PD Original Cam

[buttonfly]

302,504 mi

Just celebrated 300,000 miles on the '04 Wagon 5-speed. No noticeable performance degradation. Short of visual inspection, what's another clue that the cam is worn?

No soot on the bumper (just plenty of white smoke on the below zero morning starts).

Always 505.01.

And for what it's worth, I ran B20 / B50 fuel for the first 200k, until they quit selling it nearby.

 

[JETaah]

You may not notice anything in the way it runs until you put a hole in the lifter.

 

[Dimitri16V]

You can tell in the winter time . Lifters will take longer to fully pump and might get a missing cylinder for the first few seconds

 

[Lug_Nut]

My former BHW PD wagon cam had signs of lobe wear at 180K. The original owner and I both used 505.01 Motul or Lubrimoly (don't remember the weight). The lobe edges were sharp (no chamfer).
The new-to-me BEW PD wagon cam doesn't have detectable chamfer loss at 205K, but I can see the 'wood-grain' wear pattern on the tips of a few where successive layers of hardness have been worn off. It won't be long until this one needs replacement as well.
Oil is unknown as the used car dealer had no records.
I have been able to identify a prior owner and have asked for any information he can provide.

 

[supton]

You can tell in the winter time . Lifters will take longer to fully pump and might get a missing cylinder for the first few seconds

Oh? Had not heard of that symptom. I have had that a couple of times in the dead of winter. Now I really want to check.

 

[supton]

My former BHW PD wagon cam had signs of lobe wear at 180K. The original owner and I both used 505.01 Motul or Lubrimoly (don't remember the weight). The lobe edges were sharp (no chamfer).
The new-to-me BEW PD wagon cam doesn't have detectable chamfer loss at 205K, but I can see the 'wood-grain' wear pattern on the tips of a few where successive layers of hardness have been worn off. It won't be long until this one needs replacement as well.
Oil is unknown as the used car dealer had no records.
I have been able to identify a prior owner and have asked for any information he can provide.

Got your PD wagon finally? Congrads.

I just dug out my camera today, I will have to figure out how to take a decent photo. I tried in the past but never had luck.

 

[Dimitri16V]

Oh? Had not heard of that symptom. I have had that a couple of times in the dead of winter. Now I really want to check.

As the surface of the lifter wears , the extra clearance is taken up by the lifter pumping up. In the worst case , the lifter will score the injection lobe

 

[IDoSeaDoo]

192k miles on my PD and cam was great when I checked it 2k miles ago when I did my t-belt. Lifters were good too, I was a happy camper I always use 505.1 spec oil and change every 10k miles.

 

[DanVito]

Two 05's, one with 380k and one with 170k - no cam wear seen. Both get VW505.01
With the higher mileage car often getting oil changed by dealer.

I don't see it as an issue with the BEW.

Oil changed by the dealer is no guarantee of the proper spec oil being used (as is so often attested to on this forum). I had my '04 PD Jetta religiously serviced by the dealer for approx 170k miles until I discovered, by a quirk of fate, that they were not using 505.01. Service manager tried to tell me the 505.01 spec was issued some time after the PD engine was introduced. (LIAR!). Why, then, I asked was it spec'd IN THE OWNER'S MANUAL?!?!? (Stunned silence)

I've been doing my own maintenance ever since.

 

[Lug_Nut]

The new-to-me BEW PD wagon cam doesn't have detectable chamfer loss at 205K, but I can see the 'wood-grain' wear pattern on the tips of a few where successive layers of hardness have been worn off.
I have been able to identify a prior owner and have asked for any information he can provide.

He called back. He's the second owner, bought at 70K, original cam still at 205k, used 505.01 exclusively, weight unknown, but he's mailing me the receipts he has.

 

[tDignam]

I just got these photos of my original cam from the repair shop the other day. They are recommending replacement. PO used spec. oil until he sold it to me at 135k at which point I started using TDT. The car now has 200k miles on it.

 

[Lug_Nut]

A friend's daughter has a BRM with about 140k. Holed a follower/lifter, would have soon holed a few more had this one not spring through first.
I had mentioned on a test drive shortly after their purchase a few months back that the engine sound wasn't right and that the cam should be checked.

The cam was apparently further along than I thought and the expense (cam, followers and bolts) would have been the same, but the scheduling of the replacement could have been planned rather than becoming an emergency.

My own BEW (205k) looks like tDig's, but I'm taking a peek every few weeks to watch it closely.

 

[towforce]

370,000 kms (230,000 miles)... thought I would have a look. Used 505.01, original owner 8000km between oil changes. More less what I expected for wear, chamferd edges all intact, Injector rollers show the most wear. Tops of the followers are of course pretty hard to inspect but I did not want to take anything apart, shinny and smooth with some minor circular marks.

