2.0TDi Oil Pump / Balancer shaft problems - the definitive guide! Audi VW Skoda SEAT

@tesh22 99% of the work is dropping the sump, because you need to support the engine from above and lower the subframe to get the sump off. So there is no point at all in just checking it unless you want to do the job twice.

It took me 2 full days to do, admittedly while taking my time, but it's not a job I would be wanting to do again any time soon. So just replace it while you are in there or don't even bother opening it up and hope for the best. Those are your 2 options in my honest opinion.
 
Mario said:
@tesh22 99% of the work is dropping the sump, because you need to support the engine from above and lower the subframe to get the sump off. So there is no point at all in just checking it unless you want to do the job twice.

It took me 2 full days to do, admittedly while taking my time, but it's not a job I would be wanting to do again any time soon. So just replace it while you are in there or don't even bother opening it up and hope for the best. Those are your 2 options in my honest opinion.
Click to expand...

Thanks Mario,

Still need to drop subframe on a cbab 2.0tdi horizontal mounted engine a3?
 
@tesh22 honestly I don't know as I have only done it on an A4 with a longitudinally mounted engine. I know with the VW Passat you can remove the sump in 30 minutes and it has a transverse mounted engine just like the A3, so maybe the A3 is just as easy, but you would need to double check that.
 
Mario said:
@tesh22 honestly I don't know as I have only done it on an A4 with a longitudinally mounted engine. I know with the VW Passat you can remove the sump in 30 minutes and it has a transverse mounted engine just like the A3, so maybe the A3 is just as easy, but you would need to double check that.
Click to expand...

Thanks, if thats the case do you know?, just to slide out hex key and inspect for peace of mind, do i need to lock engine in top dead centre?
 
@tesh22 no, so you not need to lock the engine at TDC as long as you DO NOT unbolt the balance shaft unit from the bottom of the engine. Just removing the hex key involves removing a very small circlip at the end which hold it in place and then she shaft just slides out. Mine was stuck due to starting to round off, it was wedged in place and needed pliers to free it off.

You WILL need to replace the circlip with a new one and you will also need 90* circlip pliers. Normal ones are too big, I had to grind mine down to fit the circlip as it is really small. I would recommend buying a few circlips from Audi so you have spares. They are really cheap (pennies) and getting them in advance will allow you to get suitable circlip pliers that fit them

Part number for the circlip is N 0122942

However, in saying that I thought the A3 never had a balance shaft at all?
 
Hi ..I have an Audi A4 b7 2.0tdi 2005 sline and as soon as I bought the car , i was searching for something else on a fit in here and soon come to realise I had the dreaded BLB engine. After a few days of sweating with fear , i took it to my local garage , to which the owner is an ex Audi tech. I bought a new kit from eBay ( I know not the best idea) bit was 125 quid I think and asked him to change it. He rang me up a few hours later and said I was so lucky as the hex shaft was nearly rounded off ! ..this was now 2 years ago and I am constantly worrying when I should get it done again. I have to admit I have spend thousands on this car now including matrix radiator , water pump and timing belt , 2 x throttle body failures , new EGR valve , dual mass flywheel and clutch , thermostat , 2 x temp sensors and 4 CV joints and glow plugs on order! These are not cheap to maintain and parts constantly failing , however I love the dam thing and will continue to keep going until it's time for scrap yard (hoping not to soon). So if you are considering buying an Audi stay well away from the BLB engine and go for a 1.9 not 2.0 l8tr..
 
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Just getting up to speed on this thread after buying a A3 170 quattro. Can I assume that my A3 has the newer 100mm hex shaft, as it is a 2011 a3, reg as a 10 plate? From what I am understanding, Audi rectified this from 2010 onwards? Is there a way to get this clarified without physically having to check it?
 
Mrlilywhite said:
Just getting up to speed on this thread after buying a A3 170 quattro. Can I assume that my A3 has the newer 100mm hex shaft, as it is a 2011 a3, reg as a 10 plate? From what I am understanding, Audi rectified this from 2010 onwards? Is there a way to get this clarified without physically having to check it?
Click to expand...
THE ONLY AFFECTED cars were the earlier A4,A6 2005-late 2007 a3 engines was not affected ,......also you now have the new cr tdi engine which is totally different and no issues.
 
That's incorrect information .

77mm persisted in VAG generally till Feb 2010 and affected early A4 B8 !
 
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vw754 said:
THE ONLY AFFECTED cars were the earlier A4,A6 2005-late 2007 a3 engines was not affected ,......also you now have the new cr tdi engine which is totally different and no issues.
Click to expand...

