Well, oddly this is the second mechanic who has worked on these Passat Diesels and has not seen a BSM fail. I just had a talk with him over the job while paying for the brake job he just finished on my TDI. Granted, both mechanic's exposure to 2004/05 Passat Diesel's is less than a internet forum dedicated to this specific car, so we have an unfair advantage over these two mechanics. They were just two guy giving 'their' experience, or lack of experience, with these chained BSM's letting go. I felt throwing the forum in their face would have been rude and frankly I'm not sure what the % of failure is on this forum. My conclusion would be either one would simply ask me what is that failure rate and none of us , here, really know. We just know it's out there and it's expensive if it happens. I get it. This second mechanic, who also builds dragsters, for a hobby, said he has removed balance shafts from both VW's and some Mazda's with another issue they had with their balance shaft. He said, normally, when I remove the balance shaft it is a ' race' application for the faster RPM Rev. He really felt replacing the existing BSM parts with new, was the way to go if I were nervous about the design or a BSM part breaking. He felt he could still get the parts to the original BCM ( chained system that came with our cars) out of a Central Warehouse and felt after 10 years he would not be surprised if VW did not beef up the offending part. I did not get into some of close calls on this forum that happened before the 80,000 mile Timing Belt Interval. I did hint to him I heard the original parts are no longer offered. I didn't press it since it would take a phone call to his source to find out and it was closing time when I was picking up my car from the brake job. I just kept it polite and I did not get into the doubt I had about VW improving this BSM with an upgraded tensioner shoe for our chained BCM's. I realize the logic on this forum goes like this - " VWNA does not recognize this Chained BSM to be a problem so why improve something they don't know is flawed?" I spared him from our collective frustrations. I'm also not happy to hear the Passat V-6 chain tensioner has also let go. Another hint that not all is good with VW chain tensioners. The key point and good news is I have not heard of ALH chain tensioner problems - yet. So I kept my mouth shut and listened. Both were just honest mechanics sharing there specific history on theses diesel Passats and said they have not has one in here with a bad BSM. He just said the Delete Kit was not a big deal if I wanted it and that the vibration would not be that great on an engine with hydraulic motor mounts vs. a harder rubber mount. I assume we have hydraulic? I think I heard someone complain about a red fluid leaking from his mount? That sounds hydraulic to me. The other thing he added was cleaning the intake manifold and EGR. I know my 2001 Jetta Diesel had this issue where the Intake Manifold filled with black soot, but this was back in the days when diesel fuel was 500 PPM with Sulfur Content. Our 2004/05 Passat diesels only drink Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel Fuel where the Sulfur dropped from 500 PPM to just 15 PPM (Parts Per Million). Do we have an clogged intake manifold issue on these Passats??
Blair