Balance shaft failure survey - please help us gather facts and figures

SDHA4SLine

SDHA4SLine

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Hi all,

I've created an online survey in order to try and get some facts & figures regarding the age old subject of oil pump / balance shaft failures on VAG 2.0TDi engines.

The survey is a free online tool which only allows 100 responses per month so it’s not that great but it’s a start, or maybe I'm being a little optimistic thinking I would get that many answers! Anyway if anyone can spare a few minutes to complete the survey I would be grateful thank you.

Please note this survey is not just for vehicles that have had oil pump / balance shaft failures, we also want to gather data from people who have not had failures.

Link to survey below
http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/141931QPZIS

P.S. don't worry no email or personal details are stored as none are asked for
clip_image001.gif
. It really will take you only a few minutes to complete.
 
This survey is very interesting (if enough people answer ), cheers for setting it up. I just filled in my info. How many answers so far?
 
Well the failures have been happening for some time so there has to be more , 1 seller of the remanufactured balancer shaft reported selling 5 a week.

But how many Audi lifers have left the fold because of this under engineering abomination and the dealers absolute denial that aren't here to partake in the survey ?
 
Just as a thought if you included the petrol vehicles with oil pump/balance shaft failures you might even have a bigger prize pool.
 
jussis said:
This survey is very interesting (if enough people answer ), cheers for setting it up. I just filled in my info. How many answers so far?
Click to expand...
Almost too embarrassing to say currently!
 
Giosabcsl said:
Just as a thought if you included the petrol vehicles with oil pump/balance shaft failures you might even have a bigger prize pool.
Click to expand...
Oh, I thought this was purely a deisel problem. It's a bit late now as if I add new questions I have to reset it and clear all previous entries.
 
Gazwould said:
Well the failures have been happening for some time so there has to be more , 1 seller of the remanufactured balancer shaft reported selling 5 a week.

But how many Audi lifers have left the fold because of this under engineering abomination and the dealers absolute denial that aren't here to partake in the survey ?
Click to expand...
yeah I do appreciate theres gonna be lots, I was just trying to get some more people to fill it in tbh ;)
 
I'm kind of hoping over the months we will see a huge amount of failures so I can try to see trends in mileage, service history and engine codes. Gonna be an hard task though as the survey tool is so basic ( unless I pay for an upgrade ) I may have to manually type it all into a separate excel document to do some pivot table magic.

I may well regret starting this !
 
Only 3 failures, I'm beginning to think this is all forum bulls**t about oil pump / balance shaft issues
 
Thanks, failure or no failure it all help build a better picture
 
I'll fill it in no probs, but yeh think it's maybe a few years late to be honest
 
Thanks to those that have taken the time to fill in the survey. No where near enough to analyse yet but so far it remains very low on the failure rate.
 
NOOO, don't tell me that, adds credence to Audi's lame excuse that I was "unlucky" that it failed..pah !
 
So far BRD most reliable (not sure why I'm getting a modified shaft fitted next Monday now;))
 
Last time I'm gonna push this back top top.

Thanks to all that spared a few minutes to fill in the survey, seems we've not got the uptake required to make sense of it all.
 
A few points to note re the lack of response to your survey :
  • Dont' forget a lot of those with the failures have moved on to other cars and the new owners won't know about the issues.
  • There are also lots of Audi owners who aren't on this forum
  • The B7 are old cars now and a lot will have been scrapped.
 
Yeah I agree with you it just surprised me that we only have 6 failures recorded. Seems as how all the 2.0tdi are a said to be "ticking time bombs" I really expected people to jump at the chance to let us know their disappointment regarding this subject.
 
maybe its not as big a problem as one might think, i supose given the volume of engines produced that fall within this category the failure rate may be quite low, dont forget this will be a global thing not just within the uk, i would think a lot of engine units would have been produced and failures may be within the accpeted design etc.
just a thought chaps.
also differing countries will have different recalls etc for issues, just like the 2.0tfsi pcv valve, in the states alot were repalced under warranty etc whereas over here they are not .
 
Yeah it does feel like the UK customers are second best most times regarding recalls
 
If my car had the engine in question I would have certainly completed the survey, however, hope this does generate some useful information in the future. Keep it ticking along and it prob deserves a bump every now and again?

Reading forums can induce paranoia :dejection::eek: ........;) (all of our cars arent out to get us are they ?)
 
Of course there is induced paranoia through Internet speculation .

But when an independent article is written and an engineering fault is declared !
 
I have the 'dreaded' BLB unit and since hearing of the issue (thanks audisport) i've always had this niggling at the back of my mind, however i have started looking at it this way, there are at best probrably 3-400 people that are on here/ have been on here because of this issue, that figure compared to the thousands of 2.0tdi's made by audi is likely to be very small and (to audi) maybe insignificant. Im not trying to justify that audi should recall and update a 'bad" design but i for one will fix the issue if it arrises, I'm not going to spend money on something that is potentially fine. Many of these unit see over 200k miles and many report them as still going strong, i suppose its just luck of the draw

But thats just my 2 pence worth
 
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A friend with a B8 had his fail over Christmas. I won't be filling in the survey, sorry, I have no info.
 
all car and engine manafactures are guilty of this sort of thing, some more than others to be honest, if you could get hold of the data and production figures etc you'd find that the percentage of failures through actual poor design faults were quite low, normally if its a real big issue they will do a recal or offer something similar, but the fault etc does have to meet specific criteria first. there are so many variables involved with engines etc and mechanical things full stop that can affect how parts work or fail.

if you bought a car with 100k on the clock , with lets say 2 previous owners,full dealer service history etc, there is no way you can be 100% how that car has been run/treated and serviced prior to you, its just impossible no matter how good it looks etc, the only way to know a cars true service history etc is if you have owned from day 1, anyone can say it was looked after for years and has allways been serviced etc, words are just words .
A full dealer service history is allways prefered as it should give details of recal work etc and other relavant data but it doesnt remove the element of doubt over how the car has been run/used inbetween services.
service history is just that, its no guarantee that a car wont fail , stop or explode 2 days after you take ownership of it, its just a record of work carried out on the car and by whome, and one shouldnt take it as gospel that it makes that car any less likely to be problematic, ( trust me , been there recently).
 
