Concerned about potential oil balance shaft failure...

[daviemac11]

Hi,

i have a 2005 (Feb 05) 2.0TDI A4 Avant with the dreaded BLB engine code. As i'm sure you can understand, I'm becoming more and more concerned about the potential chance of my oil balance shaft failing and costing me a small fortune. To be honest, this constant worry is now beginning to ruin my enjoyment of owning the car.

What i'd like to know is, are there many other 2005 (05) owners with the BLB code that haven't had this problem as yet, and how concerned are they about the chances of this disaster occurring?

Davie.

 

[ukdan]

I have a february 2005 A4 thats done just over 100,000 miles and no problems so far! (im touching wood lol)
Problem with coming on internet forums is that you hear all the horror stories but i bet there is thousands of blb engines out there with no problems.
Don't worry about what if's just enjoy the car and deal with it if the time comes.
Hope this helps

 

[RMH1A4cab]

This is a quote from a master tech for audi from another forum , very highly regarded he fitted my cruise control.
He really does know what he is talking about


"There are various engine codes and the oil pump failure mainly covers affected vehicles which were recalled for the modification.
Few outside the vin range recalled (Workshop campaign 13D7) failed unless the previous owners failed to take there vehicles into the dealers.
If in doubt, ring your local audi dealer for a quick check of the history and outstanding campaigns

affected engine codes A4 engine code: BRD, BVF, BVA, BRE, BLB, BNA, BRF"

 

[Wrath]

I disagree, the widespread problem is not classified as a recall because Audi UK and Germany refuse to accept there is a fault. I was deeply concerned as you are Davie, and it did start to spoil my enjoyment. I accept that the internet is more a haven for horror stories but the fact is that there is an increasing number of vehicles with this fault and I don't think it's mileage dependant, more time dependant (some vehicles had only done 43k!). I paid for mine to get modified, decided on this approach rather than the worst case scenario of costing 7k for a whole new engine block. I got the work done with cambelt change at around 2k.

 

[daviemac11]

Thanks for the replies guys. My car currently has 72k miles on the clock and is running perfectly. I like yourself Dan, am just 'touching wood' that this continues. As you say there must be thousands of BLB engine codes that haven't suffered any problems what so ever.
I am tempted to look into getting the conversion done but then I feel it's a lot of money to spend on preventing something that may never happen, but then again....

At the moment I think I'll just try to enjoy the ownership of my car and 'hope' nothing goes wrong. None the less, I fully understand why you made the decision to have the conversion carried out wrath.

Thanks again for your thoughts guys.
All the best,
Davie.

 

[Paul B7]

I know of one BLB engine with 230k on the clock ,no problems.
I have a BLB engine with 60k on the clock,I listen for tell tale rattles and plan to have the oil pump conversion with the belt and pump done at the next major service. Reason being I keep my cars for a long ,long time (I had my last B5 for 10 years and the Audi 80 before for 9 years). In my area ( North east) I know of only one garage that has done the conversion ( Audi Teesside) and only one of my three local independant VAG specialists has done the conversion last time I made enquiries. Main dealer price in my area for the conversion with a new water pump and timing belt and tensioner will be just under £2000 as Wrath has advised.

 

[Wrath]

Paul offers some good advice, listen carefully for any noisy signs as you can get little other warning.

To be honest, for the conversion work I would suggest getting the dealer to do it as it can be a difficult procedure.