Any BRM's make it past the 100K mile mark?

[ssamalin]

They're all not failing, no. And thanks, I'll call Franko6.

 

[40X40]

You are welcome, good luck with your car. We can all use a little luck!

Bill

 

[05_new_jetta]

It actually took 1:50 min because 20 people had a LOT of questions.

Seriously, I can do the whole TB in 2 hours so when you don't pull the mount, water pump, roller, tensioner etc it's really simple. Lock it, remove valve cover, pull the pulleys, pull the valve train and exchange it. EASY.

But not easy if you haven't done one.I really suggest taking your time and being uber careful, it would take a first timer with no TB experience 7-8 hours.

thats awesome.. It took me 6 hours to do the TB replacement, WP, pulleys, tensioner, and the cam and lifters.

as far as going to the fest to get honked at I'll have to pass haha I missed my chance at a close one last year.

 

[hid3]

My neighbour told me that removing WP might be PITA and time consuming job. He was replacing his stock one after 200k miles. Yikes! The pump was stuck to the block and it took more than an hour to remove it from there.

 

[srptdi]

I'm at 132,000 miles with only scheduled maintenance.

 

[oilhammer]

I love that impeccable data of yours O great superior. The car has a major defect, how major? Only a great one like you can say.

Wow, man, wow.... lay off the meds. Or take more. Something. Geez.

If this gets you so upset, then perhaps selling your car and purchasing something else may be better off for you. Volkswagen won't so much as blow your nose, you can submit and whine and cry all you want there. There is no "defect", it is simply a weak design. And since there have been plenty of cars just like yours without problems....

I would suggest trying a different oil, I prefer 5w40, and doing a UOA to see how that does for you. You should not have to concede to cam replacement every 80k miles. Something is amiss there if that is the case.

 

[ssamalin]

Wow, man, wow.... lay off the meds. Or take more. Something. Geez.

If this gets you so upset, then perhaps selling your car and purchasing something else may be better off for you. Volkswagen won't so much as blow your nose, you can submit and whine and cry all you want there. There is no "defect", it is simply a weak design. And since there have been plenty of cars just like yours without problems....

I would suggest trying a different oil, I prefer 5w40, and doing a UOA to see how that does for you. You should not have to concede to cam replacement every 80k miles. Something is amiss there if that is the case.

Thanks for your suggestions and your insights. I hope that by the time I need to make any more decisions about my car we will all have a lot more information to go by.

 

[xracerbob]

I'm just short of 200,000 miles and so far mostly minor things have gone wrong. Still have the original front brakes, clutch, and no cam issues, knock wood. I have used 5w-40 oil, mostly ELF but sometimes Pentosin. I have switched to CJ-4 Rotella 5w-40. I get between 44 and 46 mpg every tank.

 

[jasonTDI]

thats awesome.. It took me 6 hours to do the TB replacement, WP, pulleys, tensioner, and the cam and lifters.

as far as going to the fest to get honked at I'll have to pass haha I missed my chance at a close one last year.

That's pretty good.

It looks daunting for sure, but when you've done close to 2K belts it's old hat. I did an 05' PD yesterday in 1:45. That's the beauty of nobody calling or around. I can actually work! The average time with a client waiting in 3-4 hours as they ask a lot of Q's and we talk. That really slows things down. I don't mind most of the time though....That can really depend on the person....

 

[jasonTDI]

I'm just short of 200,000 miles and so far mostly minor things have gone wrong. Still have the original front brakes, clutch, and no cam issues, knock wood. I have used 5w-40 oil, mostly ELF but sometimes Pentosin. I have switched to CJ-4 Rotella 5w-40. I get between 44 and 46 mpg every tank.

The majority of the failures I have seen were 5w30 SLX and/or short trip cars.

 

[Bob_Fout]

The majority of the failures I have seen were 5w30 SLX and/or short trip cars.

That kind of info is good for those (like eddief) who are trying to figure out the cause of PD cam failures.

 

[Midnight Rider]

The majority of the failures I have seen were 5w30 SLX and/or short trip cars.

Well I guess that sux for me! Mostly short trips and all... But maybe the TDT and DG bypass filter will cut me some slack... I guess we will see...

 

[dhdenney]

I wish my TB job had only took a couple hours. I had the car sitting for 15 days with the clutch and TB. Of course most of that time was the clutch and some days I'd come home from work and not wanna fool with it. Lot of learning curve there. I'd say my TB job took about 7-8 actual hours. I lost some time too by waiting to order the crank lock! I hope my next one would only take 2-3 hours. But by the time I hit 200K I am projecting another 4 years so I might forget, lol.

 

[ssamalin]

The majority of the failures I have seen were 5w30 SLX and/or short trip cars.

Thats the dealer 505.01 oil? Is TDT 5w40 at 5k oci good?

 

[oilhammer]

Thats the dealer 505.01 oil? Is TDT 5w40 at 5k oci good?

The dealers originally were selling Castrol TXT 5w40, then later replaced that with Castrol SLX 5w40. From what I have gathered here, the TXT was better than the SLX. That change probably reflects why the BRMs seem to be more problematic than the BEW and BHW...because many of the [earlier] BEW and BHWs got a steady diet of the TXT long before the SLX rolled out, whereas most all the BRMs got SLX from the beginning.

