4.3
definitely annoying- Crashes / Fires:
- 0 / 0
- Injuries / Deaths:
- 0 / 0
- Average Mileage:
- 26,056 miles
About These NHTSA Complaints:
The NHTSA is the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints can be spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem. See the Back button — blue bar at the very top of the page — to explore more.
After having the government approved and MANDATED Phase 1 and 2 Dieselgate fixes performed on my VW Passat TDI it has randomly lost power and or stalled while at highway speeds at least 6 times. The last time my 16 year old son was left stranded in the middle of a busy four lane highway narrowly avoiding being hit and seriously injured and/or killed. Apparently there are thousands of these cases (a class action lawsuit filed in 2018) on the road. Why haven't I been notified? This mandatory fix is much more dangerous then the original issue it seeks to address. From what I understand, the fix is causing the DPF regeneration sequence to occur much more often and much hotter, thereby cooking/melting/boiling the entire cooling system and shutting the engine down without warning. My vehicle has been in the service dept of VW for over 6 months (this last time) because they cannot figure how to fix it permanently. VW Corporate is very aware of the situation and has fed me a bunch of [XXXX] not even a child would believe and has refused my suggestion to self report the problems to NTHSA and CARB. If the cars are not taken off the road this issue will definitely (if not already) result in major injuries and likely death. I have done my duty notifying this government agency and now if a tragedy occurs there will have been actual notice as required by the law. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
- Paso Robles, CA, USA
Mice and rodents just love eating various electrical wires, vacuum lines, diesel fuel lines (both from tank to engine & return lines), etc. Never once had any animals issues with my other vehicles. Discovered that VWoA thought it would be a brilliant idea to use Soy in the manufacturing of electrical insulation, fuel hoses, vacuum lines, etc. ANIMALS LIKE EATING SOY. Very frustrating. My vehicle has been disabled before and one time I sprang a nice leak, leaving a trail of diesel behind me. Since all repairs and parts were ordered and conducted at local VW dealership. All records are both on carfax & stored in VWoA servers.
- Florence, OR, USA
The car went 8 blocks 35mph the engine started shaking, I was stopping at the red light the car surging forward with my foot on brake engine still shaking. This all happened in 3 minutes. No lights on dashboard, the rpm dropped from 2,000 to 1,000 and then everything was ok.
- Posen, IL, USA
Engine time chain skipped. Fuel rail leak from regulator(dangerous to drive as it can catch on fire). Suspension problem car shakes over 40mph(alignment and balance did not help), problem due to coils or other components. Mechanic shop checked car and they denied to work on it due to fuel recall.
- New Castle, DE, USA
Sluggish, hesitates, will not accelerate uphill. Codes: P039B, P93af, P03B9
- Picayune, MS, USA
The contact owns a 2015 Volkswagen Passat. The contact stated while driving at 45 mph, the vehicle stalled with the check engine warning light along with several other unknown warning lights. The vehicle was taken to valley auto world Volkswagen (3810 sycamore dairy rd, fayetteville, nc 28303) where the vehicle was diagnosed with a fuel pump failure. The vehicle was repaired however, the failure recurred. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 91,344.
- Spring Lake, NC, USA
On two occasions, the vehicle's engine stopped working while the car was moving. The first instance, the car stalled while moving at 5mph on an expressway exit ramp. It restarted after 30 minutes (blocking traffic for that period of time). When attempting to restart, the motor would turn over, but the engine would not start - as if there was no gasoline. The second stall occurred while driving on an expressway at 55mph. In that case there was again a sudden loss of all power. However, the vehicle would not restart. The car was taken to a dealer on both occasions. The dealer replaced the batter on the first visit. On the second visit, the dealer claimed that there were fault codes related to the high pressure fuel rail that needed to be reset.
- Chicago, IL, USA
Car lost power while driving. Almost caused crash, as I was accelerating and sudden loss of power with cars coming. Car would not rev over 2K RPM, and took about 2 minutes to get to 45mph. Dealer diagnosed car and said high pressure fuel pump was bad. They changed that, fuel filter, and cleaned diesel tank.
- Auburndale, FL, USA
Fuel filler door opens intermittently. Not good when attempting to fill car with gas, and the door won't open. There is no manual release for this, and you would have to break parts to get to the fuel filler cap.
- Tallahassee, FL, USA
Took car in for recall on air bags drove home 3 minutes from dealer.next morning car dies out in the middle of busy intersection and will not restart nearly causing an accident 3 blocks from home. Dealer says they did nothing to engine. And would charge me $175 to diagnose. VW had this problem with earlier year Passat vehicles when power was interrupted and would cause fuel pump failure.
- Stockton, CA, USA
Engine failure due to fuel system failure. During driving complete engine shutdown. Will not restart, vehicle towed to dealership. This happened a second time within 2000 miles. Dealer states contaminated fuel both instances. Fuel was purchased at two separate gas stations each time. Costing 7000 dollars in repairs for each instance.
- Plantsville, CT, USA
I purchased a Volkswagen Passat diesel and decided to keep it even after the whole diesel scandal. Two months after the second part of the "fix" my check engine light comes on so I decided to take it to the dealership because my warranty was extended through the whole diesel lawsuit. I was told that my high pressure fuel pump failed because of bad diesel. I asked the service center how they determined my bad diesel was tested and they demonstrated a VW approved special tool with a box that had a smiley face and frown face emoji. The repair facility advised me that they could't perform the repairs under warranty because of the poor quality of the diesel. I called Volkswagen of America and got the run around. I had to use my vehicle's car insurance to cover the $7400 repair bill. As a ten year veteran Volkswagen/Audi technician I/we are well aware of the design flaw of this high pressure fuel pump. The pump fails and sends metal fragments throughout the entire fuel system all the way back to the fuel tank. I would be ok replacing a $800 high pressure fuel pump but this design allows the metal from the high pressure fuel pump which is driven by the timing belt to recirculate back into the tank and further contaminate the entire system and not to mention the four fuel injectors at $500 a piece (times four). I called the Volkswagen diesel settlement line and explained my frustration and even made the person who answered the phone laugh with the whole smiley face and frown face tester. I am a factory trained technician and even I don't understand the logic behind this, give me percentages and tolerances which I can understand. Unfortunately this will be my last Volkswagen I will ever purchase I know this doesn't matter much to VW but I will be definitely spreading the word.
- Cary, NC, USA
I got a recall notice regarding the cam issue with this vehicle. They are tell me the fix is to change the software in the ECM. However doing so will change the timing on my car which will affect the performance, gas mileage and emission that my pzev car puts out. VW refuses to give me a straight answer on what they are changing. I believe that said changes will cause my vechile to pollute more and get worse mileage as they must be adjusting the timing to change the amount of vacuum the cam shaft makes.
- Pembroke Pines, FL, USA
With no warning car would not brake. Brake was stiff and would not go down, emergency brake had to be used which could of caused the car to spin out. This car was serviced for the matter at hand. This situation should never had happened it was hazardous, life threating, and a total safety fail. My family and I were at risk because of this!
- Rahway, NJ, USA
The contact owns a 2015 Volkswagen Passat. While driving at approximately 70 mph, the fuel gauge provided inaccurate reading levels. The failure recurred numerous times. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The VIN was not provided. The approximate failure mileage was 6,000.
- Belton, MO, USA
Vehicle lost power and stopped. Would not restart. Miller oil co. Tested fuel in tank with no issue. VW of America tested fuel in car and found lubricity wear diameter scaring of 557 micro meters 37 micro meters out of spec. $10K to replace fuel system.
- Virginia Beach, VA, USA
- Tinton Falls, NJ, USA