Volkswagen EA896 (3.0 V6 TDI)

The Volkswagen Group's first common-rail V6 diesel — the engine that made large diesel saloons and SUVs ordinary across Audi, Volkswagen and Porsche. The family was built as a 2,967 cc 3.0 and as a stroke-reduced 2,698 cc 2.7 on the same architecture; the displacement recorded here is the 3.0, which is the volume engine and the one almost every car in this catalogue carries.

The designation is worth getting right before any part is ordered. EA390 is the petrol VR6 and has never been a diesel — the two are often confused, and a search that mixes them returns parts for a narrow-angle petrol six. From 2010 the group's V6 diesel is the revised EA897, and a body that stayed in production across that changeover was fitted with both.

Unusually for a V engine it places the timing chains at the rear, against the bulkhead, and that layout is the single most expensive thing about it. Chain and tensioner wear is a known age-related failure, it announces itself as a rattle rather than as a code, and reaching the chains means removing the engine or the gearbox — the same trap the BMW N47 and Mercedes OM651 set, and for the same reason. A rattle from the back of one of these is urgent regardless of how the car drives.

The other recurring themes are the swirl-flap actuator in the intake manifold and EGR cooler blockage, both of which present as a driveability complaint long before anything mechanical is audible.