Kansas City Tdi & CoolAirVw Repair

Balance Module Upgrade

04-05 Passants come with a BHW engine with a chain driven balance shaft. These chains are chronically noisy and fail. Some cars have failed and had the chain & sprockets replaced, only to fail again.

The fix for this is upgrading the Chain driven Balance Module to a gear driven Balance module.

This is a large job that includes setting the “lock-carrier” to the service position, removing the timing belt, removing the sub frame and oil pan. This job rates at about 8.3 hours.

This should be done at the same time as a timing belt, even if you’re not having the noise. This is because if the noise develops after a timing belt job, you would end up paying the same labor again for the timing belt work.

Here are the new tools I got to do this work.

Other tools are necessary as well, like crank counter hold tool, vag-com, xzn sockets, torx sockets, allens ect. But I already had those.

To set the lock carrier in the service position you must strip the front end till it’s naked. I choose to not remove the lock carrier to avoid loosing expensive trans fluid G052162A2 (15 per quart), antifreeze G12 (12.00 per liter) and Freon. This saves money.

You pull the timing cover and lock it down. Note special tools.

To get the oil pan off subframe removal is required. VW offers a special tool to line the subframe back up.

So here is the chain driven balance module in all its glory.

So here’s the chain drive. The TB pulley that is on the crank is on with massive torque. Removing takes a “counter hold” tool which is also required for reassembly.

Pulling the crank sprocket take special tool like this.

Here is the gear driven balance module.

Here’s the new balance module installed and torqued down, with the balance lock in position.

Balance Module Upgrade = $500

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