Comments: 1-15, 16-21
The car is now in the shop for the second time in four days. Both times the check engine light came on right after starting the engine, per the users manual, I drove the car operating at 1/2 power and shaking the whole way to the dealership. Thankfully, I was within 25 miles of the dealership both times it happened.
To the dealers credit they get me in as quickly as possible (the first time) and returned the car to me within a few hours - to their discredit, I put the car back in the shop last night. The first time they fixed the ignition coil. Either I got two bad coils in a row or they didn't solve the problem the first time. We'll see what they say later today.
I'm feeling a little bit used by our good friends at Volkswagen. I spent what I would consider a good chunk of change on this car, which is highly touted for reliability, and am finding that the used Dodge Neon I had in college was actually more reliable. Hell, I could buy 2 or 3 neons for what I paid for this car.
I have a 2002 VW Passat 1.8 Turbo. It has been in the shop four times for the check engine light problem described by the writer. The car is in the shop now and has been there for the past eight days. The rental car I am driving, a Dodge Neon, has caused me to have the same thoughts as this writer--this car would cost less than half what the Passat cost and it is drivable.
According to the dealer they are issuing a new kind of ignition coil that is supposed to fix the problem.
Sorry to hear of all the Passat problems. Most of these are occuring with the 1.8T engine. I have a 2002 Passat V6 with 5 speed manual transmission. The car is a pleasure to drive and is as solid as Grant's tomb. I personally think the 1.8T engine has no place in the Passat. The boost is on all the time because of the vehicle weight and that stresses everything. VW's are notorious for longevity and the 1.8T engine does nothing but rubbish the breed.
Everyone told me I wasted money on the V6 but it was only about $2000 more and came with many standard features, the most important being seamless power and reliability. It regularly gets 30 mpg on the highway, so I don't see the economy in the 1.8T Passat at all. If I owned the company I would offer the Passat only with the V6. That truly sets it apart from all other Passats and vehicles in it's class.
I own a Passat 1.8T Saloon and initially had a host of problems which all equated to faulty wiring. After twice returning the car to the dealer from which it was purchased by having to have it taken back to them by transporter I then took it to another dealership and it was sorted in one day. The original dealer said it was the battery that had a faulty cell, then a starter motor and alternator All it turned out to be was a loose wire that had caused me to breakdown in isolated country and one of those time at 2am. Since that initial trouble I have had no problems. but I am expecting one of even greater magnitude, as recently it has been publicised that the Passat has virtually no security and that by turning the lock in the door or the boot by a quarter turn the electric windows open and the interior can be raided without even the alarm being triggered and to crown all I am told that V.W. have known about this fault for nigh on three years. The remedy is to pay for a kit that will do away with the remote locking system leaving only the drivers door to be operated by a key. I am not impressed by V.W. not instigating a recall, and whilst it is a great car to drive I will never ever buy another. They have let me down. I feel that it is not safe to be left unattended. The dealerships response was well, "just don't have anything of value in your car". What about the value of the car alone?
I have a 2002 1.8 Passat that I purchased in December of 2001. Since that time I have had the engine coil replaced twice (and they refused to replace them all after the second one had gone bad even though VW admits that they received a bad batch from Bosch), the gas gauge once, the rotors once, the front left headlight twice, and the glove box once. This car is cursed. I am planning on getting rid of it. I love the engineering of this car, but this is ridiculous. Even though all the repairs continue to be of no cost under the warranty; it seems ludicrous to me for this to be happening to a car that is less than a year old and has only 10K miles on it. I am switching back to Japanese cars which never let me down. I am willing to give up some solid build quality to get some reliability instead.
The driver side rear floor fills up with water in our 2002 VW Passat. The dealer service had the car for two days, but could find no leaks. Open doors and/or windows have been eliminated as the problem.
I have a 2002 Passat with a 1.8 Turbo engine. I purchased it July, 2002 and it has been nothing but trouble. I have had it in the shop around six times in the last eight months. The speedometer has gone out, the radio has gone out, two ignition coils had gone out, the tachometer went out, and something in the transmission went out. Of course, VW has fixed all of these problems, but not without a high degree of poor customer service and extreme inconvenience.
I have been dealing with the BBB since all of this began and to this day, the VW Corporation has not fully refunded my rental car expenses nor offered an apology. I asked that my car be replaced with another one and they refuse.
Buyer Beware! Do not purchase a Volkswagen. It is not just the Passat, but the company itself. They had many opportunities to do the right thing and they chose not to.
On top of all that I have written above, this morning, my Passat would not start... I guess I'll have it towed back in to the dealership. The grief continues...
