The engine in our 2006 tdi dsg began to exhibit rough idling. At a certain point it became evident something was wrong. The vehicle has always been serviced by a VW dealership at the specified intervals (I call them the $400 oil changes). I could hear what sounded like an intake valve popping and could feel a pulsation in the turbo intake hose. I checked on some of the forums and was shocked to learn of the early camshaft failure problem common to the pd engines. It seems that VW narrowed up the intake and exhaust cam lobes by about 30% to make room for the injector lobe, and tried to compensate for this inadequate design by mandating "special" oil (which I can only hope our dealer used each time the oil was changed). It turns out though, that a critical can wear additive in this oil, zddp, in sufficient quantities can cause early failure of the catalytic converter (an item which has a longer warranty period than the engine). It seems that the zddp only exists in sufficient quantity in VW "special" oil to get through the engine warranty period, while at the same time protecting the converter from warranty failure. I bought an after market cam kit and installed it myself, saving nearly $3000 in the process. Since then we've put another 60K miles, using mobil td truck 5W40 oil... so far so good. I think this whole situation is disgraceful at best and VW should be responsible for all pd camshaft failures to a period significantly longer than the 80,000 km warranty. The primary reason we paid 32K for a compact sedan was the reputed longevity of the diesel engine. This failure, along with the dual mass flywheel fiasco has made our purchase of this silver colored lemon anything but a good investment. Until VW faces up to their moral responsibilities in this matter I would caution anyone considering this make of vehicle.

- Baddeck, 00, USA

I was leaving for a trip from milwaukee to madison to start a long weekend vacation. I was I-94 traveling 65 mph when my vehicle's epc light came on and the engine died. This rendered me useless on a busy highway fearing for my safety. The car died in the middle of heavy traffic due to it being the end of the work day. The timing chain broke on the vehicle while in motion causing engine interference and requiring a replacement. No assistance was provided by VW stating it was fault of operator error. Independent company that put replacement engine in stated this malfunction could not have been caused by no adhering to preventative maintenance or operator error as car manufacturer previously mentioned.

- Sturtevant , WI, USA

The contact owns a 2006 Volkswagen Jetta. The contact stated while driving 40 mph the vehicle would not shift gears. Whenever the gears shifted, the vehicle would stall. The contact stated that the vehicle was taken to the dealer who performed a diagnostic test and stated that the automatic transmission needed to be replace. There was also a massive oil leak in the engine. The manufacturer was contacted and informed him to take the vehicle back to the dealer for the repairs and it would be covered under the warranty. The failure mileage was 67,000 and the current mileage was 69,000. Updated 04/12/11 the consumer no longer owns the vehicle. Updated 04/29/11

- Elmwood Park, NJ, USA

The overhead cam on my 06 VW Jetta tdi failed causing extensive engine damage. This is a common occurrence with this year and model vehicle. The manufacture does not acknowledge a problem. I changed the engine oil per the owners manual at 10K intervals using only VW $505.01 spec engine oil, acquired from the dealership.

- Albuquerque, NM, USA

While driving on the interstate the car suddenly began to shake while accelerating. At slow speeds the car would stall and could not be driven safely. When I took it to the VW dealer they informed me a camshaft had worn prematurely and caused the rocker arm to break which destroyed a fuel injector and the valve cover. Total cost to repair $6,000. The car was 1000 miles beyond the powertrain warranty (60,000) so VW paid half the cost of the repair. However, the car never ran correctly again and they could not tell me why. I traded the car in after the repair. After I had this problem I researched the issue and found it to be very common. If you google "camshaft wear in pump duse tdi engines" you will find a great deal of information on this problem. In many cases such a severe problem did not occur, but this problem could cause the engine to seize completely. I insisted that the dealer return the failed parts to me, but they refused because it was considered a warranty repair. I did see the worn camshaft lobe and it looked identical to those pictured in cases reported online in forums. I truly believe that this is a major flaw and should be addressed by a complete recall. This could be very dangerous.

