Recalls


CampaignManufacturerManufacturing dateType# of units affectedDate Owner notified MfgRecall Initiated byManufacturers of recalled vehicles/productsReport Recieved DateRecord Creation DateRegulation Part NumberFMVSS Number
FUEL SYSTEM, DIESEL
11V490000VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC V (Vehicle)16827511/15/2011MFRVOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC10/03/201110/03/2011
Defect SummaryVolkswagen is recalling certain model 2009-2012 jetta and jetta sportwagen vehicles, manufactured from may 2008 through september 2011, model year 2010-2012 volkswagen golf vehicles, manufactured from may 2009 through september 2011, and model year 2010-2012 audi a3 vehicles, manufactured from september 2009 through september 2011, that are equipped with a 2.0l tdi common rail diesel engine/clean diesel engine. the fuel injection pulses could coincide with the natural frequency of the injector line #2, in specific load and rpm conditions. this resonance creates additional stress in the fuel line.
Consequence SummaryDue to the resonance condition, injector line number 2 could develop small cracks which could lead to fuel leakage. leaking fuel in the presence of an ignition source, may lead to a fire.
Corrective SummaryVolkswagen will install an improved fuel injector line for the number 2 cylinder on certain vehicles and will install vibration dampers on all of the injector lines. volkswagen and audi will notify owners to have the vehicles repaired free of charge. the safety recall is expected to begin during november 2011. owners may contact volkswagen at 1-800-822-8987.
NotesVolkswagen recall campaign number is 23j9/v5 & 23j8/k5.owners may also contact the national highway traffic safety administration's vehicle safety hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (tty 1-800-424-9153), or go to http://www.safercar.gov .

Bulletins


BulletinBulletin dateReplacement BulletinItem no.SummaryAdded
FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE - FUEL INJECTION SYSTEM - FUEL RAIL
TB-20-10-0209/16/201010036494Volkswagen: mil on; dtc p0087 and/or p0192 stored in ecm fault memory. one or more of the following codes may be stored in the ecm fault memory-low fuel rail pressure detected; fuel rail pressure sensor circuit low. assistance to properl03/23/2011
TB-01-10-1106/08/201010035164Volkswagen: mil on; no start or rough running (dtc p0087-rail fuel pressure too low). contaminated or incorrect fuel can cause performance, drivability, and/or fuel delivery problems. *pe02/09/2011

Investigations


NHTSA IDManufacturerDate openDate closeSubjectRecall campaign
FUEL SYSTEM, DIESEL
PE11023VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC08/02/201112/02/2011Diesel Fuel Injector Line Leakage
 By letter dated october 3, 2011, volkswagen group of america, inc. (vw) notified the national highway traffic safety administration (nhtsa) that it will conduct a safety recall to address a defect in approximately 168,275 model year (my) 2009-2012 volkswagen jetta, jetta sportwagen, golf, and audi a3 vehicles equipped with the 2.0l tdi common rail clean diesel engine (nhtsa recall no. 11v-490).the recalled jetta and jetta sportwagen vehicles were built from may 2008 through september 2011, the golf vehicles were built from may 2009 through september 2011, and the audi a3 vehicles were built from september 2009 through september 2011.according to volkswagen, in u.s. applications of the above cited tdi vehicles including engine codes cjaa and cbea, the fuel injection pulses could coincide with the natural frequency of the injector line #2 in specific load and rpm conditions.this resonance creates additional stress on the fuel line which a small number of parts (based on the statistic spread of line strength) cannot withstand over its lifetime.as a contributing factor, vw indicated that a supplier used tube material with scratch marks from a grinding process during certain production periods.lines manufactured in these periods were installed in vehicles produced in the following 10 months:december 2008, january-february 2009, october 2009, march-april 2010 and september-december 2010.injector lines using this material exhibit a significantly higher failure rate.dealers will replace injector line #2 in all vehicles built in these months.in addition, as a precautionary measure, all recalled vehicles will have vibration dampers installed on all four fuel injector lines.analysis of nhtsa complaints, vw complaints, vw field reports and warranty claims found allegations of injector line leakage in 443 subject vehicles.the leaking line was not identified in 62 of the vehicles.for the 381 that did provide information about which injector lines were leaking and/or replaced, 358 (94%) involved an injector line #2 leak/repair.almost three-quarters of the injector line #2 leak/repair incident vehicles were built in the 10 months identified by vw, which accounted for approximately one-quarter of the recalled vehicles.the failure rate for injector line #2 in vehicles built in the 10 months affected by the supplier line scratching issue is 6.0 incidents per thousand vehicles (iptv).the failure rate for injector line #2 in other production months of recalled vehicles is 0.8 iptv.the leak/repair rates for the other injector lines are all well under 1 iptv.the action taken by volkswagen is sufficient to resolve the issues raised by this investigation. the agency will continue to monitor this issue and reserves the right to take further action if warranted by the circumstances. accordingly, this investigation is closed.
