The Glorious V10 TDI Is A Nightmare 

My sister had a Pheaton V10 TDI for several years. Was actually pretty reliable. One day the 2nd bank just stopped working. So she sold it for parts after several tries of resurrection. The day the tow truck came it just decided to run on all 10 again.

Complexity is the enemy of reliability.

Beast of a Powerplant. Replaced the gaskets on a pair of leaking turbo chargers on one once. Took it out and could tell the owners never hit the kick down switch. I thought I was wot getting on the freeway and it was slow. Super slow. At first I thought I did something wrong or that the rumors I was told about it were false. No. Just a super stiff, never hit kickdown switch. The pedal suddenly went down another inch with more pressure and the trans dropped two gears. My butt was then wedged in the crease at the bottom of the seat back and I teleported down the freeway. It was quite the surprise lol. The rumors were true. She was a beast.

I love the design of the V10, and the engineering that went into it. That being said, I'm quitting my job the second one of those rolls through the door

My family used to have one of these in the states, it was a nightmare as he says, but it was such a strong motor. We had an 18 ton bus run out of fuel on 12% grade, the toureg pulled it up the hill no problem.

I used to own an 04 V10 - you showed it at 6:49!. They are quite the truck. Mashing the go pedal, the front of the truck rises up and the rear squats, and suddenly you're going over 100 mph. By 160,000 miles it had developed flat camshafts, like most VW PD TDI engines... and the cam job on a V10 is an engine out affair. I sold the truck to a mechanic friend, who fixed it and is still driving it today! After doing work on the V10 Touareg, you can tell the engine compartment was designed around the engine itself. Everything just fits. In the Touareg, there are 4 oil pumps. 2 are scavenge pumps: it's built like a dry sump system, but all contained under the engine. This way hard driving or extreme angles don't starve the engine of oil pressure. The water cooled alternator has a 2 speed transmission too, so that it's always spinning fast enough to make lots of amps. There are 2 coolant loops... one for the engine and heat, another for the alternator and fuel cooler. Fun fact: the 04 V10 TDI has *15* fuel pumps. Two in the fuel tank, one on each cylinder bank, one on each cylinder, and the #15 is the pump for the diesel fired Webasto boiler for the climate control.

The only part of the design I don't really like is the fact that it doesn't have cylinder liners. I LOVE the V10 TDI though, I seriously wish we got more in the states than in the Reg.

In the past I was the owner of touareg with v10. I would rather replace the term limited space under the hood with its lack. Despite numerous repairs that I have made on it, I still think it is a great car for weekend trips. As for fuel consumption, it oscillated around 19l / 100km with an economical city drive, and around 9-10l on the highway. Nevertheless, I recommend this car to a person who will have his own workshop and will be able to repair it himself, because the repair costs are huge due to the need to remove the drive unit in case of every major defect. For example, regeneration of the alternator is the cost of a part without labor is about $ 400 in Poland :)

as a german diesel enthusiast i really really wanted one of these. i didn't buy one because i knew i could never afford to repair it.

I have owned V10 Tdi Phaeton, for 4 years, and it never failed apart of alternator.

This really was a golden age for the VW group. During this time they were manufacturing 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 and 12 cylinder diesel engines.

I have one of these and I absolutely love it! Yes it needs to be taken care of and yes it’s bitch to work on. But I absolutely love how it sounds. I’ve got straight pipes and it’s awesome! It surprises be daily with the sound. Especially at lights at idle

dude this is your most detailed vid yet, and insanely well done, keep growing man! idk why I was unsubbed but I'm back in baby

I love early 2000s VW they always were trying to push the boundries of what was possible sadly some concepts didnt work out that way

I just became the owner of 2008 T2 v10 TDi and I got with low mileage at insanely low price from a co-worker. Ran the VagCom and there is no major issues only some minor electrical faults…all I can say is, wow what a sleeper. I try to drive it gingerly but like Ezekiel Elliot, it wants to be fed…I own an 83 modified 300sd and I love that little car but man this baby is different beast all together…can’t believe that it’s a diesel motor, it’s so smooth…oh if someone is planning on getting one, do yourself a favor and get the VCDS diagnostic software it’s an invaluable tool..