- Asheville, NC, USA

On 3 separate occasions, my 2006 Volkswagen Jetta 2.5 has stalled out while moving. First 2 occasions (occurring a few weeks apart) occurred immediately after start-up in parking lot. Engine stalled, loss of power steering, power brakes, battery light comes on, radio and lights stay on. Dealer keeps car for 1 week first time, 1 month second time. No codes pulled, no replication of problem, dealer returns car to me. 3rd time the engine stalled happened approx 1 month after dealer returned car while moving on highway. Approximately 50-60 miles per hour. Nearly caused multi-car wreck. Car stalled in center lane with not enough power or steering to move to side. Dealer now has car for 3rd time, still no idea what problem may be. Car restarts immediately after stall with no issues. Working with dealer, VW regional manager, and VW of America. Still no problems found, but terrified for car to be returned to me. Driving on highway daily. Next highway stall may not be so lucky.

- Overland Park, KS, USA

We have had several incidents with our 2006 Volkswagen Jetta 2.5 where we would lose power and the vehicle stalls out. Our 2006 Jetta is a gasoline 5-cylinder with automatic transmission and has only 45,000 miles. In June of 2010 we first noticed the stalling issue when driving home and it stalled out while pulling into the driveway. After sitting for about 10 minutes we were able to pull it into the garage. The second incident occurred on Friday 7/30/2010, while driving home from work (30 mile commute) at 45-55 mph the Jetta started to intermittently lose power before the engine completely stalled. Note: I was still traveling at 55 mph when the engine stalled. It would restart and began experiencing the same issue multiple times. We towed the car to our local Volkswagen dealership. They ran diagnostics and did not find any error codes from the car's computer. They replaced the battery thinking that it might have been an electrical issue. We picked up the car on Tuesday 8/3/2010 in the morning. While driving home from work that same day (30 mile commute) the engine began experiencing the same issue, intermittently losing power while traveling on the interstate at 70-80 mph. After exiting the interstate the symptoms continued to get worse and the engine completely stalled in the middle of an intersection almost causing a multi-car accident. After multiple attempts to restart and repeated engine stalls I was able to get the vehicle to gas station where it was towed to the Volkswagen dealer for a 2nd time. Only good news of this story, the VW mechanic was able to reproduce the engine stall issue after test driving the Jetta for about 45 minutes. VW dealer reported the result to VW manufacturer tech support. VW dealer kept the car for more than 1 week to run more tests per VW tech support. Ultimately replaced the fuel pump and fuel filter. No more occurrences in the last two weeks...but am literally holding my breath while driving.

- Ooltewah, TN, USA

My car began leaking oil after last change at bert smith Volkswagen in St. Petersburg Florida. Checked underneath car and found transmission casing and flywheel housing cracked. Took pictures but according to bert smith Volkswagen this is just dirt and grease stains, they cannot show me another car with the same "stains".

- St. Petersburg, FL, USA

Engine failure on my 2006 Volkswagen diesel Jetta. The electronic control fuel injector over fueled the cylinders and caused the pull rods to bend and damaged the engine, costs are $7,500 to repair the engine. Car is only 2 and half years old with 85,0000 miles.

- Abingdon, VA, USA

On 2/1/06 I leased a new 2006 Jetta only to have the engine not start on 2/27/06. I was stuck in a gas station parking lot with a dead cell phone awaiting a tow truck for 1.5 hrs. The car was brought to the dealership and they had no idea what was wrong with it. Later that day they told me possibly a fuel pump but weren't sure and that I should arrange for a rent-A-car. They had the car for 3 days and when I picked it up they stated it was a program that needed to be updated and everything is fine. It is now a week and a half later and the ignition key wouldn't turn in the ignition. I continued to switch between my alarm key and mechanic key until it finally turned and started. Once on the road the car died in mid drive. The engine completely turned off while doing about 25mpg. Thank god there was no one around me, the car came to a stop and restarted immediately and driven back to work. Leaving work the car didn't turn over at all. You could hear the cranking of the engine but was not turning over, the same problem as before. The car is now at the dealership again, no loaner car was given to me and there was several complaints already underway. Another problem is the cars engines sound. When the car is initially started in the morning it is a hard loud rough sound that gives after a minute or so.

- Commack, NY, USA

2006 Volkswagen Jetta, engine makes a very loud rattling noise for the first minute everytime the car is cold and at first startup in the morning...every single day, after reporting the problem to my dealer I was told that this noise is on all 2006 Jetta's and the manufacturer is working on solving the problem, I first reported the problem last May 2005 when I first bought the car and I have since made 2 official complaints directly with the manufacturer and with the dealer. I have now warned them a third time and will wait the official 30 days before escalating it to arbitration.

- Laval, 00, USA