A Word Of Caution

When taking your vehicle to a dealer for a potential trade please do not let anyone from the dealership examine or drive your car without your presence. I had a very unusual experiece with my 05 TDI Passat, while at the dealership getting motor oil, I stopped in at the Toyota side of the business and looked with interest at a new Avalon. One thing lead to another and soon I was negotiating a loosing battle, they were not too interested in a trade, stating the diesel car syndrom is not what it once was (like I mentioned earlier they sell VW's as well) and nothing but negative reviews came form them. Soon I became very disgusted and a bit pissed and took my keys and left, but only after someone from the dealer took my keys and did what ever they normally do when they evaluate a trade vehicle.
While on the way home and going up a steep grade the car bucked several times but continued to go on my way. About two hours later I got in the car to go to a viewing and found the car hard to start. Once it started I was on my way. About two hours later I left the funeral home and started my car, again it started hard, after a brief warm up I proceded home, traveling about two blocks and stoping at a stop sign the car shut off and would not start at all. I called a towing service and had the car hauled home believing I had a contaminated fuel system filter. The next day I changed out the filter and in doing notice no fuel pressure or spillage from the Input line on the filter. This caused me to believe that another unknown cause was at hand. A note sent to Oilhammer to confirm the existence of a inline/tank fuel pump revealed one did exist. NOt having much experience with working on VW I called for another tow to a independent VW Tech Chris Fisher. A few hours after delivery Chris called me and asked the for the details of what took place. I explained the entire story to hime and he was amazed for what he found was not a defective lift pump but a missing fuse that energizes the lift pump circuit. He asked me if I removed the fuse and I told him I did not know where the fuse box is located. So what happened to the missing fuse is anyones guess. By the way Chris found out that the TDI Passat will run for a unspecified period of time without the left pump circuit in tact. AS in this case it ran for several running hours. After reinstalling a fuse in the proper recepticle Chris road tested the car and found everything to be in good running order. He then removed the fuse once again just to convince himself that it would. The car was picked up this afternoon and ran about fifty miles without incident. As to what happened to the original fuse is anyones guess, was it a sabatoge? who knows, but business is slow and some dealers employ very questionable people. Beware!

I once had a truck transmission moved from an older truck to a newer one. I had owned and used that trans for over 10 years and never a problem. Two weeks after I had it switched out, the rear seal started leaking. I took it to a different shop to have the new rear seal installed. They drained the oil and noticed something was partially obstructing the drain flow. Upon further inspection, they found a throwout bearing in there. The only way a throwout bearing could get into a 13 speed transmission is through the shift tower. Needless to say, the shop that did the trans swap lost all my business.

In 1987 bought a used 1985 Passat gasser from my local VW stealership. Drove it maybe 30K miles over the next two years, things appearing normal thru several oil changes. It was the first auto-tranny VW I had ever owned. I noticed that there was an open hole in the side of the tranny where I would have expected the inspection hole for gear oil level in a manual tranny, but thought (stupidly, in hindsight) that in the auto tranny version, there was no gear oil in that section.

On a 300 mile trip, the tranny started to make a noise of dry, dying gears. Upon inspection I discovered that there should have been gear oil there (for the differential), and that over more than 30K miles, all the SAE 90 gear oil had spun out the hole.

Negligence on the part of some prior service tech, not replacing the plug in the inspection hole! My consequence? Buy an Audi tranny from a scrap dealer and swap it out myself.

I should have know better as my very first oil change experience was a wake up call. After waiting a hour and half to have my oil changed I was anxious to talk to the tech who did the work. He said all went well and whould not have any issues, I asked him about obtaining some of the special oil needed so I could have it available at home. He said, No problem, just bring a container and we will be glad to fill it. Afterwards I was talking to the parts manager to findout how much the bulk 505.01 oil would cost and she said "we do not sell 505.01 in bulk it is sold in quart bottles @$8.25" After hearing this I became very upset and insisted on talking to the owner, he obliged and we had a very good conversatioin. He agreed to have another oil change done at no further expense and agreed to sell the oil to me at $6./qt. From that point on when having the car seerviced I insisted on getting the empty oil containers they used on my car. That experience should have been enough to teach me this wasnot necessarily the right place to be. But for me, it was the only show in town. Since then through the help of this web site I havefound a qualified and knowledgable tech to service the car. This does not say much for VWoA, as apparently they do not give a damn about qualified or dependable people representing their product. It apparently is the "bottom line" profits that they are interested in. What a shame, if VW would wake up and recognize their short comings they could be number one world wide!

Joell: Your comments parallel my experience with my 2004 B5.5V TDI. First oil change was at the local VW dealer. I thought, "I should get it done by the real people the first time." I noticed when I picked the car up, that the oil on the invoice was a strange (not VW) part number, so I asked the tech, who is a guy with 25 years' VW experience, what oil he used for my car. It was a BMW certified 5W40 synthetic. I pointed out to him the need for VW 505.01 oil, which the parts dept had in stock, and he willingly replaced the oil on the spot.

It has been me, my Pella and 505.01 personally dispensed ever since....

Sometimes I wonder what the hell I am doing with this VW. VWoA sellls the cars and then ignores important design issues that leads to very expensive repairs paid for by the customer. The BS issue, the Glow Plug issue are just two examples of what I am speaking about. The unique specifications required by the BHW TDI such as the exclusinve motor oil is just another great pain. Who knows what else is coming down the road. I was told many years ago never buy a concept that is just put on the market, let it alone for a few years until the bugs are worked out. This was told to me by my father, a Ford mechanic of forty odd years, Oh the wisdom of age! Why did I not listen. The Passat is a real tease, it handles and performs so great and is also very comfortable, economic and stylish. Too bad it is represented by a bunch of money grubbing goons.

Joell said:

..........I was told many years ago never buy a concept that is just put on the market, let it alone for a few years until the bugs are worked out. This was told to me by my father, a Ford mechanic of forty odd years, Oh the wisdom of age!........

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Precisely why I bought The B5.5 in its last year of production. However, I had NO IDEA that fateful day I signed the purchase papers in December of 2005, that the BHW diesel engine was a North American ONLY test mule of sorts!

volkswagendude said:

Precisely why I bought The B5.5 in its last year of production. However, I had NO IDEA that fateful day I signed the purchase papers in December of 2005, that the BHW diesel engine was a North American ONLY test mule of sorts!

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My thoughts too exactly!

The BHW engine was north america only? I didnt realize that.

PD engines were sold worldwide by VW in the mid-2000s period. I own a 2004 1.9 TDI Touran in South Africa: it must be fed a diet of 505.01 oil, but apparently does not have the chain-driven BS module or the ceramic glow plug issue. Since it is a 1.9, it is not the BHW engine.