Thinking of buying a 2006 TDI (BRM)- camshaft inspection?

[kwhubby]

Hello,
So I am in the process of potentially buying a 2006 TDI with 114,000 miles on it. I've been reading all sorts of negative information about camshafts wearing out and It seems like the logical thing to do is have it inspected. It seems simple enough to remove the valve cover for inspection, how much is reasonable for a mechanic to charge to inspect for wear?
I called the dealership, and there mechanic says $600 to open it up just to look at it- and that the gasoline engines are less than half that to open. The dealership is also claiming only the 2006 gasoline Jetta has a camshaft hardness issue and this is not a known issue for the BRM.
What would you do?: find a different model, open to inspect (different mechanic), oil analysis, ...

[chittychittybangbang]

All 2004-2006.5 TDI 4 cylinder engines have been having this problem but the BRM seem to be worse because of more aggressive cam profiles. I don't know about the V10 Touareg, not enough samples and different engine.

Check out the cam replacement article in FAQ, it should take no longer than 1 hour to do it, so maybe $120 at a dealer. Here's a rough breakdown.

Remove plastic engine cover: 1 minute.
Remove intake hoses and turn cam to correct position: 10 minutes:
remove valve cover: 10 minutes.
Take a look: 10-20 minutes.
install is the reverse so there you have it, 1 hour.

Valve cover is impossible to remove unless you know how to position cam sensor wheel, see article for details. And oil analysis will also help.

[kwhubby]

So I went ahead and had the dealership do an inspection. They charged me $170, but my local trusted mechanic quoted me the same so I was satisfied at that price. I noticed the chamfer was wearing down (it was quite sharp feeling near the tip but ok further down) and there was almost a dent in the shape of the left most lobe, and on the right most lobe there were some scratches with 2 distinct gouges my fingernail would catch. The mechanic/dealership wouldn't rotate the cam so that I could see all the lobes- claiming he would have to remove the lower timing belt cover, but some others looked a bit better. I didn't notice any wear to the actual lifters but they were all the chrome type.
The mechanic thought the wear looked normal, but didn't disagree with me when I said it looks like it would wear out before 200,000 miles.
I didn't but the car because of my observations and reliability and repair costs assosiated with this.
I posted up some pictures I took: http://kwhubby.com/tdipics/

Can anybody agree or disagree with my observations? do you think I should have purchased this at 13k$?
Thanks

[chittychittybangbang]

IMHO, use as bargaining leverage. Plan on replacing the cam, lifters, bearings. Wear is normal for this engine but wear is by far very abnormal on most engines. Most engines will never need a new camshaft in their entire lifespan.

I don't know the package, condition, or local market so can't say what price is good but $13 sounds high. Budget $1500 for cam.

[kwhubby]

Thanks for your replies,
That was my understanding of the wear, I'm glad it seems like I was correct in my observation. Well kelly blue book retail value considering region and all the options was about 13,250. The dealer was able to take it down to 12,585 after I asked for 1500 off. I still don't really think its low enough, considering the timing belt and water pump are also overdue for a change and all the other frequent expensive issues I've heard comes up with the car. What do you think?

[chittychittybangbang]

I can only give technical advice. VWs do need some maint, if that scares you or if you can't budget a little for it, I suggest looking at another car. I don't want to tell someone to buy or not buy a car, it's a big purchase. And I don't know your local market or timing, etc.

[cheefpilot]

There are better deals to be had on these things, I bought one with 86K on it with Package 2 and real leather seats for 11K back in December. The cam looked a lot like yours so I went ahead and replaced it along with the timing belt so hopefully I have a somewhat reliable and efficient car that I won't have to do much work on for a while. The cam kit, belt kit, tool rental and VCDS cost me about 2K so I have 13 in the car now but I know that the engine is good and feel like I got a fair deal.