[jonhahn99]

Have wanted a V10 for years, finally one came up on an Ebay search (with no PPI and pretty bad pictures) but was priced OK so I went down to SoCal and drove it back. At the time, I figured if it didn't start or was even more beat up I'd just hold on to my check and fly back home. Fortunately, I didn't have to do that and the inspection done after I made it back to NorCal said the machine was mostly good aside from a known at time of purchase oil leak, which I currently believe is the oil filter housing. I'll be tackling that repair at some point, I'm working on getting all the parts together shortly.

Aside from anxiety around not having a service history and being worried about things like cam wear, DPF failures, driveshaft failures, the car's been great in the last two months... just got some new tires, a complete interior detail, and used Liqui-Moly engine flush (2 bottles) and swapped in Mobil1 ESP 507 spec oil. Fuel filter was slightly dirty but not too bad and gave me a chance to run some diesel purge. Replaced both engine air filters also, and ran some liqui-moly DPF protector. Cabin filter and fan were really beat up and needed replacement, but work wonderfully now. Got the radio code for the factory radio for $8 from a seller on ebay, which surprisingly worked. On deck in July is replacing both trunk struts, getting an exterior detail, getting some leather repair done on the driver's bolster, and replacing the driver's seat buckle (constantly chimes even with belt clipped in).

Otherwise the car has been great in the last 2.5k miles... a wonderful cruiser and fun to feel like a big rig! Looking forward to continuing to restore the car to its former glory. Some pics to follow shortly.

 

[Toolmaker]

Hi there from South Africa. Know how you feel. Enjoy!

 

[volkswagens-for-life]

Awesome! Pics when you can

 

[TommiT]

Reference oil: please check your 2006 engine spec against this list:

 

[04V10]

Congrats on the purchase and welcome to the forum!

 

[jonhahn99]

Production date was 2/25/2006... last 7 VIN D054943. I have DPFs. (Engine BWF). I believe the 507 spec oil is correct if you have DPFs... I thought the idea with the 507 oil was low ash to help prevent clogging the DPF...

In other news, I just completed replacing the rear hatch struts. I was thinking between 2-4 hours... much longer and harder than that, for me. I've done some work on cars before. Part of it was one of the headliner screws was stripped so I had to drill it out. I had a heck of a time getting one of the new struts onto the ball - even though the struts old and new looked identical. Also the rubber gaskets for the strut covers under the headliner had melted away into a mess. Anyway - also need to get some extra clips. Guess on a car that's sixteen years old and had 5 owners, lots can happen! Rear glass doesn't work, but the trunk opens strongly now! Will post up some pics soon. Black/Tan (A1/041 paint / QN interior trim).

The other big job I have just bought the parts for is changing the oil filter gaskets. There's a front oil leak that was disclosed on purchase, and persists. The "absorber" is totally full of oil and the underside of the car is a bit of an oily mess, aside from dripping after driving. I bought a second pair of manifolds that I'm cleaning up in preparation for the job... that's a really messy endeavor. I'm going to make sure I put on one of those painter's suits for cleaning round 2!

 

[Professor Eggman]

Congrats and good luck on your work!

 

[jonhahn99]

Reference oil: please check your 2006 engine spec against this list:

View attachment 251621

Interesting, as there's a sticker under the hood that references 507 oil... so I feel better now. Just found that

 

[jonhahn99]

Few Pics... up next is getting the driver's seat redone, was quoted $750 and 3 days locally. It's pretty beat but after a thorough set of detailing in & out it's the only remaining super-beat up item!

 

[jonhahn99]

Congrats and good luck on your work!