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Sorry but I think this is asking the wrong questions. Most oil pump fails damage the turbo in the TDi engine = new engine £4k.They are common but the engines are now in older cars, Audi Driver magazine in Nov 2012 had a long article about it.
There was a large thread on here with 1800 contributions and over 250k views.
My own experience with a A4 S Line Avant 170 Quattro with black optic pack was that the oil pump fail necessitated a new engine. The service advisors denied that they had seen it before, subsequent investigation showed that 2 others were in the shop for new engines because of the fault. Audi UK reaction was awful, Dominic Stephenson Audi UK Customer Service Executive said' The car is only guaranteed for 3 years' the car was in its 5th year with 90+k miles with full dealer service history. I was incensed and vowed to sue the dealer under Sale of Goods, but legal prevarication made that difficult.
I spoke to several independent garages who effect repairs for this problem and they all stated they were seeing more of the oil pump fails at the rate of 1 a week to 2 a month, I think I spoke to 7 such garages from the North East and Midlands, main dealers wont give you the information. VoSA have written to Audi UK about the problem but wont share the correspondence under Freedom of Information as it is commercially sensitive.
VAG has other problems now with the emission scandal, however my research mainly on this site has shown that many Audi 'Prestige' cars have expensive niggling problems which Audi will not acknowledge as faults.
In regard with the oil pumps I did hear that in the USA they settled cases when threatened with a class action.
I will never ever have another Audi, or any VAG car again and know several people who feel the same
 
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Spyboy said:
Sorry but I think this is asking the wrong questions. Most oil pump fails damage the turbo in the TDi engine = new engine £4k.They are common but the engines are now in older cars, Audi Driver magazine in Nov 2012 had a long article about it.
There was a large thread on here with 1800 contributions and over 250k views.
My own experience with a A4 S Line Avant 170 Quattro with black optic pack was that the oil pump fail necessitated a new engine. The service advisors denied that they had seen it before, subsequent investigation showed that 2 others were in the shop for new engines because of the fault. Audi UK reaction was awful, Dominic Stephenson Audi UK Customer Service Executive said' The car is only guaranteed for 3 years' the car was in its 5th year with 90+k miles with full dealer service history. I was incensed and vowed to sue the dealer under Sale of Goods, but legal prevarication made that difficult.
I spoke to several independent garages who effect repairs for this problem and they all stated they were seeing more of the oil pump fails at the rate of 1 a week to 2 a month, I think I spoke to 7 such garages from the North East and Midlands, main dealers wont give you the information. VoSA have written to Audi UK about the problem but wont share the correspondence under Freedom of Information as it is commercially sensitive.
VAG has other problems now with the emission scandal, however my research mainly on this site has shown that many Audi 'Prestige' cars have expensive niggling problems which Audi will not acknowledge as faults.
In regard with the oil pumps I did hear that in the USA they settled cases when threatened with a class action.
I will never ever have another Audi, or any VAG car again and know several people who feel the same
Click to expand...

I was just trying to gather some information, what should I have asked then?
 
It would be interesting to know the number of cars sold and the number of cars with oil pump/balance shaft issues
 
Matt10160 said:
I have the 'dreaded' BLB unit and since hearing of the issue (thanks audisport) i've always had this niggling at the back of my mind, however i have started looking at it this way, there are at best probrably 3-400 people that are on here/ have been on here because of this issue, that figure compared to the thousands of 2.0tdi's made by audi is likely to be very small and (to audi) maybe insignificant. Im not trying to justify that audi should recall and update a 'bad" design but i for one will fix the issue if it arrises, I'm not going to spend money on something that is potentially fine. Many of these unit see over 200k miles and many report them as still going strong, i suppose its just luck of the draw

But thats just my 2 pence worth
Click to expand...


Very much agree here.

Unfortunately, even some of the biggest car enthusiast forums experiencing the majority having issues relative to one another, eventually it causes such a degree of panic, it costs the average joe hundreds of pounds to fix said issue on a 'just in case' basis.

I am also *touch wood* in the clear, and I'm finding it very hard to justify 500-1000 to get all of these so called 'inevitable' issues resolved, when I may never have them.

My friend (ex vw, audi mechanic, now with a rescue service) said in the grand scheme of things, when he was spending his first year completing services and light engine repairs, he would rarely see a car come in with these symptoms. And when you compare a dealer garage that will have the member intake covered in one week of garage visits, it's hard to argue we may be jump the gun slightly.
 
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Have you mentioned this survey on other VAG based forums and also on ASN A3, A5 etc.
 
Nope only member on here, it's well old and given up on it a long time ago as participation was very low
 
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Besides that I'm not sure I can even remember how to log on to get the results now!
 
At the time yes as everyone had their own opinions so I tried (and failed) something new.
 
I would have asked how many engines had been replaced as a result of the failure.
I would have asked how many people had contacted Audi UK and what the response had been.
In reality the problem has worked its way through to the stage where the affected cars are now older and unlikely to still be dealer maintained, so VAG just had to ride the storm by denying the problem knowing that the problem would go away.
This is not the way to treat loyal customers but they have demonstrated they are not interested in repeat business. When I discussed with the Audi UK rep the comments on this forum and Audi FB page he said this forum wasn't supported by Audi and the FB page is the responsibility of the social media team!! So that s all right then!
 
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