EA11003VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC02/07/2011High-Pressure Fuel Pump Failure (HPFP)
 The office of defects investigation (odi) and volkswagen (vw) have received a total of 160 complaints and field reports alleging incidents of engine stall and/or loss of power that appear to be related to high pressure fuel pump (hpfp) failures in certain model year (my) 2009 through 2010 volkswagen jetta and my 2010 volkswagen golf and audi a3 vehicles equipped with tdi clean diesel engines.approximately half of the reports indicate that the failure resulted in an engine stall incident, with many of these alleging stall incidents at highway speeds in traffic with no restart.there has been one minor crash alleged to have resulted from hpfp failure in the subject vehicles.in response to odi's information request for pe10-034, vw indicated that it had found no defect related to motor vehicle safety with relation to the tdi clean diesel fuel system at issue in this investigation and attributed problems with hpfp failure to operation with gasoline contaminated diesel fuel.volkswagen stated that even a small amount of gasoline in the diesel fuel may disrupt the necessary lubrication required and may cause the hpfp to fail.in response to concerns that fuel contamination was the major cause of hpfp and related fuel system failures, vw issued a technical service bulletin in may 2010 (vw tb v011011 2023624 and audi tb a011008 2023360-1), with instructions to inspect the diesel fuel for vehicles requiring fuel system service that have symptoms associated with hpfp failure.the bulletin states that fuel system damage incurred by use of fuel not complying to astm-d-975 grade 2 s15 (b5 or less biodiesel content) standards will not be covered under warranty.volkswagen also provided information about 121 mis-fueling incidents reportedly acknowledged by consumers or dealers and test results for about 50 diesel fuel samples taken from complaint vehicles in late-august through early-october 2010.the mis-fueling incidents include about 20 reports involving incorrect fueling by dealer sales or service personnel and generally report symptoms such as rough running, stalling and/or no start within a few miles of refueling the vehicle with gasoline.volkswagen indicated that the testing of fuel samples from complaint vehicles found that nearly 90 percent contained high amounts of gasoline.volkswagen implemented design changes for the hpfp in may 2008, september 2009 and november 2010 to improve the robustness of the pump when used with poor quality fuel.odi analysis of hpfp failures identified from all sources shows failure rates of 0.53% for my 2009 vehicles and 0.11% for my 2010 vehicles.this investigation has been upgraded to an engineering analysis to continue to investigate the issues with mis-fueling and hpfp design identified during the preliminary evaluation.
