2004 Volkswagen Passat

Sedan

2.0L 1967CC 120Cu. In. l4 DIESEL SOHC Turbocharged

Automatic

wvwpe63b94e284091

Clear

Diesel

No Maryland bidders please. For this price I will not be offering state inspection services for Maryland buyers. Bought this car in 2012 with a bad transmission and 265k miles for $4k. Timing belt was done at 250k miles. Rebuilt transmission/torque converter 2 yrs/15k miles ago. Cost $2150 plus $100 for new mineral oil. While the trans was out, I pulled the engine and replaced the oil pump chain and tensioner, which is a documented weakness in the 04/05 Passat 2.0L TDI design. Cost $350 Intake ports cleaned. All turbo pipe gaskets replaced. Cost $50 Turbo intercooler removed and cleaned inside. New motor mounts. Cost $125 It does have some smoke at startup after sitting for extended periods. (Typical for diesels) No smoke while driving. Have observed 35-42mpg. Computer reports 38mpg average per tank. No oil consumption. Front fender wheel wells, rust repaired. Another latent design defect for 04/05 Passat. Left rear door minor collison repair, poor paint blend. Paint has good gloss but has its fair share of scars and chips New brakes/rotors front/rear in 2012. Cost $150 New battery in 2012. Cost $110 All told, with all the major and minor repairs I have $7500 invested since 2012. Anyone who knows these TDI engines knows they will run easily for 500k miles. With the rebuilt transmission, this car is now in its mid-life. Questions/Answers:Dear digitaltoyman, Why sell the car after all the work you have put into it? Does the car have any reason it would not pass Md. inspection? What MPG do you get with it being an automatic? Dan.- explorerdan Dear explorerdan, Actually .....I'm a big fan of VW diesels. In 2012 I was layed-off. I decided to try and turn that passion for VW into a car flip business. I bought two 2004s and one 2005 Passat TDI with bad transmissions. I worked a deal with a transmission shop in NJ to rebuild the trans for the $2100 price I mention in the posting and he would allow me to pass the 1yr unlimited mileage warranty to the new owners. I did all the work to pull them and re-install them. I did a bumper to bumper inspection of each car and fixed everything that was wrong with them. I also replaced the oil chain and tensioner on all 3. One of the 2004s and the 2005 had less than 150k miles and they sold easily and I made a profit on each. The mileage on this 2004 made it difficulot to sell so I held onto and used the car to run back and forth to my Dad's nursing home which was an hour away. He passed away recently and now the car basically goes out for the weekly walmart run. As I mentioned in the posting, the computed mpg is around 38. It depends on the direction. Going down to my Dad's I have seen up to 42mpg. Returning home was generally 38. If I run the AC on a hot day, its 35. Thanks for looking Mike - digitaltoyman ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Dear digitaltoyman, Did you replace the chain or do the gear drive balance shaft? These trans seem to have issues. I would not want to have trans problems in the near future. Do they upgrade the trans when they rebuild them? Some factory parts are not so good and aftermarket has a fix for these problems. So will this trans work as good as new or possibly better? - explorerdan I purchased the oil pump overhaul kit off eBay in the UK. It had the chain, tensioner, chain guide, shaft and new bolts. The transmission on the TDI is made by ZF. What happened to all of the ones I bought was the torque beat the hell out of the sleeve bearing on the pump assembly where the torque converter slides in. Then the seal goes, the trans looses fluid and then goes bad. The rebuild kit was a full ZF factory "A" kit... no generics. It contains all new frictions, bearings and pump assembly. Rebuilt vs new is always debated. Rebuilt weeds out all the infant mortality issues found in new ones. The A kits are very comprehensive. I personally trust the guy who rebuilt all my units. The fact that he allowed me to pass along the warranty to the new owner was a huge plus for me. The 1 year unlimited mileage warranty period for this 04 has passed without incident. The following is a summary of the differences between a stock gasser ZF trans and the GMR model used in the TDI. 1. unique heavy duty torque converter 2. 2 of the sub-assemblies bolted onto the valve body are unique to the GMR 3. different gear set (due to the lower rpm of the TDI engine) To my knowledge, everything else is identical. It is suspected that the reason the 2.0L was only used for 04/05 in the Passat was the oil pump issue. It is also suspected that high way miles did not aggravate the problem. Stop and go seemed to be the issue. Out of the 3 cars I tore down, only one showed any wear. It was the 05 which was used by the owner to do deliveries. Its only one data point, but I think the web forum guys have it right. Mike