my 'Hildi'

[SnakeEater]

hi there!
that's the name i've given to my VW passat

have settled in Ipswich, bought a queenslander. from Germany. but before i did that we needed a car and it had to be a 'made in Germany' one... didn't even consider a mexican made Jetta or something... I wanted a Golf, but misses said car is to 'small', so compromised on a Passat!
oh, and it had to be the TDI... little did I know then about the 'Abgasskandal' aka. VW emissions scandal... lol mine is one of them...
have retro fitted some chines aliexpress LED DRL lights that match the original indicater lights, so they're bright white all day (and night) and when indicating they illuminate orange. looks quite nice...
no major issues with hildi so far- had a 'double flat' tyre once in a natinoal park (bummer...). now won't leave home without my second spare when going far away into np's. fan belt blew off once, flat battery. loose diesel filter pipe...


in the past I have found info off this forum a number of times while googleing, so I thought I register now, because I have somewhat a small dilemma, which im a bit frustrated about: (I'll put it in here anways- as supposed to my second post, maybe someone can give me some directions as to where to pop it in)

about a month ago hildi started throwing dash lights, the glow plug and engine light one- along with loosing a tiny bit of power irregulary. went away, came back again went away... car still driving fine. got myself a ross-tech cable and vcds software and scanned the error codes: throttle actuator body (intake manifold flap/anti-shudder valve) as well as airmass meter sensor not happy... did some googleing and went to VW to get a quote for the flap thingy- $450. they also said, it probably is that and not the sensor.
well, the other night I took out the thing and cleaned it with special spray (i know now this pointless). also opened up the gear body which is where i found a that one of the cogs has two broken teeth which is most likely the reason why the thing 'intermittently' failed aka. 'stuck open' or stuck closed. have put it all back together and back into car, cleared error's and so good so far.
i will have to get it replaced obviously and probably sooner rather than later, but $450 for a tiny, bloody plastic cog? ridiculous! any ideas? i have gotten a quote for a 'second hand' ie. from a wrecked car for $325, but to be honest that's even more insane-could fail the very next day after putting it in... but then I found this thing with the VW part number printed on their quote, online from europe for some $100 bucks less incl. freight and even more substantially less from china/aliexpress for some $125!. any thoughts or comments on that?
last question: according to my paperwork i have a 125TDI aka. 125KW, i think MY09 but built in 08. that means it's got the CBBB engine- does it make a difference in this particular part (the intake manifold flap) as supposed to the 100KW or 103KW 2.0 TDI engines, ie. i think CBA... engine code? reason im asking is, because I keep finding the online resources only mention the later, but not the CBBB engine to be a fit for the VW # 03L128063AF (the flap).

thanks for reading/ your time!
cheers, Oliver

[sports racer]

Hi Oliver, welcome to the forum.

You should post this in the Passat section. No-one reads the Newbies.

For my 2c worth if the plastic gear isn't under much stress then the cheap Chinese one should be ok.

Cheers

Paul