Is the 2ltr TDI engine the worst VAG ever produced?
Discussion
We had our share of problems when we had a 2003 Audi 2 ltr TDI sport last year... It had water loss problems which looked to be the cylinder head porous... It also needed a clutch and duel mass flywheel. We sold it on...
I keep seeing on here that there are all sorts of problems with these engines, and to confirm it, I was in the travel agents yesterday and one of the girls was in tears... Just had a call from the garage to say they wanted £1500 to fix a water leak on the engine and do a service... She said she spent £3300 on the engine and servicing last year in the Audi dealers
Is this the worst engine VAG produce?
I keep seeing on here that there are all sorts of problems with these engines, and to confirm it, I was in the travel agents yesterday and one of the girls was in tears... Just had a call from the garage to say they wanted £1500 to fix a water leak on the engine and do a service... She said she spent £3300 on the engine and servicing last year in the Audi dealers
Is this the worst engine VAG produce?
t as well.They're not that bad really, problems seem more common because VAG make (very literally) MILLIONS of the damn things.
The porous heads they're quietly doing FOC, clutches are because people drive high torque cars around town and slip them, oil pump thing is just a stupid design but not as frequent as you'd believe from the forums and DPF problems are more to do with how the car is driven than the car itself.
They do seem to munch turbos but regular oil changes and properly warming/cooling the engine would (I bet) alleviate a lot of this.
They've made far worse: 2.5 TDI V6, all early FSI N/A, 2.4 V6...
The porous heads they're quietly doing FOC, clutches are because people drive high torque cars around town and slip them, oil pump thing is just a stupid design but not as frequent as you'd believe from the forums and DPF problems are more to do with how the car is driven than the car itself.
They do seem to munch turbos but regular oil changes and properly warming/cooling the engine would (I bet) alleviate a lot of this.
They've made far worse: 2.5 TDI V6, all early FSI N/A, 2.4 V6...
Dr G said:
They're not that bad really, problems seem more common because VAG make (very literally) MILLIONS of the damn things.
The porous heads they're quietly doing FOC, clutches are because people drive high torque cars around town and slip them, oil pump thing is just a stupid design but not as frequent as you'd believe from the forums and DPF problems are more to do with how the car is driven than the car itself.
They do seem to munch turbos but regular oil changes and properly warming/cooling the engine would (I bet) alleviate a lot of this.
They've made far worse: 2.5 TDI V6, all early FSI N/A, 2.4 V6...
Out of interest why do you say the 2.4 V6? I have one, and aside from it pissing oil everywhere (which all the V6s do I believe) I have never had any problems with it. I am not disagreeing with you, genuinely interested in your viewpoint.The porous heads they're quietly doing FOC, clutches are because people drive high torque cars around town and slip them, oil pump thing is just a stupid design but not as frequent as you'd believe from the forums and DPF problems are more to do with how the car is driven than the car itself.
They do seem to munch turbos but regular oil changes and properly warming/cooling the engine would (I bet) alleviate a lot of this.
They've made far worse: 2.5 TDI V6, all early FSI N/A, 2.4 V6...
First company car: Golf 2.0 TDi 140 PD: porous head replaced at 40k miles ish. Oil consumption settled down at 40k miles too. 70k miles in total, no other issue.
2nd company car: Passat CC 2.0 TDi 140 CR: no problem, 30k miles now and only had to top up the oil once before Christmas.
Wife's cars:
Leon 1.9 TDi. Did 15k miles before new job. No prob.
Golf 5 2.0TDi 140 PD. 3 yrs/55k miles, no issues. Oil consumption settled at 30k miles like mine.
Current: Golf 6 2.0 TDi 140 CR: 5000 miles, no issue, oil hasn't moved.
It's a good, mass produced engine as far as my experience goes.
2nd company car: Passat CC 2.0 TDi 140 CR: no problem, 30k miles now and only had to top up the oil once before Christmas.
Wife's cars:
Leon 1.9 TDi. Did 15k miles before new job. No prob.
Golf 5 2.0TDi 140 PD. 3 yrs/55k miles, no issues. Oil consumption settled at 30k miles like mine.
Current: Golf 6 2.0 TDi 140 CR: 5000 miles, no issue, oil hasn't moved.
It's a good, mass produced engine as far as my experience goes.
J B L said:
First company car: Golf 2.0 TDi 140 PD: porous head replaced at 40k miles ish. Oil consumption settled down at 40k miles too. 70k miles in total, no other issue.
2nd company car: Passat CC 2.0 TDi 140 CR: no problem, 30k miles now and only had to top up the oil once before Christmas.
Wife's cars:
Leon 1.9 TDi. Did 15k miles before new job. No prob.
Golf 5 2.0TDi 140 PD. 3 yrs/55k miles, no issues. Oil consumption settled at 30k miles like mine.
Current: Golf 6 2.0 TDi 140 CR: 5000 miles, no issue, oil hasn't moved.
It's a good, mass produced engine as far as my experience goes.