My Timing belt comes due in 20,000 kms, will probably just do the belt and see where the next 100,000 gets me. (Sorry, but I find the whole process of uploading photo's on this forum ... well a bit of a pain ... I've got other photos uploaded)

Cheers

Martin

 

[steadyhand]

298,000 miles on my '05 BEW (auto trans) and it's going strong on the original cam. Of course, I have a slightly-leaky turbo system and my intercooler has probably seen a bit too much oil........still put 160 miles/day on the thing (40ish mpg)

 

[ApriliaNut]

Two 05's, one with 380k and one with 170k - no cam wear seen. Both get VW505.01
With the higher mileage car often getting oil changed by dealer.

I don't see it as an issue with the BEW.

Err....see post 3!

 

[MartyMcfly]

235k, original cam

 

[Geobmx4life]

277k kms, lobe on cylinder 1 showing some wear, just had the timing belt done...just keeping an ear on it, apparently it'll start making a slight popping sound when its time to change it, correct me if I'm wrong...

 

[aggieengnr]

210k, original cam AFAIK. No idea what oil was used up to the point of when I bought it at 109k. Have used Rotella T6 changed every 10k since I bought it. Had Injector o-rings replaced by reputable TDI guru in February who checked cam wear while he was in there and said cam/lifters/lobes all looked fine..but that was around 24k miles ago. I should probably check it again with as many miles as i put on it. Car gains 850-1000 miles/week and I don't drive slow. Still purrs just as it did when i bought it 2 yrs ago.

 

[BobnOH]

Aggie- What were the symptoms you experienced before the injector o-ring fix?

 

[digorius]

410,000 kms on original cam. Time to replace. Have some sharp edges. Going to get it done soon.

 

[Mike_04GolfTDI]

party crasher here, 2004, one lobe on #3 is starting to flake, 181,000. proper oil used.

Which proper oil? VW says 5w30 505.01 is proper, but 5w40, the original standard, is considered to be better.

 

[DidJettarun]

Another great way to determine cam wear is to do oil analysis. Certain metals will show up in high ppm. Are the lifters beginning to dish or have color change in various regions? Dished lifters always mean cam beginning to "machine" the lifter surface and if it wears through expect to change out oil cooler to get the shrapnel out of oil. Add DDDP at each oil change and my personal recommendation is to never use 505.01 as the additive package removed the key wear ingredient that protected flat tappet motors for years in order to protect the catalytic converter.

 

[aggieengnr]

Aggie- What were the symptoms you experienced before the injector o-ring fix?

Horrible mileage ~25-27 mpg no matter how I drove the car. Also, a check of the oil showed that my crankcase was 'filling up'. If your seals are bad enough, it can/will leak past the cylinder rings and make its way into the crankcase; thus, "watering down" your oil with diesel fuel. It didn't take maybe a day or two of 50 mile round trip workday for the oil-level rise to be very noticeable.

 

[JETaah]

That could also be an indication of a leaky tandem pump.

 

[BobnOH]

Quote:
Originally Posted by BobnOH
Aggie- What were the symptoms you experienced before the injector o-ring fix?

Horrible mileage ~25-27 mpg no matter how I drove the car. Also, a check of the oil showed that my crankcase was 'filling up'. If your seals are bad enough, it can/will leak past the cylinder rings and make its way into the crankcase; thus, "watering down" your oil with diesel fuel. It didn't take maybe a day or two of 50 mile round trip workday for the oil-level rise to be very noticeable.

I've seen a lot of threads recently with PD motors well below 40 mpg fuel usage. This is something that might be suggested as a fix. I'm a bit in the dark with unit injectors, never actually worked on one.

 

[aggieengnr]

That could also be an indication of a leaky tandem pump.

This is true. However, I had replaced the tandem pump a few thousand miles prior to the o-rings being replaced, so (at least for my situation) it narrowed it down for me to leaking injectors. Once the o-rings were replaced, my mileage went back up and my oil-level stayed consistent.

 

[flan]

Which proper oil? VW says 5w30 505.01 is proper, but 5w40, the original standard, is considered to be better.

In all fairness, The 505.01 for 171k miles. Until I bought it now rotella t-6

 

[Lug_Nut]

My own BEW (205k) looks like tDig's, but I'm taking a peek every few weeks to watch it closely.

I knew I'd have to do it sooner or later. I decided to do it sooner, and on my schedule. I definitely didn't want a catastrophic failure in the hinterlands of Labrador.

This is the sign I look for to determine how much wear has occurred. Each 'layer' is more and more of the surface hardening and less and less hardness of those layers underneath. The wear rate accelerates as the hard surface is worn away.

here's a closer view

Recognise that there is still no sharp edge, The chamfer is still nearly intact as the wear at this point is just a few microns, but still, it isn't going to repair itself.