2009 Volkswagen Passat

Timing Belt/Chain tensioner problem

In July 2016 my mother-in-law was leaving work, when she tried starting the car it didn’t started. Someone in the parking volunteered to help her. They decided to jump start the car with a jump box, the car started and she made it home. Once she got home she tried to start the car and it did not start. 5 days later when I came from vacation I decided to change the battery since it seen like it was the battery. Once I changed the battery it did not start. I spent $150.00 dollars in a battery where I cannot even return (lost money). She is a single mother and do not make a lot of money to fix her car, after a month and half of the car been park at home and taking rides from whoever can take her, we decided to get a mechanic that works for VW dealership. He came and fully checked the car and told us that the timing chain/belt jumped and that engine it’s out of time, which it could have been caused from a bad tensioner. He said this is a real bad issue that could cause the valve to be bended. He gave us an expensive price to fix the car, so we decided to wait and be patience and be optimistic that it wasn’t that since my mother in law doesn’t have the money to fix it. A month later we decided to get other mechanics to get different opinions, they all said it was the same issue. One of the mechanics came and checked the pressure of the engine and it stay on 0 and that’s when he confirmed that valves are bended. I have checked about this problem on the internet and many people are complaining about the same issue and VW knows about this issue for some time, I also see there is a lawsuit going on this issue. I can’t believe and it should not be acceptable that VW knowing of this problem, it’s not doing anything about fixing this problem. We at the point where we are telling all of our family members and friends to not even buy VWs. I believed a group of people with these problems and cars should get together and run a campaign so people do not buy this brand and force VW to fix their own issues with the cars they make/made. This issue could cause varieties of accident on the street, because if this issue happens to anybody on the street driving, it could lock the engine and cause the person lose control of the vehicle and either hit or get hit by somebody. The United States of America should not allow Volkswagen drivers to even been on the streets with this type of car issues. I believe the department of NHTSA and USA should force VW to Fix and recall this car, so we can have safer cars in the street.

My car wouldn't start for no apparent reason. I first visited the VW service center at VW of Germantown in Memphis, TN on Winchester. Then I was told to go to the VW of Memphis on Covington Pike. That is where my car was held. I assume they held it hoping that I would buy a new car. I do know that no work was done to my car at my request.

My complaint is the amount of time that my car was held hostage due to "preparing a ticket" after it was finally looked at. After I received my car it was completely empty of oil. The service manager said that they did not do any work to the oil and/or oil pan. I don't seem to understand if nothing was done to the vehicle why was it returned to me without oil. The dealer tried to blame the key problem on locking the key inside the car. I never said the key was locked inside of the car. I have all of the keys to the car. However, the car has lost all communication with the key and does not recognize it. This was not the case before I took my car for service. As you can see this has made me very frustrated. I took my car in to be evaluated for one simple thing that I was told would be a turn around job. After a month or so later, my car is returned with even more damage.

Since the key hasn't worked since before I took it to the dealer, my car has suffered more damage due to it being difficult to load on the tow truck. The tow service guy could not turn the car on to shift the gears and it was very hard to load the car. I'm not sure how I am supposed to get the car to the dealer to even get the key reprogrammed. I am afraid of causing any more unnecessary damage to a my vehicle. Also I don't understand why I the car was diagnosed with a timing problem when I have taken really good care of my care and received all of the routine services thus far. No one could explain why I experienced all this headache and why was my oil drained from the engine. I feel like I am being forced to incur charges by purchasing a new vehicle.