Great runner with mostly ALL of the major common Passat TDI problems repaired!

Here is a 2004 Passat TDI that will undoubtedly last for at least another 100,000+ miles, simply because it has had basically all of the major "common problems" of the Passat TDI repaired, replaced or corrected in the last 40,000 miles.
This is not the ordinary used Passat TDI you often see on eBay. If you look at most of the Passats with 150k miles you will see almost NO mention of transmission repairs, turbo replacement or dealer-corrected balance shaft assemblies. That might be because those problems have not popped up yet (but they will) or they have not been addressed or corrected yet, meaning that if you buy one of those you will have to address the major Passat TDI problems yourself, and probably sooner rather than later just like I did.
The vehicle itself has about 215,000 miles on it, but the engine has only 180,000 miles, the turbo has 80,000 miles, and the automatic transmission has ONLY 38,000 miles on it! The details of all of these parts replacements, upgrades and repairs are long and boring, but I can give you the unabridged story if you would like, just send me a message.
You might ask why I would want to get rid of the car after putting so much time, money and energy into repairing it for the long haul. Simply put, my wife now despises this vehicle because of how much money we've spent on all of these major repairs, so the car must go or else I'll be paying for a divorce as well. It's sad for me because I really love this car and I soooo wanted to be the owner of a VW with over 300,000 miles, which I have no doubt that this car will make it there and beyond.
All power accessories (windows, sunroof, mirrors) are fully functional with the exception of the passenger side seat heater (see explanation below), who cares about the passenger anyway. ;-) All of the leather interior is in good shape, again, with the exception of the passenger seat (see below). Cruise control, heat, A/C, tape/CD player all work fine. If you would like I can leave my satellite radio antennae installed in the car, I went to great lengths to install it "professionally" so there is no wire showing except where it comes out of the glove box. Vehicle still has the original leather bound owner's manual.
The title is clear with no liens, this vehicle is not salvaged and has never been wrecked.
This vehicle was Made in Germany!!! That automatically puts it into an elite class of vehicles! No Mexican assembly here! (On a side note, I just got back from a trip Germany where I drove a 2014 TDI for almost 1,000 miles (1,700km) and believe or not this Passat feels very similar to the new TDIs!)
I routinely get 36 mpg with combined highway and city driving. A primarily highway trip will yield about 40-42 mpg depending on the terrain and your driving style (of course).
Almost forgot to mention that this car purrs like a kitten and has plenty of diesel power, meaning great acceleration. I have driven well above posted highway speed limits and it handles very well, this vehicle was built for the autobahn!
Here's a bonus for buyers in PA, I just got it inspected and it's good to go through March 2016! The mechanic said "I was surprised, it looks really square!" …meaning it's in great shape!

Wear & Tear Items: The front tires are BRAND NEW with only about 500 miles on them. The rear tires are somewhere in the 60-80% range and have plenty of tread left, they should easily last 20,000+ miles without a problem. The brake pads were replaced about 40,000 miles ago and have plenty of life left in them. I also just had a 4-wheel alignment done after getting the new front tires, so it is totally good to go!
Major repairs and improvements:
2005 TDI Engine (BHW) (current actual mileage 180,000) **Has corrected Geared Balance Shaft Assembly - an improved design that eliminates the problematic chain driven oil pump with a gear driven assembly. This repair/replacement was performed by a VW dealership near Williamsport, PA.
Brand New Right & Left Engine Mounts Replaced 20,000 miles ago, these are barely even broken in at that mileage! The new mounts really suppress the diesel engine vibrations, so they basically make it feel more like a new car!
New Set of 4 Glow Plugs (NGK Ceramic) Just installed these 5,00 miles ago in preparation for the long Pennsylvania winter, they made an improvement in the cold starts over the old glow plugs for sure!
Remanufactured Automatic Transmission (current actual mileage 38,000) Rebuilt by ZF Transmissions in Europe and imported to VW dealership complete with VW spec transmission fluid.
Low Mileage Garrett Turbocharger (pulled from '04 Passat TDI, current actual mileage 80,000) Lots of life left in this unit, turbos with high mileage can cause huge problems with diesel engines… ask me how I know. My old 200,000+ mile turbo is the reason I had to replace the engine.
Remanufactured Front Axels Right & Left from Raxles.com ($400 total, $200/side) Replaced only 8,000 miles ago! The Raxles.com axles are all original VW equipment and will last just as long as the original axles, as opposed to the cheap $60 Chinese replacements that break again within 6 months/10,000 miles. Check out their website, very impressive.
Mass Air Flow Sensor (Bosch) Replaced only 10,000 miles ago ($120 part). Bosch is the only choice for these cars because the cheaper units (by Cardone and others) do not work well or last very long. Again… ask me how I know.
Low mileage A/C Compressor Unit with New Refrigerant added Replaced about 8,000 miles ago due to terrible sounding pulley bearings in the original unit. Got compressor from auto-salvage place (pulled from a Passat with 52,000 miles), all new wear & tear A/C parts replaced at that time, A/C is ice cold!
Frost Heater (Coolant heater for winter) Installed 20,000 miles ago. It heats and circulates the coolant throughout the whole cooling system, this made life wonderful last winter during our record-breaking cold weather here in PA! I put a timer on the extension cord that turned on at 4am and by 7-8am when I was leaving for work the car started like it was a summer day and had heat immediately. Amazing! The heat even diffuses to the windshield some so you hardly need to scrape off the ice at all. See pic of snow covered car with snow on the hood melted by heater!
Oil Pressure Sensor Gauge - Indigo Blue Backlit (New South) Installed 9,000 miles ago. Passat TDIs have oil pressure problems related to the problematic chain driven oil pump (although this engine no longer has the chain-driven pump), so owners of these vehicles obsess over the oil pressure, which really shouldn't be a problem with this engine anyway. BUT I've wanted an oil pressure sensor for quite some time so I installed this one along with the steering column pod which makes it look like it came as a factory option with the car, see pics. I even tied it in with the instrument panel lighting dimmer, so it dims just like the regular dash lights. Many Passat owners will disable the original VW dummy oil-pressure switch that shuts the car down in the absence of adequate pressure and they rely solely on watching the gauge to make sure the pressure is good… Although if something happens and you're not watching the gauge at that precise moment it is too late and your engine is toast! So (long story short) I installed a Tee junction and kept the original dummy switch AND the sensor for the gauge, piece of cake; the hard part was finding an M10 metric Tee junction!
New VW OEM Rear Main Seal Always a good thing to change when you have the engine out!
New Audi/VW G-13 Coolant, New Fuel Filter and, of course, Oil & Oil Filter All 8,000 miles ago. Premium fluids and filters are essential if you want to keep this car running for another 100,000+ miles, so I have used nothing but the best, a small price to pay compared to the replacement costs associated with using cheap fluids. Liqui Moly 2022 Diesel High Tech Synthetic 5W-40 Motor Oil (5 Liter Jug) is the only oil I will use, it is specially formulated and approved for Pumpe Duse engines. You can get it on Amazon for about $52.