Wrong!

Evidence of A3 affected everywhere
https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/worn-oil-pump-hex-drive-shaft-on-my09-2-0-tdi.274775/

Note - Iv had my A3 4 months now, still not had a chance to check the HEX key yet and just feel like im driving a time bomb that will just fail anyday. On a positve note I found a local garage that will fit the kit pretty cheap (I supply) soon.
 
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Mario said:
@tesh22 no, so you not need to lock the engine at TDC as long as you DO NOT unbolt the balance shaft unit from the bottom of the engine. Just removing the hex key involves removing a very small circlip at the end which hold it in place and then she shaft just slides out. Mine was stuck due to starting to round off, it was wedged in place and needed pliers to free it off.

You WILL need to replace the circlip with a new one and you will also need 90* circlip pliers. Normal ones are too big, I had to grind mine down to fit the circlip as it is really small. I would recommend buying a few circlips from Audi so you have spares. They are really cheap (pennies) and getting them in advance will allow you to get suitable circlip pliers that fit them

Part number for the circlip is N 0122942

However, in saying that I thought the A3 never had a balance shaft at all?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the response.

A3 does indeed https://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/worn-oil-pump-hex-drive-shaft-on-my09-2-0-tdi.274775/
 
Gazwould said:
That's incorrect information .

77mm persisted in VAG generally till Feb 2010 and affected early A4 B8 !
Click to expand...
So with mine being a Jan 2011, would it be wise to assume that the Hex key is the more robust design of the two now?
 
audi upgrades
I have a 55 plate A6 Avant (reg Dec 05) with 2.0 TDi BRE engine and have just fallen foul of the oil pump problem. It toasted the turbo and all the usual timmings too. I've had it six months from 105k miles, it has 112k miles on it now and an Audi FSH up to 91k when they did the cam belt plus a couple of services since then at local garages. I'm gutted with the car as a whole after my much loved 1.9 A6 was still going strong after 325k miles, but hey ho, that's progress for yer and another story.

I have got the sump open and the balancer off and I am intending to use the KMB kit to fix it. Reading here and Elsawin the re-fitting gives clear instructions for timing the balancer, but the gear driven balancer on mine does not have the same timing notch. There is a flat milled on the driving balancer shaft at the opposite end from the oil pump. Pic attached

The idler and driving balancer shafts both have paint blobs and there is a floating pointer ring (I assume) on the idler gear.

Does anybody know what the alignment should be for that type of balancer. What series or designation is it?

Thanks in advance
 

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RichardShute said:
I have a 55 plate A6 Avant (reg Dec 05) with 2.0 TDi BRE engine and have just fallen foul of the oil pump problem.
<..snipped..>

Does anybody know what the alignment should be for that type of balancer. What series or designation is it?

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Mystery solved:
it is the standard notch, just so sludged up and black I missed the detail. Sorry for the fuss.
Richard
 
Hello all,anyone knows were I can do the ballance shaft 100 mm conversion on a 2008 passat 2.0tdi bkp engine in or near Colchester?Any reply would be helpfull. Just bought the car and only read the horror stories after .
 
Hi Alex,
I got the parts from
https://www.kmbpartsdirect.co.uk/
and did the job myself. Not a pleasant few days grovelling under the car in this weather, but that's life.
You probably need to find a garage who's willing to do the work using the non-OEM parts. Obviously Audi will charge you the full monty for both the parts and labour. The KMB parts are a quantum leap above the pathetic attempt from VAG which is blindly optimistic.
I'm now looking for a low mileage, older 1.9, everything about this 2.0 aggravates me, there's not a single aspect anywhere on the car where I don't greatly prefer the older model I had and enjoyed for years. This is a dreadful car, 'though I know much of the garbage is now standard across all makes and models.
Good luck
Richard
 
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RichardShute said:
Hi Alex,
I got the parts from
https://www.kmbpartsdirect.co.uk/
and did the job myself. Not a pleasant few days grovelling under the car in this weather, but that's life.
You probably need to find a garage who's willing to do the work using the non-OEM parts. Obviously Audi will charge you the full monty for both the parts and labour. The KMB parts are a quantum leap above the pathetic attempt from VAG which is blindly optimistic.
I'm now looking for a low mileage, older 1.9, everything about this 2.0 aggravates me, there's not a single aspect anywhere on the car where I don't greatly prefer the older model I had and enjoyed for years. This is a dreadful car, 'though I know much of the garbage is now standard across all makes and models.
Good luck
Richard
Click to expand...
Hi Richard,thanks for your reply mate.How many miles have you done since you made the upgrade,also ever had problem with your injectors?
 
