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Hi All,
Even though the old forum I used to live on is a lot quieter these days ( as all forums are ) I thought it might help someone else if I posted my findings on a used 2009 2.5 174 BPC transporter I'm fixing up as a local runabout / camper. It would start, and limp along a bit, and apart from the engine was in great condition with a new auto box ( edit - not true! ), tyres, brakes, straight body and pretty good interior etc etc. The auto box seems to be a thread in itself, but so too thanks to all the info I've found on here ( largely thanks to Miro - "transporter" ) and on other forums like Brickyard, it seems that regular fluid and filter changes, along with keeping the box COOL is the key. Anyway more on that later.
The engine presented billowing soot out the engine bay, making a high pressure noise, had a big end knock noise, with a totally clogged DPF, in limp mode, and with oil leaks starting from the EGR valve. It would start and run, but I had it flat bed trucked home, and began getting my head around what I had bought. It has 274 k kms. For the first few hours I had no idea it was 5 cylinders.
Long story short, the EGR valve was 3/4 totally clogged, the alloy inlet manifold was caked in oil blowby and soot buildup ( bitch to clean ) and the exhaust manifold had broken off three studs ( number 1 port and number 5 port both ). It had the typical worn cam issue, obvious by pulling the airbox hose and listening to the pulsing blowback. Vag Com told me the poor engine had not done a DPF regen for 2000kms, and the oil ash was over 40 grams, so decided a new DPF was in order. It obviously needed the usual exhaust manifold and studs, cam and buckets, and god knows what else.
So getting in there I knew it had a funky gates coupler, but took me about a week of research and poking about to realise it has TWO. Even with the front off apart from the radiator etc, getting the alternator off was tricky, so decided to follow the Haynes manual ( absolutely essential ) and will have to go from underneath, first the PS pump, then the alternator. Decided to renew both as the car had no service history, apart from the two quite up to date stickers on the windscreen - probably oil and filter change services! The couplers have some play but were serviceable, but such a bitch to get to, spent the $360 for the two new couplings. I've since worked out you absolutely need the SX400 gates tool set to get the cog type freewheels off, and the more general tool kits may lead you astray, the fitment of the triple spline is vital. I bought the "Sealey" kit out of the UK, half the genuine gates tool set cost. I've read that the cog bearing can seize and ruin things, so if you go down the path of looking at replacing these don't just do the rubber coupler, buy the set, colour of the cog doesn't matter, this is the "2" version of the coupler often referred to as the "euro" one. It's called the "freewheel" in the pic below.
The next thing that surprised me was there are TWO coolant sensors, one on the bottom of the radiator ( controls dash and warning light ) and one on the engine between inlet one and two above and behind the oil filter housing. It's right up high behind the fuel rails, so to get to it without the engine half apart would be a nightmare, and it seems this is the sensor that plays up. I replaced it just in case while in there. Just be aware getting these at a reasonable cost means out of Europe / UK, so there's the usual 2-4 weeks delivery time. This goes for a lot of specific 2.5 TDI parts and non China tools.
The glow plug loom and associated wiring had all the outer plastic covering just turn to dust in my hands, so a new loom is on order - again just to be sure. Expect a fair bit of the wiring to be exposed by now, so it may need some new outer coatings. The intake ports were quite covered in sludge, so a good clean and scrape was in order. Amazingly the exhaust ports were quite clean, probably because this poor van has been trying to regen for the last several hundred kms. Getting the broken head studs out with left hand drills or EZI outs whilst still in the engine bay was impossible, so MIG welding nuts on them eventually worked, and I only used WD40 actual penetrating spray for a few days prior, but it did take about 20 nuts and a few hours to get there. I bought a new aftermarket exhaust manifold from Darkside Developments.
The Garrett turbo has a little slop, but nothing bad ( no end to end ), and apart from some reasonable wear on the intake impeller blade surface, seems reasonably service-able. I will keep an eye on it, but it works fine and didn't appear to have leaked much oil over what you typically see. You ABSOLUTELY need long triple square bits to get that last bolt off the turbo, and there's no way to remove it without taking off the rear engine mount first. I sure tried, but no go. There are 6 bolts holding the turbo on. Even my longer triple square bits I bought *just* worked, I'd suggest getting the VAS 3410 longer XZN 10 tool, or equivalent. There's a special tool at every tricky step on this engine!! EDIT - tools shown in post #6 below.
