So during my car searching it turns out that if I buy a 2.0Tdi A4 or A6 made after 2005, it’s only a matter of t8ime before it blows up. According to the Audi forums and various other petrol head and money forums around the country, EVERY SINGLE ONE of these cars is doomed to eat it’s own innards when the oil pump breaks.

really? There must be millions of them out there. So has anyone got a higher end VAG engine in their car of this nature that has done more than 60k which is still going? 2.0Tdi A4, A6, Passat, Superb are all affected apparently.

It’s certainly put me off Audi’s. Which is fine because I sat in a 5 series yesterday and fell in love.

You’re making a mistake by asking the question on the internet. There’ll now be a flurry of people who have never owned a 2.0TDI VAG engine who will tell you you’ll definitely die if you buy one and that you’re definitely better off waiting for a 3.0TDI which is a peach of a engine.

I’d look out the window and count the number of Audis (and Skodas, Seats and VWs) with 2.0TDI badges on the back. If they’ve all blown up, what the hell are they doing?

I’ve read that, got an 05 A4, with 90k on the clock. Had it from new.

Been fine so far….

* Just to add, if you’re looking at automatics then the Multitronic boxes from 2005>2008ish should be giving you the willies more than the engine. Its what put me off getting an A6.

Have a 2005 Touran 2.0 tdi. Other than turbo going recently (after 110000 remapped miles) it’s been faultless.

We’ve had an Octavia (2005) with that engine that managed 138k miles no problem and still going with new owner, now onto a Passat with the same engine (with a bit more power) and going fine at 50k and my dads been driving his post 2005 Passat for 2 years now with the same engine and no issues to report.

If the oil pumps break it will lunch the engine that is true. Not sure they are all doomed to go though!

Had 3 three 2.0 TDi VAG engined cars since 2005 and all have been mint with never a problem, last 2 got to 130k, 40k on no 3 atm.
My company leases VAG diesel cars, majority being the 2.0 Tdi and I have not heard of a single problem and they get worked hard :wink:.

55 reg A3 here. 118,000 miles with no issues since I bought in at 68k.
It’s got a DSG box too which also has lot’s of scare stories.
The 2.0TDI engine changed to common rail in 2008 and I think those have fewer scare stories.

Assuming you are referring to the oil pump splined drive shaft failure issue:

The oil pump drive shaft failed on my 2L tdi passat (06 plate) at 71k miles, EWL came on and said ‘low engine oil pressure turn off now!’. I was in L3 on the M1 at the time in morning rush hour. Got off at the next junction and turned off (about 30 secs of running at 70mph). towed to a garage and ended up with new oil pump and new turbo, rest of the engine was (and still is) fine.

You can bypass this issue (assuming it has not already failed) by replacing the oil pump with the newer model VAG sell to get around this issue. could be a couple of 100 quid but you will then have an engine that shouldn’t suffer from this failure.

The new oil pump kit has a splined shaft that is a lot longer than the old kit so doesn’t round off and stop turning the oil pump!

Just get a 3.2 petrol quattro. You know it makes sense… 😀

No turbo, no DPF, and EGR much less likely to clog up etc etc.

It’ll be so smooth you’ll think it’s running on double cream not petrol.

And £400 a year in road tax…

Brilliant, it all sounded a little bit suspect given the volume of cars that must be out there. Seriously, if you read some of the Audi forums they’ll have you believing there are huge piles of lunched engines somewhere which are simply unrepairable. If I do buy the one I looked at yesterday, which admittedly was very nice, (’08 A4 saloon, 60k on clock, drove wonderfully, very nice inside) I think I might get my friendly garage man to tell me what he thinks and do the work if he thinks it’s needed if it’s only a couple of hundred.

But it’s largely irrelevant right now because that Beemer was gorgeous. I don’t think I’ve ever sat in a nicer car. test drive it tomorrow.

To be fair to Audi, any car that has an oil pump die is unlikely to have a happy life afterwards.

These ones seem to have a far too short piece of metal connecting the pump to the engine. The pump is fine but the metal shears or the splines round off and the pump stops working. One fix is to stick an old 1.9 pump in or as above, use a longer rod.

Go for the 5.. Audi make some lovely cars don’t get me wrong, but I reckon the BMW driving dynamics extend to the majority of the range whereas Audi’s is more skewed to the serious end of the range… FWD on lower end stuff for example.

All my 2p worth of course

My mates Passat blew up 2 years ago with the oil pump spline failure and, at the time, all the parts to repair it were on back order.

His is a 55 plate 2.0 tdi he managed to find an engineering firm who deals with VW engines in everything from Fork Lifts to Boats and they modified it to fit an early oil pump.

Still cost a couple of grand. Apparently, it’s just certain engine codes and years which CAN suffer.

It was a problem with a poor oil pump/shaft design for the new 2.0 diesel engine. Only affected the 2005/2006 models if memory serves.

You’re looking at an 08, will be fine :)…….probably 😀

2008 Golf 2.0 TDI here, 62k, it’s nice. Biggest tale of woe seemed to be injector failure, which if you read online you’d think happens to every Golf ever with that engine, having not seen a raft of Golfs abandoned at the side of the road I decided to heed that with a pinch of salt.

Fine thus far.

If you buy the beemer, make sure the swirl flaps are removed, as they lunch the engine and are prone to fall off.
We’re all car doomed !!

Seriously, if you read some of the Audi any forums they’ll have you believing there are huge piles of lunched engines broken things somewhere which are simply unrepairable.

People shout about problems, people go searching for solutions/problems people who get along fine don’t shout about it.

TBF my dad ran an ’09 2.0tdi common rail VAG engine in a Golf from new to 140,000 over 4 years and had none of the above problems.

The DPF light came on once then went out. No oil pump, EGR, turbo issues etc.

Think the only bother he had was a leak in the boot and a new aircon unit which was quite expensive. He was charging up and down the motorway every day which probably helped matters.

nickewen

It’ll be so smooth you’ll think it’s running on double cream not petrol

It would be significantly cheaper to actually run it on double cream rather than petrol however….

Ha! It certainly would!

If you buy the beemer, make sure the swirl flaps are removed, as they lunch the engine and are prone to fall off.

Apparently only on the bigger engines, this one is a 2 litre only. I should stop listening to the internet . 😉

Go for the 5

Yeah, I’m pretty much sold already just by sitting in it. It felt just right. Looked great, fantastic smell of leather inside, low mileage.

A mate bought an 08 A4 Tdi a few weeks ago and the dual mass flywheel (along with some other bits) has already been replaced. He was quoted IRO £1000 parts and fitting, but his dealer did a goodwill gesture of only billing him £200 (half the parts cost).

That famed VAG build quality.

most modern diesels use a dual mass flywheel. most need replacing at some point. hardly unique to VAG group cars.

There’s even a facebook page about the oil pump issue!
https://www.facebook.com/AudidustAuto

I have a 2010 A3 2.0 TDI 140. Cost me £800 this week due to blocked EGR valve 🙁 That price included piss-takingly small goodwill discount.

Can’t say I’d ever heard of oil pump problems but I’ve given up reading horror stories as you’d never buy anything if you did.

2005 to present day covers multiple 2.0 TDI engines though (PD / CR / CR stop/start) + 130/140/160/170 bhp variants – working out what issues are endemic to which models makes by head hurt 🙁

That 400 quid road tax on the 3.2 petrol quattro is starting to look like a bit of bargain…