All low (ish) mileage cars though, and even you have experienced head problems on one in four of the 2 ltr engined cars you have owned! if that was my experience I wouldn't be too pleased!2nd company car: Passat CC 2.0 TDi 140 CR: no problem, 30k miles now and only had to top up the oil once before Christmas.
Wife's cars:
Leon 1.9 TDi. Did 15k miles before new job. No prob.
Golf 5 2.0TDi 140 PD. 3 yrs/55k miles, no issues. Oil consumption settled at 30k miles like mine.
Current: Golf 6 2.0 TDi 140 CR: 5000 miles, no issue, oil hasn't moved.
It's a good, mass produced engine as far as my experience goes.
far better engines out there... even VAG ones!
We've had a 2.0 Golf, two 2.0 Jettas and two 2.0 Passats.
Both Passats have needed new oil pumps and injectors between 90 and 100,000 miles which is very costly out of warranty even away from the main dealer. The other cars didn't do the same miles but were pretty good on the whole, but certainly not the paragons of German solidity people would like you to think.
I'm hoping the CR engines are a bit better as we've got a Jetta and two Golfs with them now.
Incidentally we had an older shape PD130 Passat which ran to 150,000 with no problems. Certainly that generation of cars seemed much better built/engineered.
Both Passats have needed new oil pumps and injectors between 90 and 100,000 miles which is very costly out of warranty even away from the main dealer. The other cars didn't do the same miles but were pretty good on the whole, but certainly not the paragons of German solidity people would like you to think.
I'm hoping the CR engines are a bit better as we've got a Jetta and two Golfs with them now.
Incidentally we had an older shape PD130 Passat which ran to 150,000 with no problems. Certainly that generation of cars seemed much better built/engineered.
Old topic I know, but I'm picking up a 2012 VW Touran next weekend with a CR140 engine (CBAB I believe) so been having a search around. Fingers crossed anyway.
My father had a 90bhp PD engine in a T-reg Seat Alhambra. Ran it for over 10 years and over 100,000 miles and I don't think it ever needed anything outside of normal servicing.
My father had a 90bhp PD engine in a T-reg Seat Alhambra. Ran it for over 10 years and over 100,000 miles and I don't think it ever needed anything outside of normal servicing.
Dr G said:
Yup, CR motors good as gold so far. Nothing other than the odd, isolated niggle.
As above, dpf issues on CR engines are generally a failed sensor. They do clog up but no worse than any other derv. They are also known to munch the odd turbo, but again what modern diesel doesn't?Clutch and dual mass flywheel replacement is not isolated to VAG. Jump onto a Ford forum and see how many Mondeo TDCi owners complain of DMFs failing. BMW's 2.0d engine likes to eat it's own swirl flaps too.
DMFs can prematurely fail if the engine is regularly laboured, which is encouraged in diesels because of the torque. They are the biggest scam ever. Only 2 companies make them, so can charge stupid money (~£600) and it's good for dealers too because of the labour and parts. Solid flywheels, sprung clutch plates & heavy crank pulleys served us well for decades, but obviously dealers and parts manufacturers decided they want more money from us.
DMFs can prematurely fail if the engine is regularly laboured, which is encouraged in diesels because of the torque. They are the biggest scam ever. Only 2 companies make them, so can charge stupid money (~£600) and it's good for dealers too because of the labour and parts. Solid flywheels, sprung clutch plates & heavy crank pulleys served us well for decades, but obviously dealers and parts manufacturers decided they want more money from us.
My parents both had Audis. An A3 and A4, both 2008, both 2.0TDIs. Both were absolute dogs. Rough when idle, loud extremely unreliable. (The A4 kept blowing it's head gasket for some reason so it was at the dealership most of the time) and the A3 had its fair share of electrical problems which ended up with it catching fire on the M4.
Needless to say we won't touch another German car!
Needless to say we won't touch another German car!
I can confirm we have changed ONE CR 2.0TDI engine. I say again ONE
I'm not fully prepaired to coment on how many PD 2.0TDI's we have replaced, largly because we all stopped counting some time ago.
As depressing and costly as failures are, they are small numbers in real turms, and the newer engines, really are very good.
I'm not fully prepaired to coment on how many PD 2.0TDI's we have replaced, largly because we all stopped counting some time ago.
As depressing and costly as failures are, they are small numbers in real turms, and the newer engines, really are very good.
Edited by Tame Technician on Tuesday 10th February 23:29
SuperchargedVR6 said:
Clutch and dual mass flywheel replacement is not isolated to VAG. Jump onto a Ford forum and see how many Mondeo TDCi owners complain of DMFs failing. BMW's 2.0d engine likes to eat it's own swirl flaps too.
This plus the point that VAG sell MILLIONS of cars are year so if you go on a VW specific forum that has 10,000 members and 10 of them have had engine failures does that mean ALL VWs are unreliable or barely 0.1%?I retired 1 Saab and 1 BMW due to the diesel fuel pumps failing, there was nothing else wrong with either of the cars just that I am not spending £600-900 on a £1k car - that is the biggest risk in my opinion of any post 2000 car.
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