My 2011 Routan was brought in to dealership at end of August. Car wouldn't start when cranked. Voltage on battery was fine and the fuse appeared in good working order. Vehicle was towed in to dealership. To make a long story short. My vehicle has been in the shop going on 3 months. They say it was the fuel pump, it was replaced, then they say was the TIPM, it was replaced. Then they said some part in the manifold burnt that had to be replaced, that part was not an exact fit so another part ordered, now they said that cylinder head 6 needs to be replaced because the head stayed open causing the burning in the manifold.

I have been in contact with VW advocate after month 1 since my vehicle has been in the shop, only until month 2 did they intervene by contacting the dealership to get communication going on because for a period of 2 weeks they had not contacted my or returned my calls because they could not figure out was wrong with the vehicle. They had ordered parts and tried to fix the vehicle without my knowledge.

Back to the cylinder head 6 I had researched that left cylinder head is covered for 10 years or 150K. Left side is 2, 4, and 6 cylinders. (I had my 2 cylinder head replaced under warranty already) So I contacted VW advocate to investigate the 6 cylinder head. I mine you that previous to this, the dealership had already contacted me about this cylinder head 6 and they needed to fix this. 2 weeks had past before I contacted the advocate. He called me to tell me that the dealership had made a mistake it was cylinder head 5. To make a long story short find a repair shop that you trust, because of this I can't trust the repairs of the vehicle by this dealership.

Things repaired on this vehicle- TIPM twice, fuel pump, phasers, front and rear brakes, battery, brake booster, brake relay, cylinder head #2, engine coil cylinder #6, all engine/transmission mounts, and a transmission.

The only reason we still had this vehicle is my two twin boys loved this vehicle since we bought this, they grew up in this and had made memories, but now there asking where is the vehicle and why is it taking so long. Now those memories need to be renewed by another vehicle and forever they will remember about the VW van.

Thanks VW.

At roughly 25,000 miles, the van would have an extended crank and often times would not start. The fuel pump has been replaced 3 times along with injectors, battery, wiring harness, TIPM module and several other fuel system items. After reviewing our repair sheets, we've calculated that the car has been out of service for the same issue 61 days in the past 13 months. The engine is designed to run on E85 gas, but we've been advised to stop using that grade of gas and only use 87. We've also been advised to use different gas stations, because we may not be getting "good gas" at the station we normally use. Recently, we were told that in 2012, a software update became available to correct this issue with the fuel system and allow us to run E85 gas.

Has anyone with a 2011 (or other years) Routan experienced any problems similar to this, or have been told to avoid using E85, even though the engine is design for it?