*****Bonus Parts/Items included with this vehicle*****:
Flennor Timing Belt Replacement Kit Authentic German parts, has everything needed to replace the recommended parts at the next timing belt change, which is due in about 20,000miles (last replacement was at 100,000 miles). The Passat TDI timing belt replacement is MUCH easier than the Jetta or Golf because of the longitudinal placement of the engine, putting the timing belt at the front of the engine compartment instead of the to the side where there is no room to work. I replaced the timing belt on my old engine by myself using the instructions and advice given on myturbodiesel.com (awesome website BTW) and it was really pretty easy, I would do it again without hesitation.
Hepu Water Pump (All metal parts) This is also recommended to be changed with the timing belt since it is run by the timing belt. Some water pumps have plastic impellers - avoid these at all costs.
Dell Mini 9 Netbook with Pre-installed Ross-Tech VAG-COM Software & eBahn VW Repair Manual *Also included is the USB to KII vehicle interface (plug) for under-dash connection* This is about $700 worth of computer, full-version software (not the Lite version) and interface cable. It has been awesome to have this setup as a Passat TDI owner! Anytime you throw a code you can hookup, diagnose and fix, and then clear error codes on your own. It's like having a VW Dealer computer! The VAG-COM software can also be used for controlling all kinds of vehicle settings, such as idle speed, fuel injection amounts, transmission settings and more, as well as factory computer defaults like door-locking, light dimming and more. Check out the website for more info (search Ross-Tech VCKII) The eBahn Reader is a full VW repair manual that contains the repair information provided by Volkswagen to their factory-trained technicians.
Two Quarts of Audi/VW Transmission fluid I purchased a bunch of extra fluid for the engine replacement job and had some left over, you never know when you might need some.

The Not-As-Good Things (basically only cosmetic issues)
Let's be honest, this is not a showroom quality vehicle due to the fact that it has 200,000+ miles on it, but it is MUCH better (ride & appearance) than many other high mileage vehicles I have seen and driven. I've been proud to tell people about the high mileage, they never want to believe it when I tell them.
Saucer-sized hole in the passenger seat leather The passenger seat leather is stiff and slightly brittle , I assume from getting wet and not being dried properly. In the included picture you will see the area has been patched with Gorilla Tape which is good strong tape, but an eye-sore nonetheless. I considered getting a new-to-me seat off of eBay, but it wasn’t worth the cost to me ($250+$100 s/h). You could always get fancy seat covers…. sorry. Also the passenger seat heater does not work, I'm assuming that's related to the broken seat mess.
Dime-sized hole in the passenger side door speaker grill Unfortunate result of an umbrella mishap. It did not damage the actual speaker itself, just the plastic cosmetic grill. You just can't have nice things.
Two small dents above driver door handle Entirely cosmetic issue, see pic.
Edges of some of the tire rims are scuffed from curb encounters Not a big deal for me, but worth mentioning to potential buyers.

Thank you very much for looking! Good luck if you are bidding!

Also published at eBay.com