylinders, being transfered to exhaust followers and cam lobes. More wear on cam. At this stage, at high temp, 5w-30 oil gets even hotter and thinner and is believed not to be able to provide sufficient protection required for cam. Oil fil fails, the effect is similar to pouring water on a red hot rock or stone.