PE10034VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC08/26/201002/08/2011High Pressure Fuel Pump Failure (HPFP)
 The office of defects investigation (odi) and volkswagen (vw) have received a total of 160 complaints and field reports alleging incidents of engine stall and/or loss of power that appear to be related to high pressure fuel pump (hpfp) failures in certain model year (my) 2009 through 2010 volkswagen jetta and my 2010 volkswagen golf and audi a3 vehicles equipped with tdi clean diesel engines.approximately half of the reports indicate that the failure resulted in an engine stall incident, with many of these alleging stall incidents at highway speeds in traffic with no restart.there has been one minor crash alleged to have resulted from hpfp failure in the subject vehicles.in response to odi's information request for pe10-034, vw indicated that it had found no defect related to motor vehicle safety with relation to the tdi clean diesel fuel system at issue in this investigation and attributed problems with hpfp failure to operation with gasoline contaminated diesel fuel.volkswagen stated that even a small amount of gasoline in the diesel fuel may disrupt the necessary lubrication required and may cause the hpfp to fail.in response to concerns that fuel contamination was the major cause of hpfp and related fuel system failures, vw issued a technical service bulletin in may 2010 (vw tb v011011 2023624 and audi tb a011008 2023360-1), with instructions to inspect the diesel fuel for vehicles requiring fuel system service that have symptoms associated with hpfp failure.the bulletin states that fuel system damage incurred by use of fuel not complying to astm-d-975 grade 2 s15 (b5 or less biodiesel content) standards will not be covered under warranty. volkswagen also provided information about 121 mis-fueling incidents reportedly acknowledged by consumers or dealers and test results for about 50 diesel fuel samples taken from complaint vehicles in late-august through early-october 2010.the mis-fueling incidents include about 20 reports involving incorrect fueling by dealer sales or service personnel and generally report symptoms such as rough running, stalling and/or no start within a few miles of refueling the vehicle with gasoline.volkswagen indicated that the testing of fuel samples from complaint vehicles found that nearly 90 percent contained high amounts of gasoline.volkswagen implemented design changes for the hpfp in may 2008, september 2009 and november 2010 to improve the robustness of the pump when used with poor quality fuel.odi analysis of hpfp failures identified from all sources shows failure rates of 0.53% for my 2009 vehicles and 0.11% for my 2010 vehicles.this investigation has been upgraded to an engineering analysis (ea11-003) to continue to investigate the issues with mis-fueling and hpfp design identified during the preliminary evaluation.

Consumer Complaints


Fail datemilesoccurencesPurchase date
FUEL SYSTEM, DIESEL
11/17/2012401691
 I have a 2010 vw golf tdi. i was driving along at 25 mph when my glow plug & check engine lights started flashing, and my tachometer dropped to zero, indicating a stall. the power steering also started to cut out, but i was able to safely pull over. tried starting the car again and got nothing. the car was towed to a vw dealership down the street, and on monday 11/19 they informed me that my high-pressure fuel pump failed and sent metal fragments through the entire fuel system. the car is currently being repaired under warranty, but i was told that the bill would be at least $5,000 for this kind of fix. oh yeah, this also completely ruined my travel plans for thanksgiving, as vw refused to give me a loaner car while this documented warranty issue was being dealt with. after doing some research, i found that there are several cases of 2009-10 tdi fuel pump failures with the same symptoms. apparently, there have been three revisions of this pump since then, and i am due to get the newest one. but, there is also talk that ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel in the us is not providing the proper lubricity, and thus causing the pumps to fail (this is not an issue in europe). nonetheless, further investigation by the nhtsa should result in vw doing a proper recall and redesign, rather than quietly fixing an inherent flaw on a case-by-case basis. even with my car fixed, i'll still be wondering when this will happen again. which also makes me wonder if i should just sell it and be done with vw. very frustrating. *tr
10/18/2012295451