Thanks Prof. E! Your work is really amazing. Thanks for spending so much time posting it, really enjoyed. So major mechanicals are probably changing cam/lifters and an oil leak, likely from the oil cooler gasket. Few videos for those looking to diagnose, I'll follow up once I've taken the cover off to inspect (planning on sealing back up with ThreeBond 1207B or 1184) Attaching my blackstone report too. Note, no codes, car drives very strongly, no oddities on startup or smoke. So probably the exhaust valve will be damaged on the driver's side once I take the cover off. Good news: with the recent decline of the british pound those cam sets from Lymm engineering keep getting cheaper! VW Volkswagen Touareg 5.0 V10 TDi BLE / BWF / CBWA Full Camshaft Kit If I do need to replace, was going to use COMP CAMS 152 assembly lube (and get the specific timing tools).

V10 Lifters - Video on YouTube

Quote from Blackstone Labs:

Note iron (steel parts such as cylinders, shafts, and lifters). 32 ppm appears low next to averages, but keep in mind those are based on about 6,900 miles on the oil, so the wear rate (ppm per high) is high. This could be related to the noise you're noting, so we'd seek inspection if the noise keeps up/worsens.

Also check air filtration for any leaks or cracks, as silicon (potential dirt) is high as well. If air filtration is fine, then silicon could be a harmless sealer or lube. Suggest changing this oil to reset iron/silicon, and check in 1500 miles.

 

[jonhahn99]

Started on investigating the oil leak - appears a pretty significant leak from the passenger side valve cover. At this point, does not seem that the leak is actually from the "V" area or the oil cooler, but we'll see. Been leaking for a long time, I'd guess, as there's oil on the underside of the entire car... some of it very crusty. And the "absorber" is totally full of oil, as you'd expect. Driver's side valve cover looks pretty clean, but both EGR valves seem to have some "crust" beneath them on the acoustic valve cover.

Finding it pretty hard to work on the car - was thinking 'popping the valve covers off' to inspect the cams (and possibly the lifters) would be somewhat trivial - ha! Even getting the "elbow" and "gasket" headed to the PCV valves off was really hard, I decided to "renew" both of those parts on both sides since the rubber was really hard. I still don't have the acoustic covers off, but that's probably because I was trying to see if I could avoid removing all the EGR plumbing and disconnecting coolant lines... but it doesn't seem like that will work. Many of those bolts are a really tight fit, and I'm not clear if they've been removed in a prior service, as some are a real struggle. Good news though - the ASV and EGR valves are getting really cleaned up, they were pretty gross. Time to become a shareholder in purple power and Clorox wipes!

 

[TommiT]

Photos.....

 

[jonhahn99]

TommiT, thanks for the reminder to include photos. Basically I can unlatch both pictured acoustic covers, but can't maneuver them enough to get them out of the way to get to the 10mm bolts. On the driver's side, there's a coolant line that runs close to the side of the cover... I'm thinking this needs to be unclipped to create enough area to maneuver the cover, in addiiton to what's already been removed. Ultimately, my goal is to take the valve covers off to examine cam wear and engine condition, and re-seal the valve covers. These pics were taken post-cleaning, as much as I could do without the covers off...

 

[jonhahn99]

Figured I'd provide an update, as I finally took the car to the dealer to evaluate the oil leaks and see if they could determine the cause of the noise. Turns out, after using a stethoscope, the noise was determined to be the connecting rods hitting the cylinder walls (rod knock). Surprising at this mileage. Even without the knock, taking out the engine would probably make the most sense, to try and re-seal the multiple leaks (the dealer recommended "re-sealing the entire engine" as there were leaks from top & bottom), and likely cam & lifter wear as they weren't replaced, and look the whole thing over. Interestingly, in my post-purchase inspection, the rod knock wasn't noticed, but I'm pretty sure it's been there since I got the car - originally I had thought that noise was just part of a normal diesel soundtrack.

