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dekhelia
30-08-2019, 01:55 PM
This seems to happen a lot with cars ... or possibly to me.

Trying to sort out a Passat with the BKP motor. Broke down on entrance to motorway just after filling up with diesel. AA people scanned it and said "Turbo's gone." Ok, that's simple enough ... I thought.

Got it back here and got it read with VCDS. That brought up a whole load of other things, none of them the turbo. So the turbo fault could just have been related to the engine stopping the way it did.

The other faults related to - you've guessed it - the injectors. First of all Inj2, then with more attempts to start, Inj1 and Inj3 were also throwing faults. With what I have read, and with guidance from you guys, I reasoned that it was the common problem of one injector going bad and somehow dragging the others with it. So I put in a set of known good but secondhand injectors, no new bolts and seals yet as I wanted to only be doing these items once. Also put on a new genuine loom. Engine ran sweetly, so I patted myself on the back and ordered some bolts and seals.

Next day - no start. Or, it would start sometimes and then die, other times not start at all. Time to look somewhere else, as VCDS was reporting all good with the injectors. No other faults apart from irrelevant ones.

I remembered Crasher saying in one of his posts about how ten percent of cars he services have oil contamination in the fuel, due to the tandem pump failing to keep oil and diesel apart. So I opened up the fuel filter housing, to discover that it was more like an oil filter housing. Black. Oh dear. I thought I'd better check the lift pump under the rear seat: dead.

So this is what I think has happened: the lift pump fails, meaning the tandem pump is doing all the work. The car has done 150k, meaning that the tandem pump - not the most reliable of items - has been overworking and has failed also. Oil contamination of the fuel has led to injector failure; the injectors themselves were replaced as part of the recall a few years back.

So a new lift pump and tandem pump have sorted things out, finally ... I hope. As the fuel tank was filled just prior to the original breakdown, I'm hoping that it isn't too contaminated with oil from the failed tandem. I'll just have to run it and see.

After I've got to the bottom of the Depress clutch message when I am in fact pressing the clutch. Always something, eh?

DMitch16
31-08-2019, 08:16 AM
Yep that sounds typical to me. If the oil / fuel contamination is not too bad you can keep changing the diesel filter every few thousand miles as they are only a tenner and easy to change. Mine did a similar thing at the last timing belt change but all that was wrong with the tandem pump was the gasket had failed allowing oil into the fuel rail. Lift pump was on its way out and coincidentally failed just after the timing belt job was finished so the car would not start up. New lift pump and tandem pump gasket did the trick. I ran Liqui Moly Diesel Purge in a few full tanks to help clear the fuel pipework and renewed fuel filters until they showed less signs of oil then went back to my regular annual servicing. No injector issues fortunately.

dekhelia
31-08-2019, 09:10 AM
That was lucky. The whole thing made me think about how problems can cascade - from something relatively minor to a whole raft of things that could effectively write a car off.

It also made me wonder how much of the 'injector problem' with these cars started out being faults with much cheaper components such as the lift pump and/or tandem gasket, neither of which seem to throw a code ...

Gazwould
31-08-2019, 05:45 PM
http://rs1310.pbsrc.com/albums/s645/Gazwould/Mobile%20Uploads/20160421_125447_zpswx4xazwf.jpg?w=480&h=480&fit=clip

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a377/evobaz/PassatB6_zpsa9979dd9.jpg

https://i2-prod.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/tv/article4020704.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/ZZ200513shameless



Sorted .

DMitch16
01-09-2019, 09:22 AM
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, this has happened to...well, pretty much all the cars in this list plus, in varying degrees from abysmal failures to niggly repetitive issues, to the 20 or 30 cars listed after them. Some of which may surprise their owners, you and I alike. The fact that a Porsche is keeping the B6 company just shows that any car at any time can be problematic or a Royal reliability PITA. Take Renault for example - still can't seem to wire a car properly and EVERY model for the last 30 years has had reported instances of wiring issues. A great deal of Mercedes models from 1996 to 2005 always get oil in the wiring looms eventually causing poor running or breakdown.

What I am saying is that yes with all these issues a B6 is a poor example of VW reliability and expensive if you have to put all of the issues right but who STILL has one? I do as they are very good when in perfect working order which for mine has been many years since its early problematic period. There are still tens of thousands of them on the road and thousands hitting 200k. Poor car, yes in places, terrible car, no definitely not.

jmurray01
03-09-2019, 12:41 PM
Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, this has happened to...well, pretty much all the cars in this list plus, in varying degrees from abysmal failures to niggly repetitive issues, to the 20 or 30 cars listed after them. Some of which may surprise their owners, you and I alike. The fact that a Porsche is keeping the B6 company just shows that any car at any time can be problematic or a Royal reliability PITA. Take Renault for example - still can't seem to wire a car properly and EVERY model for the last 30 years has had reported instances of wiring issues. A great deal of Mercedes models from 1996 to 2005 always get oil in the wiring looms eventually causing poor running or breakdown.

What I am saying is that yes with all these issues a B6 is a poor example of VW reliability and expensive if you have to put all of the issues right but who STILL has one? I do as they are very good when in perfect working order which for mine has been many years since its early problematic period. There are still tens of thousands of them on the road and thousands hitting 200k. Poor car, yes in places, terrible car, no definitely not.

That is actually a good way of looking at it. I still pass at least 2 or 3 B6s on my way to and from work every day so they can't be that bad!! It's just the first few big faults which thankfully most have already suffered from and been fixed.

Gazwould
03-09-2019, 12:48 PM
Since it's understanding in 2009 the 2.0tdi balancer shaft continues to happen on a still regular basis given the wide mileage range it can happen .

DMitch16
03-09-2019, 07:28 PM
Since it's understanding in 2009 the 2.0tdi balancer shaft continues to happen on a still regular basis given the wide mileage range it can happen .

Got to give you that one - shocking treatment of owners suffering from blatantly poor engineering by VAG. Definitely should have been put right by them under a campaign (I see the KMB lads collectively shaking their heads - they've done very well from it).