You will need the Transporter timing tool set, and I found the $180Au eBay no name set fine for me. The big top gear clamp and the crank turning tool and timing tools are key items, no way to get around not using them. EDIT - China tool set upper cam tool is crap, you need a genuine one or the one from Taiwan, see posts #33/34!! Rest of kit is fine.
I decided to exchange the waterpump too, and found the eBay pump tools fine, except the no name gear puller is useless, you really need better hooks that go further behind the 4 holes in the gear. I ended up giving it gentle taps with a small hammer till it came loose. The no name pump puller works a treat however.
In a similar fashion to the waterpump, the power steer pump also allows engine oil out if the seals fail, so am in the process of replacing the seal while there, and flushed out the quite black looking PS fluid. Will report back to where I get said "unicorn" seal from. Again a problematic design as it wears, and something to watch. EDIT - Pump is not designed to be serviceable, and I tried to pull the old one apart, but as it was all too hard, just bought a no name one off eBay, and will just keep an eye on the PS fluid colour. My PS fluid levels were fine, but the fluid sure looked grey/black, so the PS internal seal is probably on the way out.
I'd suggest replacing the waterpump and powersteer pump every 100,000-150,000kms just to prevent any drama these can cause if they fail. Both are cheap enough really, unless you buy genuine from Australia, far cheaper out of Europe.
The cam and buckets were well worn, and there was metal in the front of the head below the injectors, some in the oil filter, and a lot below the oil filter in the 90 degree port that feeds the filter from below- was 3/4 blocked!! I did manage to flush a little more out of the engine with a lot of light oil. Sump off tomorrow, so we shall see what's left, and how the oil strainer looks. New oil pump on route from Germany, seems this and the tandem fuel/brake pump are two key areas to recondition / renew on higher mile engines. I'm planning to rebuild the tandem, and replace the oil pump, as oil pressure seems to be a key issue on this motor, but given how much crap had built up in it at key points ( especially below oil filter ) seems it will easily starve itself after some kms and crud buildup. Make sure you do the oil changes on time, and use engine oil flush at higher kms!
Heat seems to be an issue for the auto box, so beyond the fluid and filter I'm fitting a sizable external ATF cooler, always a good idea on auto boxes, just make sure to add a thermostat so it can warm up normally. I think the key will be regular fluid drains and filters, even though you only ever get part of the ATF fluid out.
New forged steel cam is going in, along with new injector seals and a proper "both sides " injector holding bridge - all from Darkside. The cam buckets were VERY worn - quite dished, but none had gone through thankfully. Compression is OK, but not awesome, although doing dry compression on a long sitting diesel motor is far from ideal. Anyway it's not going to do any heavy work, just needs to potter about the local area. Seems you can indeed re-sleeve these, which had me worried for a while, so if need be I'll go the full rebuild down the track. I'd suggest checking the cam and bucket wear every 100,000kms, although these new forged aftermarket cams and buckets should last a lot longer than stock. Again the correct 507 spec oil is essential here.
New injector loom going in, as it's my belief this is one mode of failure on the PD injectors, and might as well do it while in there, the wires are sure quite hard on the old loom. Injectors themselves needed a good tip clean, but with new seals look fine to me. There were no leaks obvious. The tandem pump has a minor leak, so a rebuild kit is on the way from Europe. I'll eventually just get a new one of these too.
Getting to the crank end where you fit the turning tool from either the timing or pump tool set is tricky, I had to cut down a long allen key to get the top two bolts on the cover plate. You basically need a short bent end given the limited space - that is if you aren't dropping the engine.
There are some good video's online of 2.5 rebuilds and repairs ( links in post #7 now ), usually in various european languages, but if you just watch you can learn a lot. Youtube will start putting them in your recommended after you find and watch a few, I'm getting lots of Russian ones now that didn't show up in any searches.