 Check engine light went on a few seconds after i had merged a few lanes over on the freeway (101s @holly during rush hour). glow plug light flashed once or twice. within 60 seconds, the car had died while traffic was speeding up on both sides of me. put on emergency flashers. i could not get the car started again, nor did i have enough time to merge to the side of the road (i had 2 lanes on my right, 2 on my left). after trying to start it for a minute or so, called 911. after 10 - 15 minutes, chp came and stopped all traffic, pushed me to the side of the road with his car. car still would not start. tow truck came a while later, towed me to vw dealer (boardwalk) which was nearby. dealer: boardwalk volkswagen, redwood city, ca status: fixed under warranty. provided me rental car. took 1 week. all in all, gave me good service. they replaced the entire fuel system. here is what they did under warranty (per the receipt): * replaced high pressure fuel pump * replaced auxiliary fuel pump * replaced fuel filter housing and filter * replaced all injector lines * replaced 4 injectors * replaced fuel rail * removed and reinstalled fuel pump inside gas tank * drain and refill diesel * road tested recheck ok * vendor code (bosch) and (cbf) not a very opportune time for a catastrophic failure, while cruising on the busy rush-hour highway, and it happened very fast. nevertheless, no one was injured, and the car is now back on the road. i know several people with these cars of this vintage, and i will encourage them to contact vw to try and replace the pump before it fails. on the triclub forum, there are examples of this same thing happening 100s of times to these cars. here is my entry: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?p=3978779 someone on the forum encouraged me to file an incident with nhtsa, so i am doing that here. *tr
10/06/2012375831
 Entering the freeway and a high speed, engine light and ignition coil light appeared when i reached the end of the on-ramp. lost all propulsion 30 seconds later; the vehicle would not accelerate. vehicle coasted to a stop on the shoulder, but barely made it since i had to move several lanes over and avoid traffic going around me. if i was moving slower, i would have been stranded on one of the lanes. there have been many other cases of the high pressure fuel pump failure for the turbo diesel engine, my vehicle is just another one. *tr
08/01/2012530001
 I got into my car as normal, and began to drive. after about 5 minutes of driving, i came to a red light on a busy street. my check engine light came on and the glow plug light began to flash, the car immediately died and would not restart. i was told the high pressure fuel pump failed, and the entire fuel system has to be replaced... after i got home, i quickly google searched the issue and appears to be a common problem on a bad design by volkswagen and bosch... *tr
08/20/201123000
 Since i first bought the tdi golf it has been easy to stall, sometimes stalling while still in motion going down the road. at approximately 20k miles stalling became sometimes unavoidable no matter how much gas you gave it from a stop. this caused the car to pull out into traffic and stall, leaving me dead in the water in dangerous traffic!! no matter how much gas i gave the car or how much i slipped the clutch it would still sometimes stall after propelling me into oncoming traffic. i have driven a manual transmission my entire life and i know how to work a clutch... this problem is not normal and many friends who i have had drive the car agree with me. at approximately 19,000 miles the glow plug light illuminated and blinked after starting the engine. the car wouldn't go above 20mph. i turned off the ignition and restarted with no further problem. at approx. 23,000 miles the car stalled 4 times in a row after cranking the engine and attempting to pull straight forward out of a parking lot. at this point the check engine light came on and the glow plug light also came back on and blinked. the car perfornance now is terrible and it is going into the dealership for repair. i am concerned about safety and the possibility of continuing expensive issues i may have that exceed the warranty period with this car. please help!!!
08/06/20118000
 2010 volkswagen golf tdi; on multiple occasions very noticible loss of power lasting 2-5 seconds usually while accelerating; no stall noted but very disconcerting. has occurred more than 20 times. also, has very sensitive clutch with easy stalls from start in 1st gear, have driven manual-transmission cars for 20+ years and have never stalled a car with such ease as the tdi golf. has created multiple dangerous situations but no accidents. car has 8k miles on it so far
06/12/201112000
 Vw golf tdi, 2010. i have 12,000 miles in it. manual transmission. stalling problem and occasional decrease of power for seconds. never put a drop of gasoline instead of diesel fuel. stalling only occurs upon shifts from 1st into 2nd gear at slow speeds and only occasionally, i have to be unusually careful when doing it. i have been driving only manual transmission cars the past 20 years, this is not a driver mistake or inexperience with manual trans. no other car gave me problem like this. test-driving the 2010 jetta gave me the same trouble.
