Advice Please! 05 Passat TDI Wagon - Fix or Sell?

Long time listener, first time caller...hoping some input from everyone can help me figure out what to do.


I am at a crossroads with my 05 Passat TDI Wagon (124k mi)...I've been meaning to fix it for going on 3 years now (infamous low/no oil pressure, fairly certain its the Balance Shaft issue), but due to my work and family commitments I just haven't had the time.

My wife is "encouraging" me to finally make a decision, but at this point I'm not sure what I would be getting myself into trying to fix a car that has now been sitting for so long. For example, what types of additional problems are likely to have cropped up in the time its been sitting?


Hate being in this position because I absolutely love this car, and always intended it to be my long-term drive...but now I don't see myself having the time and $ to commit to a path of repairing it myself as I originally planned, unless the only thing wrong with it ends up being the Balance Shaft.

Any thoughts? Thank you in advance!

Tony

save yourself a lot of hand cleaner and move on. You can easily sell your car, wagons are in demand.

No simple or easy answer here for you.
These are great cars once all the little gremlins and known issues are corrected properly. You have a 125k car and you have three core concerns at this point with the BHW 05 Passat TDI---

1. Chain driven Balancer shaft
2. Camshaft
3. Auto Transmission

Based simply on your post; it sounds like time is limited due to work and family commitments. You will have to make a hard decision as to whether you are going to spend the money and fix the car or sell it and walk away.
Sounds to me like you don't have the time to fix the car, which means farming the work out to someone much more experienced and there are several very skilled people on this forum.

If you decide to fix the car --- Plan on a new camshaft kit, timing belt kit and from a cost standpoint doing the balancer shaft delete kit. At the same time have the automatic transmission serviced. At some juncture in time don't be surprised if you have to replace that automatic transmission or convert to a manual transmission as this is a known issue . Now the bad news -- correcting all of the BHW woes can be very expensive. I have had two of my 05 Passat TDI wagons all fixed up nicely and properly using good skilled labor and quality TDI parts and components. It can be very expensive so if you don't have that extra $5000-6000 cash to spend you may want to reconsider your options moving forward. A really clean 05 Passat TDI Wagon in really nice condition ( needing all of the aforementioned work done ) is a $2000 car all day long and all fixed up properly it may bring $7500 ( maybe)

The good news -- These are awesome little cars once all the issues are fixed properly. Safe, fun to drive and fuel efficient.

The bad news -- quite expensive to fix up

If you do not have either the time or the money to fix your Passat properly then you may wish to consider selling it and taking a payment book on a new car with a new car warranty

Best of luck !

If you plan to do it yourself make sure you go and buy the 5mm hex/Allen head tool. I got the oil pan 99% off last night on mine just to find 2 bolts holding it in, that are impossible to get to without a 5mm ball head hex...good luck sir.

Earlier today my kid told me the TDI on the back of the Passat stood for Total Destruction Inside. He's not totally wrong!

other than all that everyone advised you, cam, transmission issue the only thing I ran into from letting one sit for almost 2 years was the turbo. When I put the engine back in I was getting overboost and had to take the turbo apart and clean it due to sticking VGT vanes. The trans has 200K on it and when I pulled the engine to repair it,,,,,,had to do valves on mine due to a catostrophic b/s chain failure, I had the converter re-built just in case and have had no problems since.