B7 TDI - high mileage - when to replace + EGR cost?

[TomH]

Morning all,

I've had my MY14 B7 TDI pretty much since new. It's now up to 170k. It's been pretty reliable - from memory I've had some suspension stuff (replaced with Bilsteins), a water pump failure around 90k so they also did the timing. It's had the engine warning light on for a while - our mechanic reset it, but it came back on again. Fault is associated with the EGR / catalytic system. Hasn't given me a quote yet but based on his last experience was saying the VW part was around $1200 and was a prick of a job to do, but that wasn't on a passat. He's usually pretty good - old school, been servicing our cars for years.

Our other car is a petrol Prado, also with a few miles. I was mentioning to him last year about we were thinking of getting rid of that, and his response was that I should get rid of the Passat first as it's more likely to go wrong and cost a lot more. He reinforced this again in my recent service. Was always the plan to change it out around 10 years old or so, but if I could get a few more years out of it would be good.

Appreciate that you don't know my car. Obviously it will need the EGR sorted (interested in your thoughts on cost for this). Then around $200k it will need timing belt done, and potentially some more stuff when they open up. So it's more a decision based on potential future cost. If replaced I would probably go with another wagon - superb / b8 passat / mazda 6. I've had B8's as service cars and they aren't much different.

What's your experience with higher mileage Passats (or WV TDI's)? Is there a tipping point where major items kick in? Can't really sell it with the engine light on, so the decision is whether I shift it after getting this fixed.

Cheers,

Tom

[Lucas_R]

The 2.0TDI engine and 6 speed DSG gearbox in your car are pretty bulletproof with a good maintenance schedule. I wouldnt consider 170,000kms to be high for a diesel - but at those kilometers you will have things like suspension bushes/engine mounts/seals in the engine starting to need replacing. The EGR's on just about every diesel engine will leak and give you trouble at some stage - so id say its just a maintenance item. As you are aware, these engines need the timing belt replaced every 100,000km or so, so you will have that again soon, as well as your DSG gearbox will need another service (presumably its had 2x prior services already) at around 180,000km.

Sounds like you have already replaced shock absorbers at some stage, which probably died earlier than they should have due to our terrible roads making them work hard.

The machanic is probably right in saying that the VW would be more likely to have a problem over the Prado, but in saying that, both cars are getting on and will have issues start to pop up simply due to the age of the cars.