06/05/201119000
 I was on a 350 mile trip, and i stopped and filled up with diesel at a chevron station about 60 miles into the trip. i have the receipt that says diesel on it. the car started fine and drove fine until i stopped about 200 miles later. then the car would not restart right away. after trying it a few times it started. i finished driving the last 90 miles without problems and stopped the car and shut it off. then the car would not restart at all. the next morning the car started and ran roughly for 30 seconds, then smoothed out and ran fine. i drove to the dealer. i had read about high pressure fuel pump (hpfp) problems with these cars and told them to check it out. they called the next day and said the pump was fine but that they were still investigating. two more days later they said the hpfp was bad due to contaminated fuel and it needed $8,000 in repairs. they said they tried to burn a sample of the fuel and it burned, and they said that diesel won't burn, so therefore they said there was gas in the tank. they told me to call my insurance since it wasn't covered under warranty. i called the chevron station where i bought the fuel, and to my amazement they talked to their distributor who agreed to pay the charges. i feel very lucky. i think this is volkswagen's problem with these pumps, given all the other complaints and no complaints from chevy and ford diesel pickup truck drivers about contaminated fuel since we all buy fuel at the same places. now i'm scared that i'll be paying the bill the next time this happens. the car is a 2010 vw golf with only 19,000 miles. the dealer took 3 weeks to fix the car.
06/08/201131000
 The high pressure fuel pump failed on my 2010 vw golf tdi while driving. it caused the car to shut off in an intersection. the car then had to be pushed out of the intersection and towed to the dealership. the fuel pump damaged the entire fuel system once it failed. the entire fuel system had to be replaced. the dealership was kind enough to do it under warranty.
01/25/201118800
 2010 vw golf tdi loss of power and subsequent engine stall while driving on a highway. this happened on two separate occasions at 17500 miles and then again at 18800 miles. the vw dealership replaced the fuel pump under warranty after the second incident. i understand vw is having 2009-2010 hpfp problems and is claiming that 90% of the failures are due to fuel contamination. i have been driving diesel cars for 10 years now and i'm the sole driver of this car. there was no fuel contamination in this case.
12/19/201010000
 2010 vw golf tdi 2dr, 6 speed manual: loss of power occurs on occasion, typically under hard acceleration after shifting from 1st into 2nd and pushing down accelerator, car will lose all power, but not stall, for 2-5 seconds followed by regaining power. when it regains power there is a huge plume of white smoke out the tail pipe that quickly dissipates, leading me to believe fuel or water. car also done exactly same even while attempting to pass a car: downshifting from 5th to 3rd gear, hitting the accelerator and exact same lag/loss of power. car now has 15k miles and i have experienced this about 6-10 times over the past 6 months. dealership mechanics claim they can not replicate or find any error codes plus claiming they've never heard of this type of complaint, also they claim/suggest this could be a poor fuel issue, suggesting going to another gas station. salesperson who sold me car informed me, off the record, this is a common complaint and their is safety campaign currently going on with the 2009 jetta tdi, but clearly this is the same engine as the '09. this type of complaint is also all over the internet and found in numerous complaints on the 2009 jetta tdi on this same website, therefore it sure sounds like a cover-up when the mechanics tell me they've never heard of any complaints like this??? as a veteran law enforcement officer and accident investigator for the past 20 years, this is a very major safety concern.
10/08/20105040
 New vehicle tdi fuel pump and full fuel system needs to be replaced!!!
07/03/201011799
 Was driving at approximately 65 mph on an illinois highway when i suddenly lost power and heard a tapping coming from the engine area. this was very dangerous because i was almost rear ended after losing power. then diesel fuel started spraying all over the car and the highway. pulled over and fire department came to clean up as much fuel as they could. car was towed to local vw dealer. it turned out that the fuel line to injector for cylinder #2 was leaking. they removed and replaced this part. 03l-130-301-r line was replaced.
08/28/201010
 Engine stalls, on starting from stop, sometimes when going down hill, or over a bump in the road. seems to stall when rpm goes below 750. commonly stalls in intersection, resulting in dangerous situation while one restarts car. complained to dealer, but they were unable to fix problem. this is a recurring problem with stalls daily to once every several days. has been doing it since i purchased the car
07/03/201011799
 Was driving at approximately 65 mph on an illinois highway when i suddenly lost power and heard a tapping coming from the engine area. this was very dangerous because i was almost rear ended after losing power. then diesel fuel started spraying all over the car and the highway. pulled over and fire department came to clean up as much fuel as they could. car was towed to local vw dealer. it turned out that the fuel line to injector for cylinder #2 was leaking. they removed and replaced this part. 03l-130-301-r line was replaced.
