8.5
pretty bad- Typical Repair Cost:
- $350
- Average Mileage:
- 72,350 miles
- Total Complaints:
- 4 complaints
Most common solutions:
- not sure (3 reports)
- TIPM replacement (1 reports)
The car intermittently dies, sometimes when hitting a bump. Traction control lights up, engine shuts down, and of course, power steering gone. This has been happening for 3-4 months.
Most recently, the lightning bolt safety light lit up, which relates to a Electric Throttle Control Light, or ETC.
That disappeared, then the check engine light lit up. That also disappeared.
I checked for the recall even called VW customer service and the VIN falls OUTSIDE the recall for the ignition switch. Can't seem to find a source of the problem, don't want to replace the TIPM because that is expensive and I don't know how much longer I'll have the car... Not safe.
Update from Aug 8, 2016: Found anecdotal evidence online that this problem was caused by a faulty EGR valve and was common in the Routan.
I had it replaced, so far so good, but has only been a few weeks...
Fingers crossed.
- D K., Chicago, IL, US
The car has shut off twice while driving at speeds of approximately 35 mph. Both times I was unable to steer the car and had to put in park, remove key, put key back in and re-start the car. Very scary. Took to dealer after each incident and they were unable to duplicate the problem and so no repair was ever completed.
- Teri J., Clifton, VA, US
The car shuts off while driving. It gives you no notice, you lose power, steering..very dangerous. We took the car to a dealership 2x while on vacation only to find out that there was a recall on the ignition and they replaced at no charge they thought that would solve the problem but it didn't. They could find nothing wrong with the car. When we came home we took it into the dealership and they too could not find anything wrong with car. We have called VW customer service and they say it is not under warranty and want us to take it back into the dealership to stay a few days and it may be very costly and that will be at our expense. In my opinion to make a vehicle that shuts off while driving with no warning is NOT SAFE FOR THE ROAD. People can get killed . We love vw and I have a jetta and it is still going strong, we had no idea that Chrysler made the routan or we would never have purchased this van. I know that there are other routan owners that are in the same situation. Would love to know if anyone has been able to find the answer to this problem and what obligations should vw be held to.
- Barbara K., Binbrook, Ontario, Canada
First issue to arise, was the engine would shut off, and the steering wheel and brakes LOCK WHILE DRIVING! (This happened every time we were just leaving the house. NOT while driving 50mph... BUT, what if one day it did?) I have three young children being carried in this vehicle. It makes me furious that this isn't a recall. Will it become a recall once someone gets hurt?
After having the same thing happen multiple times, we started to have to jump the car to get it to turn on. We figured (at the time) it was a battery problem, so we replaced the battery...
Then, the heater/blower goes out. That's when we did some research and find out it's the TIPM. This VW Routan is made by Chrysler and it looks like they've been having a lot of issues with TIPM's in MULTIPLE vehicles. They need to recall and pay for the issues they caused. After, finding out about the TIPM we started putting 2 and 2 together - the clock changing the time on its own, only the left side would lock with key fob, and headlights, blinkers burning out. What a headache...
- Mikyla L., Yelm, US