Awesome video and thanks for the tag. -Although they seem complex they are quite simple engines when you start working on them. Although some repairs need the engine out VW really made the removal process quite simple, even easier with a hoist/lift. -As far as consumption I find them quite reasonable for the weight/engine, this past weekend I averaged 9.5L/100km with cruise at 135km/h. Towing my tall enclosed trailer averages around 15L/100km, beats driving my truck and even has a smoother ride.

I love how it roars like a lion. No racing engine sound, no muscle car sound, but something I haven't heard elsewhere.

I’ve owned my v10 Touareg for well over 10 years now. No major issues. Tow heavy stuff too.

I currently own a 2006 v10 Touareg in Australia,I’ve owned it for about 10 years now. It’s been a bloody great car for me, I tow 3200kg with it often and I can not fault it. Yes there’s smaller engines that have the same outputs and are better on fuel ect, but I like to see how they last after 14 years being stressed all the time trying to match the same output of a large displacement lazy engine.. I will never replace the car. And yes I take mine off roading also, cannot beat the all wheel drive system and the airbag suspension. Yes I’ve pulled 11t Kenworth part way up a highway to get it in safe spot to work on it. The worst thing that’s happened to mine was a valve body in the transmission, that was a common asin problem.

Visio smashing the facts again keep up the good work dude love it 😁

Virtually every commercial diesel truck engine manufacturer uses the I-6 platform. Makes one wonder why a V-10?

Yea I don’t have a warranty. I got it second hand. Luckily the first owner took great care of it !

I like how alot of people will allways say that the v10 is bad because they read some stories on the internet. I think the biggest problem is that some people will buy it and treat it like sh!t and then give it poor maintance. I've owned a normal v10(gen2 who are better cars then gen1) and driven it for about 40k KM pulling trailers without any problems. Now I own a R50 for around 30k KM and still have not experience any big problems....... sooooo, stop blaming the v10 untill you owned 1 🥰. Its fast, strong and drives like a tank😂👌.

I’m Lookin For V6 TDI Rn, Even Better That V10 TDI. 🎃

The "compact" design makes this engine a nightmare to work on. For example, like on many other VW cars, they made parts that are prone to wear and tear hard to access. It is one of the reasons that I, personally, hate working on vwag cars.

Keep up these type of videos. Verry interesting.

This engine needs 505.01 5W40 oil ONLY! VW did a mistake to recommend the long-life 506.01 0W30 variant. The latter damages the cam lobes as it's too thin. That's for pre-DPF V10s (2003-2005).

Mine never had any huge issues, but proper maintenance is a must!

We actually have one. Not beig an upper 10 thousand of Hungary, to me it seemed a stretch... But after taking the engine out at out home, FOUR TIMES, now it is a tamed cat really. If you look after it, it will behave itself, just like any other car... Yes you can buy a car and use it until it is done, but if you do care, the worst car can even turn out to be the best. I've had injector problems, turbos shutting off when they feel like, transmission going ''K G'night''... I've done it at home, in my garage. To live with one is a challenge indeed, but worth it once you fix it properly, and not just fix it enough to sell it like most do. This is an engineering superstar, and yes 7 seconds to 60 MPH seems like an average today,but this was 2003, pulling a 3 ton castle, with a diesel engine that was more or less designed in the late '90-s. Whatever some may think... I still do admire and love it. And all that's said, I did not choose to buy that. But in the end, I started to get a liking to it, and now I feel that it is worth of saving in the long run, as is it never left us on the side of the road.

I absolutely LOVED my v10 TDI. Although it was a nightmare, I miss it!!

I miss the Mid 2000s R VWs they are just Incredibly underrated and so cool.

I tried to buy a wrecked Touareg so I could swap one of these into my 89 Wrangler. I am glad that I got outbid on that. Went with an M57 instead.

The V10 TDI itself isn't the nightmare, it's the people who don't know how to take care of one that are the nightmare. All that aside, it's a criminally underrated beast of a unit and a powerful, torquey one.