More below.....
Even though the old forum I used to live on is a lot quieter these days ( as all forums are ) I thought it might help someone else if I posted my findings on a used 2009 2.5 174 BPC transporter I'm fixing up as a local runabout / camper. It would start, and limp along a bit, and apart from the engine was in great condition with a new auto box ( edit - not true! ), tyres, brakes, straight body and pretty good interior etc etc. The auto box seems to be a thread in itself, but so too thanks to all the info I've found on here ( largely thanks to Miro - "transporter" ) and on other forums like Brickyard, it seems that regular fluid and filter changes, along with keeping the box COOL is the key. Anyway more on that later.
The engine presented billowing soot out the engine bay, making a high pressure noise, had a big end knock noise, with a totally clogged DPF, in limp mode, and with oil leaks starting from the EGR valve. It would start and run, but I had it flat bed trucked home, and began getting my head around what I had bought. It has 274 k kms. For the first few hours I had no idea it was 5 cylinders.
Long story short, the EGR valve was 3/4 totally clogged, the alloy inlet manifold was caked in oil blowby and soot buildup ( bitch to clean ) and the exhaust manifold had broken off three studs ( number 1 port and number 5 port both ). It had the typical worn cam issue, obvious by pulling the airbox hose and listening to the pulsing blowback. Vag Com told me the poor engine had not done a DPF regen for 2000kms, and the oil ash was over 40 grams, so decided a new DPF was in order. It obviously needed the usual exhaust manifold and studs, cam and buckets, and god knows what else.
So getting in there I knew it had a funky gates coupler, but took me about a week of research and poking about to realise it has TWO. Even with the front off apart from the radiator etc, getting the alternator off was tricky, so decided to follow the Haynes manual ( absolutely essential ) and will have to go from underneath, first the PS pump, then the alternator. Decided to renew both as the car had no service history, apart from the two quite up to date stickers on the windscreen - probably oil and filter change services! The couplers have some play but were serviceable, but such a bitch to get to, spent the $360 for the two new couplings. I've since worked out you absolutely need the SX400 gates tool set to get the cog type freewheels off, and the more general tool kits may lead you astray, the fitment of the triple spline is vital. I bought the "Sealey" kit out of the UK, half the genuine gates tool set cost. I've read that the cog bearing can seize and ruin things, so if you go down the path of looking at replacing these don't just do the rubber coupler, buy the set, colour of the cog doesn't matter, this is the "2" version of the coupler often referred to as the "euro" one. It's called the "freewheel" in the pic below.
The next thing that surprised me was there are TWO coolant sensors, one on the bottom of the radiator ( controls dash and warning light ) and one on the engine between inlet one and two above and behind the oil filter housing. It's right up high behind the fuel rails, so to get to it without the engine half apart would be a nightmare, and it seems this is the sensor that plays up. I replaced it just in case while in there. Just be aware getting these at a reasonable cost means out of Europe / UK, so there's the usual 2-4 weeks delivery time. This goes for a lot of specific 2.5 TDI parts and non China tools.
The glow plug loom and associated wiring had all the outer plastic covering just turn to dust in my hands, so a new loom is on order - again just to be sure. Expect a fair bit of the wiring to be exposed by now, so it may need some new outer coatings. The intake ports were quite covered in sludge, so a good clean and scrape was in order. Amazingly the exhaust ports were quite clean, probably because this poor van has been trying to regen for the last several hundred kms. Getting the broken head studs out with left hand drills or EZI outs whilst still in the engine bay was impossible, so MIG welding nuts on them eventually worked, and I only used WD40 actual penetrating spray for a few days prior, but it did take about 20 nuts and a few hours to get there. I bought a new aftermarket exhaust manifold from Darkside Developments.
The Garrett turbo has a little slop, but nothing bad ( no end to end ), and apart from some reasonable wear on the intake impeller blade surface, seems reasonably service-able. I will keep an eye on it, but it works fine and didn't appear to have leaked much oil over what you typically see. You ABSOLUTELY need long triple square bits to get that last bolt off the turbo, and there's no way to remove it without taking off the rear engine mount first. I sure tried, but no go. There are 6 bolts holding the turbo on. Even my longer triple square bits I bought *just* worked, I'd suggest getting the VAS 3410 longer XZN 10 tool, or equivalent. There's a special tool at every tricky step on this engine!! EDIT - tools shown in post #6 below.