Also when you changed the shaft ,did you used the same bolts on the balancer assembly ? Thanks mate
 
I've done barely 1000 miles since the repair. Yes, I used the same bolts, torques as per the Elsawin Manual (ie 20Nm + 90degrees).

As others have remarked, the main aggro is getting the sump open on the A6, not sure about the Passat. The two rear most sump bolts are some sick-o's idea of torture; they're not even Torx which would help - I would have replaced with Torx, but M7 is unhelpfully rare. I ground down an over-size Allen key to be a light hammer fit into the head of the bolts to avoid stripping the hexagon in the head. I could feel it starting to happen and if it had, it's curtains for the car short of a sledge hammer to smash the sump off.

Once the sump is open it's pretty straight forward, just messy. There's a bizzare number of different bolt heads and sizes, possibly to ensure they go in the right places. You will need the VAG-favourite 12-point like-a-Torx drivers to get some of the bolts out too. It's easiest if you remove just the bolts holding the whole balancer chassis to the block, then break the balancer assembly on the bench.
The circlip for the oil pump drive is an "internal 8mm" DIN472-8.

So far I have not had problems with the injectors, that delight no doubt yet to come - if I have the car that long.
 
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Hi sorry to resurrect this post - but looking for some help

I have a 2012 Q5 2.0TDI - couple of weeks ago was driving and suddenly had coil warning light flash and car went into limp mode (no oil pressure warning). Quickly followed by loads of white smoke and metallic noise. Stopped and taken by RAC to garage (where it was due to have MOT that day).

Diagnosed that turbo had gone and was identified that caused by oil starvation (only diagnosed after they fitted new turbo ??), so have fitted replacement oil balancer unit (obtained off eBay shop).

Since they have fitted and restarted car - replacement turbo has now failed and I am being told that its due to metal contaminates in oil that were not found before (they say wasn't any present in oil they removed when fitting turbo and the new oil pump module)??? Outcome being I need a new engine and another turbo

I'm not at all a technical guy, so looking for help with this all. I'm wondering :-

Would the oil pump failure have caused this?
Would it not have been obvious that there was contamination in the engine at the time of the turbo replacement? Should the garage not have removed all chance of this? Where would the metal be hiding as I assume it would have been spread throughout??
Anything else I should know?

I've gone form a heavy bill of £2400 for 1st turbo and oil module to god knows how much!!

Any help would be fantastic
 
wilsonneil said:
Hi sorry to resurrect this post - but looking for some help

I have a 2012 Q5 2.0TDI - couple of weeks ago was driving and suddenly had coil warning light flash and car went into limp mode (no oil pressure warning). Quickly followed by loads of white smoke and metallic noise. Stopped and taken by RAC to garage (where it was due to have MOT that day).

Diagnosed that turbo had gone and was identified that caused by oil starvation (only diagnosed after they fitted new turbo ??), so have fitted replacement oil balancer unit (obtained off eBay shop).

Since they have fitted and restarted car - replacement turbo has now failed and I am being told that its due to metal contaminates in oil that were not found before (they say wasn't any present in oil they removed when fitting turbo and the new oil pump module)??? Outcome being I need a new engine and another turbo

I'm not at all a technical guy, so looking for help with this all. I'm wondering :-

Would the oil pump failure have caused this?
Would it not have been obvious that there was contamination in the engine at the time of the turbo replacement? Should the garage not have removed all chance of this? Where would the metal be hiding as I assume it would have been spread throughout??
Anything else I should know?

I've gone form a heavy bill of £2400 for 1st turbo and oil module to god knows how much!!

Any help would be fantastic
Click to expand...
Did you replace the oil feed pipe that runs from the engine to turbo?
it's the aluminium one.

was the turbo primed before the engine was started?

leave the old turbo on,drain oil,fill it up with cheap new oil,warm it up,flush the engine with engine flush,fit new turbo/turbo feed pipe and new oil and oil filter.


there is no faults known on that engine with balance shaft failure/oil pum failure.....its only on models upto 2008/2009 after that they have been rectified.
could be many things,turbo not primed(would not cause failure straight away)
if old turbo had broken,should of had the sump removed and checked for metal filings,engine flushed,new oil feed pipe,new oil,new oil filter(check oil filter housing for bits of metal) then should of cranked the engine a few time's without starting so new turbo was getting oil fed straight away without being starved for a few seconds.
 
