I have a VW Passat 2002 V6 and I have 51000 miles on it. It was regularly oil-changed every 3000-5000 miles of driving. And the stop engine light keeps coming on and off, and now recently I have this nagging "Oil Pres Stop motor" sign coming.
Took it to Merchants and did a complete oil flush on everything (engine, brake, coolant power steering). No use. 2 days later it came back. I took my car to a dealership when I had this "Engine" light cameup (not for the "Oil Pres Stop motor" sign yet). The dealer charged $100 approx for the diagnosis and came back to me to just tell me that he was not able to pin-point the issue and still needs more time and money to find the issue. I was really frustrated and lodged a complaint with a very hostile VW corporate agent.
The engine light still keeps coming on and off and I now have to go to the dealer to get the "Oil Pres Stop Motor" issue diagnosed. From reading all the posts in various web sites, it looks like not a single VW 2002 Passat was ever fixed completely on this problem. This is truly frustrating and I'm going to trade this in for a Honda or a Toyota.
I have a 2002 VW Volkswagen. I drove it for almost 2 years now always with a constant slight and subtle titter-tatter sound coming from under the car. Just yesterday my ENGINE STOP LIGHT turned on and won't go away. Note: I JUST changed my oil about a week ago so that was extremely odd for it to come up after the new oil change. At this point I know any servicing that will be done will be expensive because as as VW ages, you should prepare yourself for hefty repairs. If anybody has anymore experience with what to do when the engine light comes on, share with us.
My husband and I bought our oldest daughter a used 2002 VW Passat 1.8L Turbo in August '06 to get back and forth to college. It had 90K miles on it, but appeared to be in excellent condition - inside and out. It was the most comfortable car I had ever driven. I've always been a Honda fan and was seriously considering switching my loyalty over to VW for my own next purchase. This car ran without incident until late September '07. My daughter had the oil changed regularly (usually between 4000 and 5000 miles and always using 5W30 Synthetic Oil. All, but one of the oil changes were done at a Kwik Lube in our small town as we do not have a VW dealership within 65 miles. We changed the oil once ourself at home. In September, at approx. 114,000K my daughter called to tell me that her CHECK ENGINE STOP/OIL PRESS light had come on. I had her drive it home. The light was intermittent at first probably for about a week to 10 days. She only drove it to work which is about 4 minutes from our house from that time on. We took it to a shop and they replaced the oil sending unit for an easy $61. Within a day the Engine Light had come back on. As I usually do, I referred to the Internet for help and that's when I realized we had bigger problems. The Internet is alive with other Passat Turbo owners with this exact problem!!! It's been going on since 2003 or 2004 and we just didn't do the proper research when buying the car. I'm still mad at myself about that! Anyway, we had the car towed to a VW dealership and after they quoted us $600 just to tear the engine down for diagnosis... I brought up the possible sludge problem. The service lady gave me no real argument and told me that we would have to present to her oil change receipts showing regular changes and use of synthetic oil only. Thank God we kept all the receipts (even for the purchase of the oil change we did at home). A couple of days later we were informed that it WAS a sludge problem and that VW had approved the replacement of the engine!!! It was too easy, but I realized that they knew by 2007 that they had a design problem even if they weren't quite ready to say it out loud. A week or so later, the car was ready to be picked up. My husband and I drove to pick it up and were informed we needed to pay a little over $600. $324 was the towing fee (even though we had been quoted $189 on the phone by the towing company) and $300+ for the Cam Position Sensor that they had originally replaced (which was their first diagnosis before we mentioned the sludge issue). We argued that the CPS is technically part of the engine and that they knew ahead of time that his car had engine problems. They eventually discounted the cost for the CPS, but we had to pay the $324 towing fee just to get them to release the car to us! I wasn't happy, but we kept justifying in our minds that we had just gotten a brand new engine for $324 so we should just be grateful. After all, my daughter had a car that should now last her a great deal longer... so we thought! We picked the car up last Saturday 11/10/2007. We drove it home (approximately 65 miles) making sure to never go over the speed limit as the service department had told us to take it easy on the engine for the first 1000 miles. My daughter drove it the first time on Sunday to go on an 20 mile round-trip into town, and then I drove it last night (Tuesday) once again on another 20 mile trip to pick up a pizza! This morning my daughter gets up to leave for work and when she turned out of our driveway... the CHECK ENGINE light came on. It's now, once again, in our driveway unusable while she drives my beat-up '96 Honda Accord to work! I'm not sure where we'll go from here. I hate the thought of dumping the car at a dealership for them to resell and just give the problem to someone else, but we can't afford to continue making payments on a car that doesn't run! So, be warned, even if they recall these vehicles and replace the engines... it doesn't mean that they will be problem free. I personally will never buy another VW again and hope that until they do right by those of us who have made this devastating investment already, I'll be letting everyone I know not to buy one either. We are going back to HONDA and plan on staying there!