You will need the Transporter timing tool set, and I found the $180Au eBay no name set fine for me. The big top gear clamp and the crank turning tool and timing tools are key items, no way to get around not using them. EDIT - China tool set upper cam tool is crap, you need a genuine one or the one from Taiwan, see posts #33/34!! Rest of kit is fine.
I decided to exchange the waterpump too, and found the eBay pump tools fine, except the no name gear puller is useless, you really need better hooks that go further behind the 4 holes in the gear. I ended up giving it gentle taps with a small hammer till it came loose. The no name pump puller works a treat however.
In a similar fashion to the waterpump, the power steer pump also allows engine oil out if the seals fail, so am in the process of replacing the seal while there, and flushed out the quite black looking PS fluid. Will report back to where I get said "unicorn" seal from. Again a problematic design as it wears, and something to watch. EDIT - Pump is not designed to be serviceable, and I tried to pull the old one apart, but as it was all too hard, just bought a no name one off eBay, and will just keep an eye on the PS fluid colour. My PS fluid levels were fine, but the fluid sure looked grey/black, so the PS internal seal is probably on the way out.
I'd suggest replacing the waterpump and powersteer pump every 100,000-150,000kms just to prevent any drama these can cause if they fail. Both are cheap enough really, unless you buy genuine from Australia, far cheaper out of Europe.
The cam and buckets were well worn, and there was metal in the front of the head below the injectors, some in the oil filter, and a lot below the oil filter in the 90 degree port that feeds the filter from below- was 3/4 blocked!! I did manage to flush a little more out of the engine with a lot of light oil. Sump off tomorrow, so we shall see what's left, and how the oil strainer looks. New oil pump on route from Germany, seems this and the tandem fuel/brake pump are two key areas to recondition / renew on higher mile engines. I'm planning to rebuild the tandem, and replace the oil pump, as oil pressure seems to be a key issue on this motor, but given how much crap had built up in it at key points ( especially below oil filter ) seems it will easily starve itself after some kms and crud buildup. Make sure you do the oil changes on time, and use engine oil flush at higher kms!
Heat seems to be an issue for the auto box, so beyond the fluid and filter I'm fitting a sizable external ATF cooler, always a good idea on auto boxes, just make sure to add a thermostat so it can warm up normally. I think the key will be regular fluid drains and filters, even though you only ever get part of the ATF fluid out.
New forged steel cam is going in, along with new injector seals and a proper "both sides " injector holding bridge - all from Darkside. The cam buckets were VERY worn - quite dished, but none had gone through thankfully. Compression is OK, but not awesome, although doing dry compression on a long sitting diesel motor is far from ideal. Anyway it's not going to do any heavy work, just needs to potter about the local area. Seems you can indeed re-sleeve these, which had me worried for a while, so if need be I'll go the full rebuild down the track. I'd suggest checking the cam and bucket wear every 100,000kms, although these new forged aftermarket cams and buckets should last a lot longer than stock. Again the correct 507 spec oil is essential here.
New injector loom going in, as it's my belief this is one mode of failure on the PD injectors, and might as well do it while in there, the wires are sure quite hard on the old loom. Injectors themselves needed a good tip clean, but with new seals look fine to me. There were no leaks obvious. The tandem pump has a minor leak, so a rebuild kit is on the way from Europe. I'll eventually just get a new one of these too.
Getting to the crank end where you fit the turning tool from either the timing or pump tool set is tricky, I had to cut down a long allen key to get the top two bolts on the cover plate. You basically need a short bent end given the limited space - that is if you aren't dropping the engine.
There are some good video's online of 2.5 rebuilds and repairs ( links in post #7 now ), usually in various european languages, but if you just watch you can learn a lot. Youtube will start putting them in your recommended after you find and watch a few, I'm getting lots of Russian ones now that didn't show up in any searches.
More below.....
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