08/28/201010
 Engine stalls, on starting from stop, sometimes when going down hill, or over a bump in the road. seems to stall when rpm goes below 750. commonly stalls in intersection, resulting in dangerous situation while one restarts car. complained to dealer, but they were unable to fix problem. this is a recurring problem with stalls daily to once every several days. has been doing it since i purchased the car
FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE
02/18/201239300
 Immediately after the 40k service on my 2010 vw golf tdi with 39,300 miles, the diesel glow plug warning light came on and the engine started running roughly. approximately 10 seconds later, the engine stalled. the car would not restart and had to be towed to the dealership. the dealership found fragments of metal in the fuel system and replaced the entire fuel system (approximately $5000 in parts not including labor). vw agreed to pay for the repair but there is no guarantee they will pay for this repair if it happens again. also, vw was unable to tell me if the replacement high pressure fuel pump is the same design as the original one that failed. i am concerned the fuel pump could fail again and this time cause an accident it the car were to stall on the interstate. i am also concerned that, should the high pressure fuel pump fail again, it could cost between $8000 and $10,000 to repair. it appears that vw is repairing cars, with a fix that offes no assurance that the problem wont recur and, the nhtsa may getting an accurate report on the actual number of high pressure fuel pump failures.
09/22/201133000
 I'm a vw golf tdi canadian customer who suffered a hpfp failure in the us on sept 22nd, 2011. the car stalled at 35mph, was towed to a dealership in tewksbury, ma who claimed i had contaminated diesel fuel in my car and that was the cause of the pump failure. the car was towed to montreal, canada at the local dealership and arrived on sept 30th. fuel lab test results did not confirm any type of fuel contamination, vw canada might cover the repairs under warranty but would like to know why the pump failed if the fuel was okay as i consider this a huge safety issue. i'd like to mentioned i only fueled from shell while traveling in the us. it looks like there were over 170 other complaints including some misfueling events and it seems that the us quality of diesel and/or poor pump design (by bosch) might be the cause.
01/11/201110000
 Tl. the contact owns a 2010 volkswagen golf. the contact stated while driving 55 mph the vehicle began to stall and stop. the vehicle stopped in the middle of the highway. the contact was able restart the vehicle but the vehicle continued to stall. the contact took the vehicle to the dealer and the dealer diagnose the vehicle as having a faulty fuel pump. the dealer replaced the fuel pump. since the fuel pump was replaced the vehicle has not had a fuel issue. the contact stated the fuel pump malfunctioning could have cause a crash. the failure mileage 10,000. jo
07/28/20102000
 Tl-the contact owns a 2010 volkswagen gulf tdi . the contact stated that while driving 45 mph the vehicle stalled. there was no power steering but he was able to coast it to the side of the road and then was able to restart it. this has occurred 2 additional times where at the third time the vehicle had to be towed. the dealer was informed about the failure and they stated that the fuel pump needed to be replaced. the vehicle was not repaired. the failure mileage was 2000 and the current mileage was 6700.cv
06/03/2010221
 After leasing a brand new car for 2 days (with only 221 miles on the odometer) the car engine suddenly died in the middle of the road and would not start, leading to very dangerious for life and stressfull(i had two final exams coming up within 2 days coming got)situation. after the car got towed to the official vw dealership at fladeboe on june 3rd, it took them 5 days to diagnose and repair the car. there was no injector pulse and engine control module was replaced. also, the car got scratched while in repair.i was given a rental car, and although i was told by the vw stuff that the cover all the costs, i ended up paying $63 for renting out a toyota from enterprise rent-a-car. few days ago, i found out that the cruise control system does not work at all in the car, the rear view mirror cannot not adjust completely and the glove compartment door jams whenever the car manual is placed inside. i am absolutely sure that the cruise control system worked before the repair at fladeboe.