For all the people who are having problems with the oil pressure, try finding out what the actual oil weight is to be used in these engines. I had an oil change once and they used 10W40 oil and I had this problem. I then found out the engine requires 15W or 20W oil. I changed the oil again and haven't had the problem since, but this is on a 1994 Jetta.
I unfortunately am having the same problems with my VW Passat, 2002. I bought it used in 2005, unfortunately not from a certified VW dealer. I had to have all of the valves replaced in 2005 due to oil sludge.. mind you this was 3 months after owning the car. The dealer put me through the ringer, they wouldn't repair the car because I didn't have the maintenance records from the previous owner. I managed to get the maintenance records and the car was maintained properly. They still would not fix it. After fighting for two weeks, they made the $2500 repairs at their expense. Well two years later, I am having the exact same problem. Only this time, the engine and turbo need to be replaced which will cost $9600!! Now, I will admit that I didnot get my oil changed regularly. But I believe that they have a faulty product, no matter what you do with this car it has engine problems. So now I'm stuck without a car battling with VW again.
2003 Passat 1.8T with 35000 miles. I've given it synthetic oil changes every 3K. I've had a host of problems with this vehicle. Fuel pump failure, multiple brake pad problems, brake switch failure, ECU failure, and now the oil sludge problem. I'm trying to get it fixed now, and will look to get rid of this POS. I hate VW, FOREVER.
"Proud" Owner of a 2002 Passat Sedan 1.8T. I'm at 100K miles, and the STOP engine light came on. Dealer wants $870 to replace the oil pump, and only then can any other problems be diagnosed. No dice, amigo. I have done synthetic or synthetic blend oil changes (Owners Manual says every 5,000 miles), but not sure I have ALL the oil change receipts. Plan to use a European car guru (Not the dealer) to install a rebuilt engine to the tune of $5k and hope I get a few more years out of it before it goes into the junk yard.
Wow, I'm amazed reading all these posts as my 2002 VW Passat 1.8t sits in a repair shop awaiting a quote on a new engine. I am definitely going to call the mechanic tomorrow and tell him about this engine sludge / oil pump issue. Hopefully I can get out of this with an $800 oil pump instead of the $5,000 plus labor new engine.
Just to add to list of dissatisfied PASSAT (a.k.a, Piece of Saat) owners..71K miles, well maintained, blew timing belt while running yesterday, and belt not even up for replacement til 105K...we will see if it is tied to Oil Sludge, but regardless based upon my research, never will get VW to honor their 8yr warranty as I probably missed ONE oil change by 300 miles.. never again and I reccomend you join this cause to NOT BUY a VW!
I have a 2002 Passat with 57K. Two weeks ago the stop/oil pressure light came on. I took it to the VW dealership and they couldn't figure out what was wrong. They replaced the cam seal & gasket for $250, but that did not correct the problem. They finally figured out that it was oil sludging. Thankfully VW picked up the tab for this and all I had to do was document that I had the oil changed every 10K miles. I typically have it changed every 5K.
Overall I really like this car, but I'm definitely concerned about the reliability. During the 4 years I've owned the car, I've spent probably $1,200 to repair things outside of normal maintenance. I would like to keep the car for several more years. However, after reading all of these comments I'm wondering if I shouldn't get rid of it before I have to sink a lot more money into it.
I own a 2002 Passat Wagon and have had my share of issues and expenses. Now I'm trying to get it ready to sell and put a new battery in myself, because I refused the give the dealership any more money. Now the stereo won't turn on. Any advice.
You need to take it to the dealer for them to re-enter the anti theft code into the head unit. This is to prevent it from being stolen since the thief wouldn't have the code which is located in the back of the owners manual.
Well reading all of these comments has changed my mind a bit. I saw a GLS wagon for sale for only $2800 for a 2002 and I thought it was to good to be true. I guess it was. They were probably having the same problems as you all and just want to dump it. I think I will take your advice and not go for it.
2003 Passat 1.8T Wagon - bought it at 13k miles in 2005, drove it to 61k miles, and my wife got stranded on the side of the freeway with engine sludge. VW quoted $9K for engine replacement and denied to pay for it, despite all recent oil changes at VW. 2005 oil changes were done by mobile mechanic who does not have his own license. Arrg! When doing all the recent oil changes, shouldn't the VW mechanics have given us a hint if there were any sludge issues arising? No - everything was fine and this engine just breaks down out of the blue and it's done! VW does not stand up for its product. Despite a letter that they will be less strict about the oil changes. There will hopefully be enough cases that a law firm will pick this up (although they'll take at least half of the $) or that it somehow is rated a lemon and is recalled...? Does anyone have any legal knowledge in this, any class action law suit out there.. HELP! The car is still sitting at the VW dealer...
I just bought a 2002 passat V6 front wheel drive wagon. Any tips on what I need to do to keep it spinning like a top? 80k miles. oil? 5W30 Synthetic Oil? Any easy do-it-your-self things I might need to do?