Hello VAG fans, I have a SKODA OCTAVIA VRS , 2.0 CR , production october 2010, with 170 hp and i don't know if i have this terible problem, if i have a balancer or not . I tried to find out, but only for VW and AUDI this information is clear. Can anyone help me ?

Thanks a lot !!
 
Check your engine number and if it's a BLB then possibility and if diesel ? ..it should give your engine code on your log book. It was more the 2005 -2006 model
 
audi upgrades
Skoda is diesel 2.0 tdi, CEGA engine,170hp. The serial number is TMBUH61Z0B2050589...but i can't find info concerning if skoda has this balancer or not
 
Greetings from Canada. I see this is an ongoing post from many years ago.. I have read most of this info and find it very interesting and helpful. I have a 2005 passat 2.0 TDI. And it's time to replace my balance shaft as it's making noise and about to explode. Can anyone please tell me where to purchase an upgraded version of the complete balance shaft geared BSM version ? I'm pretty sure you guys can guide me in the right direction. Cheers and thank you.
Nick
 
Thank you vw754.
I have sourced 2 other companies.
Kmb parts.
Power max engineering.

Any other companies you would recommend?
Thank you
Nick.
 
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Thank you.
I'l have more reading to do. I need to find out if the kmb has completely manufactured or hardened the actual dual balance shaft impellers where the hex key goes into. I was reading earlier that there is no sense inserting a hardened hex key if the accepting shaft is soft metal or will round off as well.
 
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I emailed KNB and this was their response;

The 100mm hex key is a standard VW / Audi hex key. Just as a comparison a normal Allen key is hardened to 50 Rockwell where as a hex key is hardened to 70 Rockwell.
If it was any harder it would be too hard for the twisting action it incurs and too brittle and snap.

The balance shaft is re-bushed using a slightly harder steel than the standard balance shaft steel

Our success is not in the hardness of the steel but how we machine our components.

The standard 77mm drive key drives on approximately 12 - 15mm depending on the size of the chamfer on the balance shaft. 12 - 15mm is not enough drive purchase for the drive key and balance shaft to drive the oil pump. This is why it is a weak point and they all fail.
Our 100mm drive keys drive on 40mm of drive purchase and the drive key is virtually a perfect fit in the balance shaft. This is why our balance shafts never fail and we can offer a lifetime guarantee of the balance shaft
 
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Hi All, newbie here, great forum full of priceless knowledge! I have spent last 2 months looking for a Audi estate runaround for the wife and nearly pulled a trigger on B7 2007, but as I tend to do at least some homework before this sort of purchase I came across this tread. Following this, I had a look for a 1.9 tdi and found an ebay advert with one from 2008 that seem to have suffered the same faith. I'm almost thinking of getting her a 2006 B7 3.0 V6 for around 3.5k and use the money I'll save on the repairs of the cheaper and problematic 2.0 tdi to pay for some of the extra fuel she will use. She will have a decent run to work on mainly A roads with not much traffic and I could enjoy V6 quattro for a weekend bit of fun. Or fork out 2k+ more and get the later model.
 
B7 bit of a nightmare .

2.0 tdi , oil pump drive .

2.0 petrol tensioner on balancer shaft.

1.9 tdi top con rod bearing shells spot welding and rod out block .

3.0 tdi , injectors .
 
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Are the injectors a biggie money wise? There is a couple out there with some reasonable mileage and she will only do about 10-15k a year. Looks like I may be heading for a mid term onwards B8 then.. We had a Skoda Octavia estate 2008 2.0tdi PD and with just a very basic servicing it did over 320k km and is still taking the niece to uni now. Only after I have passed the car on I have found out about all the issues..
 
Gazwould said:
What was the Octavia engine code ?
Click to expand...
Oh I would not know that, it was LHD purchased in Czech and it's been gone for over a year now. I had MK1 Octavia before that with the 1.9 tdi and that one did 360k km and is still running daily with my brothers missus to the stables and literally does 60mpg regularly. I feel like I'm starting from scratch with my search now, doh!
 
Make sure you avoid the BLB engine code, due to the oil balance shaft failing ! ..they all have issues however that's the worst as the engines seize up. I have changed on mine si far (B7 BLB)also EGR valve twice in 4 years , EGR cooler leaked , starter motor , fuel pump (cheap as a PD) , water pump twice , CV joints go quite regular although not bad to change due to being able to separate from gearbox and hub, Battery , Dual mass flywheel and clutch , matrix radiator, throttle valve and awaiting dor injector seals to be changed. These are unreliable and would advise to leave the 2.0 tdi alone
 
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