2002 Volkswagen Golf GL from North America - Comments

Dashboard has rattled since 1000 miles.

Rear seats have rattled since 1000 miles.

Drivers side door creaks while braking and cornering. Also when opening, even after adding lubrication.

Drivers side window had an air/water leak from the factory.

Occasionally locking the door will cause the alarm to go off.

Car seems to burn a lot of oil.

Car handles well, and has decent power for a 2 liter automatic. Good gas mileage. Interior is nice; very comfortable seats and stylish look. Overall satisfied with the performance; it suits the need.

The car will not stop rattling. A new spot every week. The doors creak, the dash rattles, the back seats rattle, and one front speaker is rattling. The steering wheel is starting to make a ticking noise now. And I don't need to turn the radio down to hear any of this, either.

The two dealerships I've been frequenting (4 trips in 3 months), don't seem too trustworthy. Dealership 1 says there's no water leak in the window. Dealership 2 says there is and they fixed it. There is still a water leak. Same goes for the rattles. They might stay fixed until I get home from the service center. I'd hate to trust them with an engine problem. I asked about the amount of oil that it burns, of course it's not a problem!

Here is a copy of a letter I have sent to vw customer services uk. Has anyone else had this problem?

Dear VW Customer Care,

I am the proud owner of a 1999, S Registered VW Golf 1.6 Auto. I can say that since I purchased the car from Grange Motors, Brentwood, Essex, I have had thousands of miles of good, reliable VW motoring. Except for the windows.

Last year the passenger side, front window fell inside the door. As it was still under warranty, I took the car along to Grange where they said ‘Ah yes, it will be those little white clips that have broken. Don’t worry sir we will fix that’. And they duly did!

This morning, whilst driving into work the same thing happened with the front drivers side door. As the car is now out of warranty I decided to investigate myself. After all ‘those little white clips’ shouldn’t be that hard to replace? Should they?

I finished work early so that I would have plenty of time to strip the door down and take the offending items to Bristol Street Motors, Romford and buy a replacement pair. However, when I arrived at said VW dealers, I was told that I could not buy the ‘little white clips’ and would have to buy a complete window LIFTER unit Part Number 1J4837462E at a price of £78.96. I have to say that I was not happy. These two injection moulded clips had failed (which would have cost pennies to make) and I had to buy a complete lifter unit.

There seems to me to be two problems here. Firstly, there is clearly a design fault with the window lifter mechanism, as I have experienced this fault twice already and Bristol Street Motors, Romford have sold 63 of these lifter units this year. 63 from one dealership in a small town? Secondly, why does the whole lifter mechanism have to be purchased and not just the clips?

I am sure that I cannot be the first person to write regarding this matter, as it appears to be such a common complaint. I hope you will respond to this letter positively. I enclose a picture of the offending items and a copy of my receipt. Please get them sorted, they are letting your good name down.

My windows have not fallen out on any of the 5 Mk 4 Golfs I have owned, but maybe your dealer bodged it up on the first repair. As you say though there is obviously a major problem if they have sold so many of those parts.

I have experienced the door creaking noise, seat creaking noise and dashboard rattles on every single one of my Golfs.

They always fix them under warranty, no problem. But it really is very annoying because they have to go in so often for repair.

It is ashame, because they seem so well built otherwise.

In January 2002 my transmission was repaired under the Power Train Warranty at the York Volkswagen dealership. I was informed that the work performed was guaranteed for 12 months/ 20,000 kms. Within 8 months, I began to have the same transmission problem (confirmed by York Volkswagen’s service department). However, the dealership refused to honour the warranty and insisted these repairs were not covered. Unsuccessfully, I contacted two other dealerships to have the transmission assessed. They were reluctant to interrogate the transmission, as it was already worked on by the York dealership service department. I was informed by the service manager at York that the original job was done ‘out of good faith’ and not the Power Train Warranty. After several attempts to contact my salesperson, at Queensway, I decided to contact the Customer Care Service Department of Volkswagen Canada to rectify the situation.

Whilst the product is a good one the customer service does not add to the quality assurance.