You said it's bad on fuel consumption. I don't think so! I daily drive a Phaeton, on short in city drives I routinely get around 12L/100km. On road trips it gets aroun 9L if you drive Autobhan speeds and 8L if you drive around 130/140. I got 6.3L/100km when I drove 400km trip solely with intention to get as low consumption as possible. So wouldn't say it's bad. Specially for a 3 ton beast, with a slushbox ZF automatic and Thorsen 4x4... It's actually amazing, since modern 200hp 2.0tdi A4 Quattro can't get much bellow 7L/100km on similar drives. It's difficult on maintenance but I wouldn't say it's any less reliable as any other old diesel, remarkably! At 300 000+ km it doesn't smoke it still pulls hard the only thing that I'm concerned about is camshafts getting worn down...

I had 04 v10 touareg. First heated seats stopped working then it was power steering pump engine had to be dropped. Water pump at 60k. Valve covers leaking both new had to be replaced no gasket sold separately. New turbos at 65k. I believe I had replaced an alternator and at 80k I had to replace rear airbags. Right after that injector harness on passenger side. Don't even start with glow plugs. All in all my worst car decision ever when I sold the car on the day it was going to be shipped out check engine light came back again I though I was going to get a heart attack. Loved the car though the torque was unbelievable.

My v10 Touareg is still my fav car that I own. I don’t drive it nearly as much as I would like to but that’s a financial decision as when something goes wrong it’s much more expensive and hard to fix doing so myself. Plus diesel fuel is so expensive here on the east coast of the states. My daily is either my 97 Lincoln town car or 07 Lincoln town car. Tho nothing beats the sound of the Touareg. I love everything about it

The Germans try to copy the Landcruiser Amazon 4.2tdi In the last 15 years, but failed so badly, Even went on to V10_ 5.0tdi & failed so so piss poor, they had to give up. The Japanese Won that war 15 years before the Germans started. Their Best engine was the 2.5 TDI Cogs timing system. Still going strong, lasting too too long, so hence the new 2.0 VW crap. In 2022, I still have a 25 year old, 100 series with 200k as the 3rd owner for 8 years, the past owners went on to buy newer Cruisers. Uber luxury, super smooth 4.2tdi & still a dream to drive, unlike the off roaders I've had. Yes, in-between I've tried to do better, but it all failed, X5, Merc G-WAGON, AUDI Q7 with expensive parts & electric headaches. So now keeping simple & straight forward, I now enjoying the KING CRUISER. Friends have the 2020 Range Rovers new ones, every 6 months, they spend more time in the repair garages thus making them, OFF THE ROAD. Only the Kia Sorento 2.2 td was near to the old bus, excellent 38mpg, but failed in comfy seats but the wife loves this. My grand total in up keep in 8 years, including services & ABS pump only after 25 years, has been £4500 in 60k mileage, BGF Goodyear still have 8mm after 20k Mileage. Also Bio fuel at £1 compare to £1.80 A Dam bargain. LONG LIVE the KING Cruisers.

I honestly thought most of these were recalled because of diesel gate. Always found them interesting.

The most interesting and unique engines will always be the most unreliable.

My father dreams of a VW Phaeton With especially THIS engine! 😦

There are just a few things to know about the engine. 1. Like any turbo car, after a longer drive and espacially when doing highway or pulling, don't turn off the car after you came to a stop. Let it run for 15-30 seconds for the turbos to cool down. Since it is a tightly packed engine, it is more important than with a single turbo engine in a large engine bay. 2. The PD-elements tend to work into the head by vibrating when driven only short trips and not long ones. Here is the person at fault thinking, a V10 is suitable to drive for 3-7km trips. No big engine is and espacially no Diesel engine is suited for such short trips. The solution or prevention are so called PD-bridges which clamp down the pumpinjectors and stop them from vibrating. Problem prevented/solved. 3. Change the rubber couplings on your accesories. If they wear out, they destroy your alternator and such. It's called maintenance, if you do service by the book, you are good in the majority of cases. 4. EGR is always the enemy of a long lasting and efficient engine. Clean your intake like with any other modern-ish diesel or delete the EGR altogether (no advice of course because legal blah blah). That's it. Plastic becomes brittle, any work is a lot more work because it's a luxury SUV, what do you expect? If you want something easy, buy a Lada. It breaks all the time but it's easy to fix. Want more luxury? Buy an american car, feels cheap, a little bit easier to repair, almost as reliable as a german car when taken care of. Want something more reliable? Buy a Toyota brand car. They are boring, cheap, feel cheap, look cheap, reliable and not really that less complicated to fix. At least when going for a Lexus. If you want a luxury SUV which was atop the game at it's time, then you accept the other side of owning such a vehicle which is a little bit more intensive maintenace which always works for you in the long run. If you think you have 5000 for a luxury SUV and expect it to work well when treated like your Clio or Corsa, grow up and think before you act. You don't buy Vans and expect them to be good shoes just like you don't buy Lloyds and expect them to still live after you've thrown them in the washing machine. Still the Lloyds are the better shoes, they just demand a different and proper care provided by grown-ups with the appropriate wallet. And yes I owned a R5 Touareg which was very good and now own a V10 and I do car and boat transports up to 3500kg for a side hustle with it. Through Europe. 50.000km a year.

