Care And Feeding Of Your 2.0 CR TDI, or "The Only Good TDI Is An Old TDI.
*Long Rant/Read. I Said What I Said*
I've owned my 13 Passat TDI with the CKRA 2.0 CR TDI enginefor around 3 or so years now.
It's a nice comfy mid sized sedan that gets excellent fuel economy. Perfect for my daily work commute, and road trips.
I got it after a 2.5 year dalliance with a 15 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, that was a replacement for my 05 Golf TDI that someone hit head on one night.
So if it gets great fuel economy, and is a great road trip and commuter car, why am I finally thinking after 3 years, I might have made a mistake?
Because, Volkswagen. That's why.
Hear me out. I've had a few TDIs before this one.
A 96 and 97 Passat TDI both with 5 speeds. These were my first VWs and got me into TDIs.
I also had the 05 Golf TDI that unfortunately had a Tiptronic Automatic, but was a car that I absolutely loved. Hell, it even saved my life in the accident that took it out.
Aside from the fuel economy, and the ability to tinker with and modify these cars, they were reliable and very long lived.
The 96 and 97 Passats had over 275K on them and probably another 250K or more if they were taken care of. The Golf had 250K on it when it was taken out by that dumbass kid, and was still running strong until then.
My 13 Passat TDI? 🥸
It doesn't exactly inspire me with its longevity.
VW seems to have engineered a lot of "gotchas" into this generation of TDI that not only make it harder for a home mechanic to service, but actually seems intended to disable the car and force an owner to have a dealership or shop fix it.
Luckily, I have more than a few tools, some experience messing around with cars and a VCDS Scan Tool that have enabled me to try and keep up with the BS that VW has engineered the car with.
Even so, the fickle finger of fuckery has gotten me a few times, so I just wanted to do a write up to help a new 2.0 CR TDI Owner deal with stuff that will come up.
This applies specifically to the 7th Gen Passat TDI with the CKRA engine, but can be useful for other 2.0 CR TDI cars.
1. The Dieselgate "Fix"- certain cars were modified with additional hardware and software after VW got caught cheating during emissions testing. Naughty, naughty.
These "fixes" actually decreased fuel economy, made the cars less reliable and decreased HP and Torque.
In the case of the Passat with the CKRA it also introduced a particular "bug" that threw an error for Low DEF Level (with a full tank) and started a 200 Mile No Start Countdown.
VW has no idea why this happens only to Passats with the CKRA and can't clear the code.
A work around is to use your VCDS Scan Tool to reset the "No Start Countdown" every 200 miles.
The only supposed "fix" for this error was to change out the DEF Level Sensor/Heater in the DEF Tank and it would "possibly" clear the code.
However this wasn't guaranteed to work and involved dropping the DEF Tank, installing a $300-600 part and seeing if it fixed it.
I asked a local tech, what he would do if that didn't work. "Delete it", he said.
So do what you will with this information. 😏
2. 40K DSG Service - unfortunately the majority of 12-14 Passat TDIs are equipped with a DSG transmission. To this day I wish I'd waited for a manual TDI car, but I did what I did and now I have to live with it.
The DSG Transmission requires a filter and fluid change every 40K miles, which wouldn't be a big deal if it was just a drain and refill.
The factory procedure to service the DSG Transmission requires the vehicle on a level surface, special tools, a factory scan tool (VCDS), monitoring transmission fluid tempd and other assorted nonsense.
Or you can do it like I do, put the car up on a lift. Drain the fluid into a measuring pitcher, new filter and top back off with an additional .5 qts of whatever you drained out.
The hard (annoying) part is getting time on a lift and making sure no drained oil is spilled and measured accurately.
3. Fuel Injectors- Injectors started making a "nailing" noise when starting the engine cold that eventually went away as the engine warmed up. The noise was more obnoxious in cold weather.
Drove it like that for awhile until it threw a CEL, and started running really rough. Limped it home, and scanned with VCDS. Yup. Bad injector.
Sourced 4 new injectors ($600) and new torque to yield injector hold down bolts.
Install wasn't hard, but I had to use VCDS to "code" each injector serial number to the ECU for proper operation. 🙄
Again, having VCDS saved me from a dealership visit for something that should have been a simple remove and replace operation.
4. CP4 HPFP- The CKRA uses a CP4 High Pressure Fuel Pump instead of the more robust CP3 pump found in older CR Diesel engines. The CP4 has a tendency to fail internally, which contaminates the ENTIRE fuel system. Expect to pay $3500 plus to unf**k your car if this happens. 😳
Companies offer CP3 Conversion kits, which can cost up to $2K or so. Conversion kit, rebuilt/used pump and the timing belt needs to be removed and reinstalled for the conversion.
Whitbred Performance offers a CP4 Disaster Prevention Kit which isolates any debris from a grenaded CP4 Pump to the pump itself and a inline 3 micron filter. Kit runs just under $200.
5. Dual Mass Flywheel- the DSG Transmission is actually an Automatically shifted manual transmission that's equipped with a Dual Mass Flywheel that eventually will wear out and start making a very pronounced knocking noise at idle.
If left operating like that for a long time, it can eventually damage the transmission.
Unlike a manual transmission, you can't convert a DSG Transmission to a Single Mass Flywheel. So you get to buy a new ticking time bomb DMF( around $500) and have it installed (another $500 if your luvky) and wait for it to shit itself again.
6. Plastic Oil Filter Housing- CKRA and other CR TDI engines use a plastic oil filter housing that's water cooled and bolted to the block.
For some reason, there's an isolated passage in the filter housing that ALWAYS seems to fail. If you look at the picture, there are 4 passages. 3 of them have a gasket, while a lone passage has a single gasket. Hmm.🤔
When the lip on the ISOLATED water passage fails, blows out the gasket and allows all your coolant to dump and renders your car undriveable.
But "luckily" the other gasket protects the other passages from that nasty coolant leak so there's no oil/coolant contamination. Lucky, huh?😌
It gets better though. The oil filter housing is bolted to the block and buried under the Air/Water Intercooler, which has a ton if coolant hoses running to it.
You gotta drop the Intercooler, drain the Radiator, disconnect a bunch of hoses and pull the Radiator Fan and Air Filter for clearance. Then you can remove the Oil Filter Housing.
Enough of a hassle for the typical owner to say "Fu**it!" and shell out the $1500-2K to get it fixed at the dealership with the SAME damn part.
Do yourself a favor. Buy an aftermarket Aluminum Oil Filter Housing if you do it yourself. And don't forget the Torque To Yield Bolts for the OFH.
7. Oil Pump Hex Drive Shaft- evidently the oil pump is driven by a hex shaft that eventually rounds off at around 120k miles or so. There's a replacement part that is "supposed" to not round off. We'll see I guess. I ordered one and it should be here next Tuesday. $16, requires the oil pan to be dropped. Not sure if the timing belt is affected.
When the shaft rounds off the engine loses pressure and is supposed to shut itself off. Leaving you stranded wherever you are.
But hey! I'm sure the DEALERSHIP will be happy to fix it for you.
Fu**king Volkswagen.🥸
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