Only a UOA can tell you for sure that the oil in YOUR car is doing or not doing what it needs to do.

There are 2 Mobil 5w40 oils sold here, one is the TDT type (used to be Delvac?) then the MB dealers sell one that is MB-specific 229.51. They might be the exact same oil, just a different bottle, I do not know. If I were going to run a Mobil 5w40 product in my PD, I think I would go to MB and buy their stuff over the 'generic' stuff sold in the stores. I doubt the price difference could be that much.

Here at our shop, we are running Pentosin HP2 5w40, which is VAG spec 502.00 (gas), 505.00 (earlier diesels), 505.01 (PD diesel) and also carries the newest MB spec of 229.51 (for all the Sprinters). I have not had one single PD cam failure come through this door on any car that I have specifically maintained since new with this oil. And they have all been 10k mile intervals with Mann oil filters. I suck the oil filter/cooler housing dry at every service (best I can), and drain the oil from below until the drops are at least 30 seconds apart (in which time I am servicing the rest of the car....tire rotation, etc.).

I have been at a VW dealer where the "lube tech" douchebag kid was found with a STACK of ALH oil filters on his toolbox that were never replaced on customers' cars because he did not know where the filter was so just drained and filled the oil. So "dealer maintained" means rubbish to me and to add insult to injury the SLX oil that has been shown here to have less-than-stellar UOAs could possibly mean a double whammy if the service is not even done correctly.

 

[Windjammer]

OH, where do you source the Pentosin HP2 5w40?

 

[oilhammer]

OH, where do you source the Pentosin HP2 5w40?

Worldpac, but www.TDIparts.com carries it as well.

 

[jasonTDI]

Thats the dealer 505.01 oil? Is TDT 5w40 at 5k oci good?

That should be fine.

 

[jasonTDI]

SLX is a 5w30

 

[jasonTDI]

Yep, you have to be a shop or supplier to get a world pac account. OH is lucky. He can send a gopher over to their warehouse to get it.

 

[hutchman]

Our BRM has over 100K miles. Never ran 505.01 except the factory fill and when my wife took our own oil to dealer for a oil change while I was in Iraq and they forgot about the oil in the passenger floor board and used 505.01.

Used Elf CRV 506.01 [edit] 0W30 until it started getting hard to find then switched to Elf/Total 507.00 5W30.

UOA's have been great so far. At 60Kish I installed the DG BP with the Amsoil EA90 and then did something stupid on my first OCI with it ... I used 507.00 and got busy and left it in for too long. UOA on the that interval had Iron of something like 105 but for 21K miles (added new oil and changed OEM filter around 10k).

The last UOA I just got back had Iron at 115 for 10K miles ... not good!

It has M1 TDT in it now and I looked at the cam very briefly and didn't see any concave lifters or lobes with the bevel worn off.

Will monitor more closely. If I replace things ... I think next cam, lifters etc. will be cryo treated.

Ours BRM is July 2005 build and does not have the black lifters.

Car frequently does 7 mile trips (taking the kids to school) and my wife works there now so now instead of the return trip ... she stays.

The higher Iron in this UOA could be related to car being now used on shorter trips or maybe I did some damage leaving 507.00 with a crappy TBN in too long on my first OCI with the BP.

 

[2footbraker]

Only 70k miles but running well. Looking forward to sending my first Rotella CJ-4 UOA off but I'm definitely planning on eventually doing the Frank06 mods. I think those will be far more important than oil type or black lifters.

 

[hutchman]

Only 70k miles but running well. Looking forward to sending my first Rotella CJ-4 UOA off but I'm definitely planning on eventually doing the Frank06 mods. I think those will be far more important than oil type or black lifters.

.. I'm tracking Frank06's mod, eddif, and the regrind/parkerize treads on my cam radar so hopefully I'll know what to do when the time comes!

 

[MonsterTDI09]

Why not come to 'fest next year and watch. I'll even honk at you!

Any SOHC VAG engine, even a PD, is really easy to swap a cam/lifters on.

A new contest at the fest the fast cam job when finish toot the horn

 

[SoTxBill]

I run synthetic blinker fluid and 505.01 air in my tires.. will my daughters friends' dog get pregnant?

 

[Luis G]

95k on mine using only SLX 5W30. Running fine. I have not checked visually but sounds normal. I hope this was not the kiss of death. KOW.

 

[hid3]

The majority of the failures I have seen were 5w30 SLX and/or short trip cars.

I was looking for short trips/frequent starts info very attentively but didn't find any data on this (in PD cam failure data collection thread). There's some data that people who had their car started only 2 times a day have a cam failure as soon as 90k-110k miles.

Used Elf CRV 506.01 5W30 until it started getting hard to find

I believe it was 0w30, wasn't it?

 

[hutchman]

... I believe it was 0w30, wasn't it?

Yes ... you sir are correct. Been a while so I guess I forgot!

 

[jasonTDI]

I have not added any data to the thread on the 30 or so I have done.

 

[ssamalin]

Ok tdt or delvac 5w40 at 5k oci. Is there a filter I need to have? My plan is to take the oil and filter to a jiffy lube or a station who'd do the oc with my oil and filter. What do I need to do my own oil change?