I have one , it's great. It's tuned and Sometimes it feels like it wants to wheelie. The only thing that let's it down is the lazy gearbox .

Ahh yes, TDU2 once again introduced me to the Touareg V10 TDI! Such an insane engine!

Please do a video on the BMW M67D40/D44 and Mercedes-Benz OM628/OM629!

There's a v10 TDI Touareg down the road from me, hardly ever moves, I'd love to hear it running.

Best era of German cars the 00's 👌

6:50 is an old friend of mine.....Lawson will enjoy seeing this for sure!

I now officially am the owner of a R50 Touareg yaaay I'll keep this thing running as long as I can. I dont care how much I have to spend it will keep on running

Holy shit is that complicated! I never understood how complex this engine was. I've only seen one of these ever driving around south Florida. As to pulling a 747, it is the transmission that matters. Airport tugs that move planes around rarely have more than about 300 hp, but they have transmissions from hell with serious "granny gearing". I wonder if the Toureg ["towel rack"] they did that with was driveable afterwards.... Great video!

I have a 2.5 TDI T5 van, so half of one of these and it's been a nightmare to fix up. Sure quenched my desire for an R50.

V10 pulls very good breaks down often I have had two of them

i had one 5.0tdi Touareg and it was really good, had to change powersteering pump and that was most Time consuming Job , it took about 10hours to replace but still i miss it.

So you have to pull the intake to change the starter? Brilliant

I would love buy one of these and then it into a backcountry off-roader

My father had one,V10 diesel in 2006,very good torque the launch it was incredible,but after 100.000km the pinion distribution blew out

just to let you know, this engine got 350.000km ~ 220000miles on my Phaeton V10 TDi without big issues. Alternator failed and steering rack need some oil stop additive. Without oil stop additive you would need to replace steering rack and to replace the rack you need to remove engine and gearbox.

If I ever win the lottery I’ll buy one of these to tinker around with.

If you want an affordable, reliable and simple motor, look if that brand sells light commercial trucks and vans. The engines in those usually have maintenance costs in mind. If they sell those engines in their passenger cars, they would be a good buy. Good examples are the Toyota 4 cylinder diesel. Not the quietest, not the most powerful, but very simple and dependable engine.

Whenever I think of reliability, I think “what would the average layman be able to rely on during an apocalypse”

I was telling people this when these tiger tanks came out, but nobody listened.

👏Great video thank you

I drive a 300+ miles v10Tdi, and the only problem i got is the air suspantion calibration

I rebuilt one these beasts back when they were new!

Remember the VW Golf skydiving/parachute buying advert? One guy buys a discount 'chute, the other buys an expensive "trustworthy, well built" VW parachute. It came out just before it emerged that VW was totally untrustworthy. We need to see the sequel where the VW parachute was actually lying about performance.... 🤣😭😟

It took me half the video to work out that when he said “sonder”, he meant “cylinder” 😅

A truly amazing engine. Can be testing of the patients but stick to the order of disassembly. Deleting some parts will improve things

I've just bought a 180,000 mile touareg R50 in blue for £2,500. After watching this video I am now preparing to release equity on the house haha. Should I keep it?😶

German Engineering: Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

amazing engine !!!

i was a ''jdm'' car tuner back in early 2000, now i work on audis and vw for almost 10 years, although i think its better than turbo jdms because outside of the ea888 you dont need a new engine every 10k miles, its too much complicated for no reason in some cases, tdi engines except of the alh are stupid complicated, at least the vag parts id system is great, the fact that you can remove the front clip easily is great too, i also like the way that their computer modules system works with coding and diag but reliability wise ill stick with american made cars for daily use, its not the case for everybody but i had way better luck with gm or toyota engines

My dream car is phaeton V10

I once had to drop the entire engine on one of these to replace a lambda sensor.

