Volkswagen VR5

Volkswagen's 2.3-litre five — a VR6 with a cylinder removed, and one of the strangest engines the company sold in volume. In the Passat B5, Bora and Golf Mk4, and the New Beetle.

The architecture is the point. The cylinders sit in a 15° narrow-angle vee under a single cylinder head, so it is neither an inline five nor a conventional V5: it is as short as a four, as smooth as a six is not, and it makes a noise nothing else makes. A procedure written for an inline five or for a V-engine describes neither the layout nor the access.

The timing chains are at the gearbox end of the engine, as they are on every VR — so a chain job means the gearbox comes out, and a rattle at start-up is an expensive noise rather than an ordinary one. On an engine of this age and value that is usually the decision about whether to keep the car.

The coil packs fail as they do across the era's Volkswagens, producing single-cylinder misfires that move around, and the crankcase ventilation blocks and pushes oil past the seals. Very few were built, so parts availability is a real consideration in a way it is not for the VR6 beside it.