VW customer service is a bad joke. Of the four dealers I have tried three were completely hopeless and the fourth OK, but prices were astronomical and there was a 3 week wait to get the car serviced. Mine has also been in the dealers half a dozen times for various problems (other than services). At one time I parked the car outside the doors to the service bay and refused to remove it until they promised to fix the fuel injection system that they had "recalibrated" during the service and made the car undriveable. I left driving the service manager's Passat for the day. Another occasion I had a stand up row with the service dept in front of about a dozen customers after another service left me with more problems than I had when I went in. I now take the car to a non-franchised VW specialist garage who are less than half the price and much better. Oddly the car has got more reliable since it is out of warranty... No more VWs for me after this!

Anyone else had problems with water ingress between the roof and the top of the front doors on current models of Volkswagen Golf estates?

The front doors of my Golf estate let in water as described above and the puddles stay in the bottom of each door rebate. In winter, this freezes the doors solidly shut!

On inspection, there's a large gap at the top of the front doors and the car roof, so no wonder water gets in.

I have a August 2002 GT TDI PD 130, has anyone experienced a squeaky clutch?

I have Volkswagen Golf 2-door GL 2001. I just finished making my 36th month payment. I get regular service maintenance and it now has 40,000 mileage on it.

My back up light burnt out after less than 2 yrs so during my regular oil changed from the dealer. I bought and asked them to put it. The dealer charged me but never replaced it but I never went back to Brand Blvd., Glendale, California dealership. Now, each time I wash my car, both door creaks. Same goes to the driver side dashboard. My left front head light burned-off. I need to take time off from work and bring it to the dealer for replacement.

Two days ago, the break light came off so I drove to the nearest station to have it check. It was empty so he added 1 can of the oil. The next day, break light came off again and i added another can of oil. There was no leak. it was just burning oil. I love this car so much but i am so miserable because of all the problems coming out at the same time.

I use to own a 2001 Australian spec Golf, I ended up trading mine for a Lexus IS200, before the warranty expired. It was a complete joy to drive, but I started to get nervous with all the problems I experienced, gearbox had to be replaced after 8000Km (luckily under warranty) another problem which was never resolved, If the car wasn't driven for more than a week, the battery would go flat, for no apparent reason. Electric windows and central locking failed on thirteen different occasion. I could go on and on. I'd always owned Japanese cars, and have never experienced problems like these. I'm glad to report that the IS200 has traveled some 39000km, without any problems. The other thing I didn't like about the Golf, servicing was outrageously expensive for a 2.0litre vehicle. I guess if you want a car which is reliable and economic to operate you buy Japanese.

I own a 2000 Golf GTI 2.0 and have just spent £180 to

have a new passenger window lifter replaced, I was advised that this is a direct result of VW using plastic clips

All previous Golfs and the new Mark5 use metal clips

(So obviously a lesson learnt)

Luckily I have a very good local VW specialist otherwise

it would have cost me much more in labour costs.

I have spoken to several VW Garages and they all say that

it is the Achilles heel for the MK4 but, because it is not

a serious safety issue (Such as steering or brakes) no recall will be issued.. so its down to the customer to pay

if its out of warranty.

Australia: I bought a new Golf 1.6s in 2002 and have had no problems until huge storms last night. We woke up to find 2 inches of water in the passenger side foot wells. Everything in the car is dry other than the huge puddles of water in the passenger side of the car.

Can someone tell me if this this a known problem with the 1.6s??? Car has done 32,000kms and is in immaculate condition otherwise.

Dealer is being useless and giving me no information as usual.

I own a 1999 VW Golf 1.8 20v Turbo. The car is fantastic to drive, but reliability is very poor despite regular servicing.

I have had both front windows fall into the door. The first was covered by the warranty, the second cost me £185 sterling to have fixed. First gear regularly turns into reverse despite having the linkage checked by the main dealer.

The latest delight has been the central locking and electric windows failing together. So now I have to use my key in the door and thankfully have air-con as the temperature outside is starting to rise.

Maybe is time to go Japanese?