Recalls
| Campaign | Manufacturer | Manufacturing date | Type | # of units affected | Date Owner notified Mfg | Recall Initiated by | Manufacturers of recalled vehicles/products | Report Recieved Date | Record Creation Date | Regulation Part Number | FMVSS Number | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FUEL SYSTEM, DIESEL | ||||||||||||||||
| 11V490000 | VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC | V (Vehicle) | 168275 | 11/15/2011 | MFR | VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC | 10/03/2011 | 10/03/2011 | ||||||||
| Defect Summary | Volkswagen 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 Summary | Due 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 Summary | Volkswagen 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. | |||||||||||||||
| Notes | Volkswagen 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 . | |||||||||||||||
Investigations
| NHTSA ID | Manufacturer | Date open | Date close | Subject | Recall campaign | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FUEL SYSTEM, DIESEL | ||||||
| PE11023 | VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC | 08/02/2011 | 12/02/2011 | Diesel 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. | ||||||
Consumer Complaints
| Fail date | miles | occurences | Purchase date |
|---|---|---|---|
| FUEL SYSTEM, DIESEL | |||
| 11/10/2012 | 7500 | 1 | |
| The car is a 2012 vw golf tdi, purchased around april of 2012. it had approximately 7500 miles at the time of the incident. i was on a short drive to the store and back (5 miles round trip from home). on the way back, i heard a metal grinding sound coming from the engine compartment and noticed a lack of power. i turned off the radio to confirm that the sound was coming from my new car and it was. at the next stop light, the car died and could not be restarted. i confirmed that i still had diesel fuel, and sure enough, i still had 1/4 tank. so i was not out of fuel. the engine would crank, but not start. thankfully this happened at a stop light instead of on the hilly interstate i take to work 20 miles each day. aside from hearing the metal grinding sound for approximately 30 seconds, i had no warning. the car had to be towed back to the dealer. the dealer took a few days to diagnose the problem as a faulty fuel pump. apparently, the fuel pump malfunctioned and shot metal shards through my entire fuel system. it took the dealer well over a week to replace every component and the cost of labor and parts was over $10,000. thankfully, vw covered the repair as being under warranty. a quick google search confirmed that hundreds of other vw diesel engines have had the same problem. unfortunately, the dealer did not replace the fuel tank. based on reports i have seen online, i can expect another failure any day. please investigate this further and force vw to issue a recall. i have owned 5 volkswagens in the past (own 2 right now) and love them, but i will never buy another one after this incident. *tr | |||
| 11/26/2012 | 11000 | 1 | |
| I was driving down the road had just shifted into 4th gear came up to a red light. i pressing in the clutch and started to slow down still in 4th gear. the red light turned green before i could slow down much at all. i released the clutch when i did this the engine and rpm increased. i was still in 4th gear and hardly accelerating but it felt as though i was in second gear. i kinda freaked and looked to make sure i was in 4th and i was.the car began to run normal so i just brushed it off. i came to another red light and made a complete stop. this is when the car began to shake and flash the orange coil looking light. it completely shut off and i was unable to restart the car. my brother came and helped me push it to the side of the road. it had to be towed to the dealership. *tr | |||
| 08/18/2012 | 15550 | 1 | |
| Fuel pump failure, random power cut out due to fault mode. system flashes a glow plug light instead of a check engine light not signaling a obvious failure. *tr | |||
| 08/12/2012 | 6519 | 1 | |
| At 6,519 miles, while about to enter the on-ramp of a local highway, the check engine light and glow plug indicator light began to flash. i was able to veer off the entrance ramp and continue down the down to the nearest safe parking lot area; as i pulled into the parking lot area, the vehicle shuddered and suddenly shut off. it would not re-start, and we had to arrange for a tow to a family members house through our insurance company. in the morning we had a tow to our dealer set up through volkswagen roadside service, who would not cover the entire cost of the tow to our preferred dealer, so we paid the difference out of our own pocket. i was notified by the dealer that the fuel pump (commonly referred to as hpfp) basically imploded and sent metal throughout the entire fuel system, which now needs to be replaced. we own two volkswagen diesel (tdi) vehicles; this one, a 2012 golf tdi, and a 2010 jetta tdi. they are both filled up at the exact same pump from the exact same station about 99% of the time. at the time this incident occurred, the golf had 281 miles on the current tank of diesel which was filled up on 08/03/2012. i filled up my jetta tdi at the same pump on 08/06/2012, currently have over 230 miles on that tank of diesel, and have not experienced any problems. we keep meticulous documentation of our diesel usage, cost, etc. with receipts and other logs, and can safely state that this was not due to a mistake on our part. rather, this is a design failure and/or oversight on the part of both volkswagen and bosch, the hpfp manufacturer. i am a veteran member of the tdiclub vw diesel online community, and there is extensive information and documentation there of these repeated failures. please visit the following threads for information; http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=286380, http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=299854. *tr | |||