 

[04V10]

Figured I'd provide an update, as I finally took the car to the dealer to evaluate the oil leaks and see if they could determine the cause of the noise. Turns out, after using a stethoscope, the noise was determined to be the connecting rods hitting the cylinder walls (rod knock). Surprising at this mileage. Even without the knock, taking out the engine would probably make the most sense, to try and re-seal the multiple leaks (the dealer recommended "re-sealing the entire engine" as there were leaks from top & bottom), and likely cam & lifter wear as they weren't replaced, and look the whole thing over. Interestingly, in my post-purchase inspection, the rod knock wasn't noticed, but I'm pretty sure it's been there since I got the car - originally I had thought that noise was just part of a normal diesel soundtrack.

I'm going to call BS on the diagnosis of rod knock. If connecting rods were contacting the cylinder walls, it would be a matter of minutes that the engine would keep operating before complete disaster occurred. That's not to say that some type of knocking is happening, but no way the connecting rods are contacting cylinder walls. That would require either the piston breaking, or the rod breaking off of the piston in order for that to occur. If that was the case, you would notice significant power losses, vibrations, and CEL's due to lost compression, etc...

As far as oil leaks go, the fuel pump gaskets tend to go bad on the back of the cylinder heads. The valve cover seals do go bad - but don't replace the valve covers just to fix the leak. Get a can of the "right stuff" gasket maker, and put that on the head before reinstalling the valve covers. That will seal up the valve covers if they are leaking. I've also seen alternator seals go bad, oil filter housing/heat exchange seals go bad, and various other things that can cause oil leaks. But definitely look at the cams and lifters before you reseal everything.

 

[jonhahn99]

As far as oil leaks go, the fuel pump gaskets tend to go bad on the back of the cylinder heads. The valve cover seals do go bad - but don't replace the valve covers just to fix the leak. Get a can of the "right stuff" gasket maker, and put that on the head before reinstalling the valve covers. That will seal up the valve covers if they are leaking. I've also seen alternator seals go bad, oil filter housing/heat exchange seals go bad, and various other things that can cause oil leaks. But definitely look at the cams and lifters before you reseal everything.

Yea, I was really surprised to hear this, esp. as I also have a blackstone report done recently and there's no fuel or coolant in the oil.. figured if blow-by was large, the piston was broken, etc - there'd be other stuff in the oil. Anyway, since I have to assume something is certainly wrong, and replacing the cams seems pretty hard with the engine in the car... I figure that's still my best route when I have the time. I didn't yet reference ERWIN but I've had a hell of a time getting the acoustic covers off the engine to get at the valve cover bolts. Thanks so much for weighing in!

 

[SaVAGeSoot]

I'm with @04V10 on the BS flag!
VCDS can be used to monitor injector deviations which will be a tell tale sign of camwear (edit: actually, engine health more specifically) without having to rip into it.

 

[jonhahn99]

So here's what I got from VCDS... seems one of the engine II injectors has a pretty large deviation. The car started right up no problem after sitting for almost 2 weeks. All run at 609 RPM (idle). I'm assuming Engine II is driver's side bank, which is def. where the ticking is from.

Address 01: Engine (070 906 016 CQ)

15:38:19 Group 013
0.21 mg/str Inj. Quantity
0.56 mg/str Inj. Quantity
-0.64 mg/str Inj. Quantity
-0.12 mg/str Inj. Quantity

15:38:19 Group 014
-0.05 mg/str Inj. Quantitty

Address 11: Engine II (070 906 016 CQ)

15:36:34 Group 013
-0.42 mg/str Inj. Quantity
-0.85 mg/str Inj. Quantity
2.21 mg/str Inj. Quantity
-0.05 mg/str Inj. Quantity

15:36:34 Group 014
-0.82 mg/str Inj. Quantity

 

[SaVAGeSoot]

Injector @2.21 is way out of wack. Need to investigate that injector/cylinder health. Is your oil level rising?

 

[volkswagens-for-life]

Injector @2.21 is way out of wack. Need to investigate that injector/cylinder health. Is your oil level rising?

Agreed. I'm not sure what acceptable pump duse unit injector deviation is, but they're all pretty far out in my opinion.