My race winning Toureg has a V10 TDI in TDU2.

Now we want the V12 TDI video 😎 and why not in the Audi R8 TDI?

It's actually awesome. Just a nightmare to work on.

Thé v10’was a copy of the MTU série 2000 e very very reliable engine for generators and boats , much better then any engine on earth , even thé série 4000 MTu was a beast

I love this engine; and the v12 tdi.

Wasn't really a nightmare, they are actually pretty reliable and there are a lot on the road still racking up the miles.

This engine when rev'd sounds like the Bugatti Veyron W16.

That last clip with just the sound wow, that V10 sweetness with the deeper grunt of Diesel is just so beautiful.

Except for Engine out repairs...it's a pretty reliable Engine.

Sounds like a nightmare to change a starter on

I miss my '82 Rabbit diesel's simplicity.

I still want one

I prefer our $9k eGolf over the 5.0 that we had, all that oil to deal with. The R1S is fun too but expensive..

5 liter v-10 is a strange diesel configuration

Totally disagree with most of you. Speaking from my own experience. And i have had TWO OF THEM . 2004 and 2006. Sure not an average gadget for backyard mechanics. For someone loving it dropping whole power pack on the driveway ??? FOUR HOURS. and no need for expensive $14k. hydraulic jack/table. It has been designed to have it done in the future. The only bad thing??? countless stop signs i mowed with my trailer taking too sharp turns forgetting that i pulled 3-4 ton trailer. Camshaft failed in the second one and first owner admitted he had never changed engine oil. Thats all. Both have today over 500.000 km and going strong. Again too sophisticated for average Joe .

I wonder how these do or if they are capable of really high mileages like Mercedes 400-500K miles?

Sounds like a early 2000s ktm dirt bike

This just goes to show the more complex you make a vehicle. The less the customer is going to want to pay the maintenance fee. Which is exactly why it’s a shot in the foot. No matter how good it is.😂

I used to be VW guy due to their solid rugged simple straight forward cars, But todays cars is a can of worms, I give up trying to see through what is the solid daily and the pointless performance powertrain that you have to pay at least three times the value of the car to keep running. I have given up in such an degree that i now consider to go for the basic down to earth and bottom priced GM models or even Suzuki cars. On the other hand the combustion engines are more a thing of the past now, And you need a masters degree to really know what you actually are buying when it comes to electric cars.

Depends on how you maintain it, no back street cowboys, decent parts and the right oil, not any old old the correct oil.

Ako vzdy super video 👌

Are any German vehicles easy to work on? I have a friend with a diesel BMW SUV and the timing chains have gone bad. Three chains, in the back of the motor...

There is so much misinformation about this car it is insane. All those things people say have to be "engine out," no, false. VW wants you to think that and not many people have disagreed enough to try. But a few people have done the starter, tandem pump, turbos, exhaust manifolds, valve covers, cams... all in-situ despite the internet rumors that they are 30+ hour "engine out" jobs

It holds very well 300tkm no problem. However you need too take care of it and don't start full gas too often. Gerabox can be pissed

Modern turbo di systems from VW are nightmare in general.

I really like your videos. But I struggle to understand your pronunciation my brother. I want to listen but as a portuguese ( you know, the guys next door to Spain) we are very used to American and brit English. Your English is not easy to understand. I'm sorry for that because i really love your understanding of automobiles and love to learn about them.

Só quero o motor r50 tdi v10 350cv E a tração nas quatro rodas e o câmbio manual de 7 marchas pra colocá na minha saveiro quadrada

The auto makers have forgotten the K.I.S.S. principle.