I drove a 2002 Passat off of the showroom floor at Campbell Nelson VW in Edmonds. 44,000 miles later I am regretting that move. On a recent drive across the Cascade Mountains the "Stop Engine Light" came on indicating there was no oil pressure. The roadside assistance number worked great. I had the car towed to the Spokane VW dealer, as they were the closest to where I was. After 3 days of waiting, I was told by the service manager that he could not start work on my 2002 Passat unless I produced receipts for all of the oil changes I had performed. I called the Campbell Nelson salesperson that had sold us the car and he recommended that we have the car towed to the Campbell Nelson dealership where he had more confidence in his mechanics. Of course, he made sure we knew the towing would be our expense. We took his advice and had the car towed from Spokane to Edmonds at the cost of almost $700.00. This was on a Tuesday evening. On Wednesday morning we received a call from the Edmonds service manager stating that I would have to provide 8 receipts for the oil changes before they could check out the engine. Over the past year, Jiffy lube had changed the oil so I had no problem coming up with 4 receipts. One other receipt was available at a local Texaco lube shop. However, I could not come up with a total of 8 receipts. According to the service manager, my bumper-to-bumper warranty was only good if I could produce all 8 receipts. I asked the service manager if it was common that a VW engine give out at 44,000 miles. He stated "they had just had a car with 20,000 miles brought in because the lady had failed to replace her oil every 5,000 miles. This does not say much for the VW 1.8 engine. I have a Toyota in my driveway with 240,000 miles that got about
Most all present grade SAE oils 5W-30 will protect an engine for at LEAST 5,000 miles if it run at the right temperature. (Meaning the thermostat is working properly and the engine warms up correctly and drives off the moisture that causes sludge in the oil).
No such problems with the Passat V6. Turbocharged engines are great if you want to lease the car for 24 months. If you want to keep it 12 years and get your money back, buy the V6. A Turbocharged engine is a lot more stressed than a bigger, normally aspired engine (that makes the same or more power) and the turbocharged engine will wear much quicker.
I have had a Passat 1.8 since new. I have had it serviced at the proper times and mileage.
Last week the timing belt went in between services. THe bill came to just under £2000.
VW do not want to know and have offered me no compensation.
I have a 2000 1.8 turbo Passat - I dearly love it! The wife was against buying a car in this price range, but we took the plunge and have been most happy through 50+ thousand miles. Now, the bad part. Recently, my beloved Passat has developed a bit of a hiccup. It's odd, but whenever I am accelerating through a tight right turn, as to get onto an interstate, I lose power. The engine doesn't stall, but rather, the ASR yellow icon flashes in the dash and the car slows. This continues until the "g" forces drop as I straighten out to merge into traffic. I then regain "power" and the vehicle runs fine. It doesn't matter if it's cold or warm or how long the vehicle has been running. I've searched under the hood for signs of "arcing" as in an electrical shorting, but have found none. Puzzling. Now here's the REALLY BAD part. The extended warranty I bought on the day I purchased the car is NULL and VOID. I've been told that the company has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The 650.00 I spent on top of my cars purchase price was for not. So I'm trying to diagnose this myself. Anybody heard of such a thing? It only happens when I make hard accelerating right turns. I am not "speeding" or driving hard, and the wheels are not losing traction.
I doubt this will help, but figure it couldn't hurt as the vehicle in question was a Fox. BUT:
In my case it happened when I was around a 1/4 tank. Tried electrical, even replaced Fuel pump. ARRGH!!!
Phoned "someone who knows". He replied "transfer pump". This was a second pump in the tank. I did it and... WOW!!!
It was HEALED!!!
Like I said, two COMPLETELY different cars, but the behaviour sounds similiar. I hope this can at least give you a direction to go in, maybe someone else can add to this. Den.
My 1998 VW Passat has recently developed a water leak in the rear driver's side passenger footwell. I've tried to locate this, but without success. If anyone has found the solution to this problem please let me know!
If your water leak is colorless, it's probably the air conditioning drain tube. They can get plugged up and condensate cannot drain to the outside and it overflows into the car. It's about $75 to clean it out if that's what the leak is.
This is in response to the guy with the ASR light coming on during tight right turns. I am guessing that it could be an ABS wheel speed sensor. A tight right hand turn would cause the inside wheel to turn much slower than the left. This could be "fooling" the sensor into thinking this is slippage and triggering the ASR system. If not the wheel speed sensor I suspect the problem lies somewhere in the ASR system. Your first step would be to check to make sure all of the wheel speed sensors are clean so they are getting the correct readings. I.
I own a 2002 Passat GLS with a 1.8 turbo. Has anyone had issue's with the oil pump? We have about 62,000 in mileage and the dealer promised to repair it on warranty, but has refused because they say we don't have enough records to prove the oil changes have been done.