Problems with 2003 Volkswagen Jetta EQUIPMENT

Recall for 2003 volkswagen jetta- seat heater defect causing seats to get too hot even causing fire in some instances. brought my jetta to riverside volkswagen in riverside, ca. inspection and repairs made in 2006. yesterday, 1/25/2010, driver side seat heater started to burn a hole in seat. did not burn all the way through as i turned the heater off before hand. felt something that resembled a bee sting before realizing that it was the seat heater that was malfunctioning. burning smell detected. called vw riverside, said that it would not be a covered fix based on recall info. complaint of failed initial repair. *tr

I have had 27 things break or fail on my 03vw jetta 1.8t. i bought the car used in 01/06 with 32,000 miles. after buying the car the first five mins the window shattered. first two months 2 tires blew out, front rim cracked, back tires out of alignment. dealer paid to fix rim broke 2 weeks later the dealer paid fo used set of similar rims. every light inside and out went out by 05/06 driver seat wont raise up cargo net in trunk falls apart dealer wont cover. gas and trunk release buttons fell down inside of door. radio stopped working front door speakers are shorting out. driver window switch goes up when you push down and down when you push down have to fiddle with it for it to go up. exhaust hanger broke causing chatter. swaybar bushing fell out causing grinding and shaking when ever moving. not cover by warranty all these happened by 05/07. now its 10/08 and i have 84,000 miles. current problems are rear spoiler brake light hangs down(dealer just glued it in place lasted about 4 months) cam and crank seals leaking oil cause odor inside of cabin. if i drive for more then an hour i get sick and light-headed. seat, cargo net in trunk, is still broken. radio still isn't fixed so i just went and bought an after market. speakers still shortening out only when its cold out. keyless entry only works within 4ft of the car. in the winter the car only gets 18mpg on the highway and about 14 in the city and the car is parked in a heated underground garage. *tr

I have a 2003 vw jetta gli vr-6. the air conditioner stopped working after it was nice and cold for about 5 minutes. hot air was blowing out of the vents. engine (coolant) light came on after about a 10 minute drive. the engine (coolant) gauge was almost in the red 260 degrees. i switched off the air, and the gauge went down a little, but didn't really cool off. the guy at the dealership explained if the engine starts overheating, the fail safe for the car is to automatically turn the a/c off in order to save itself from overheating to the point where damage would occur. after all day diagnostics, the dealership says the fuse box is melted due to an electrical problem. this, conveniently, is not covered by my gold plus extended warranty that i spent lots of money on. repairs so far will cost ~$800. they have to fix that before they can test to see if the alternator is damaged. both the dealership and the warranty rep say this is a very common problem with volkswagen cars. if it is common it should be recalled!! *tr

Am radio not working. fm radio has limited range. *tr

Recently the radio in my 2003 volkswagen jetta wolfsburg edition stopped working. at first the radio station was displayed but i was unable to get any buttons to work except the eject button, the volume knob, and the on/off button. the last radio station i listened to was displayed but no sound could be heard. i started to look for help on the internet, possibly a fuse or something simple but what i found was completely the opposite. according to several websites, the radio has an internal defect which fries the radio when the battery starts to get weak. i work at a cadillac dealership so i tested the battery and it tested marginal. i checked with a couple vw dealerships and they both told me i would have to replace the radio. i just received my aftermarket radio, which i ordered after hearing horror stories of replacing the radio with an oem unit and having them go bad again the next time the battery went dead. i still have the oem radio, and will hang on to it for while. *tr

Out of no where my radio on my 2003 volkswagen jetta wagon stopped working. all i got was static on my radio. after reviewing several vw forums, i found out that my radio antenna had corroded inside. i took it apart and cleaned all the corrosion and found that the main wire on the circuit board was broke. i had to solder a new wire onto it. many vw owners are complaining about this same problem, but volkswagen will not do anything about it. a antenna should not go bad in a three year old car. *jb

Problems with air conditioner on 2003 volkswagen jetta. *mr the air intake duct leaked which caused white smoke to emit from the vehicle when parked after a 75 mile trip. the part had to be ordered. the a/c condenser leaked which caused the a/c not to cool the vehicle properly. the dealer surmised that the damage to the condenser was from an outside source therefore refused to replace it under warranty. *nm

While the consumer was jacking up the vehicle to change the right rear tire the jack collapsed and the vehicle fell to the ground. consumer maintained that the jack was made of plastic and the thread stripped.*ak *jb

While using the lifting jack supplied with the automobile to lift the vehicle to change a tire, the jack collapsed. it collapsed because the jack screw carrier threads failed. the carrier threads nut is plastic. plastic does not have enough strength to support the weight of a 3000 pound automobile.*ak

i bought my car at the end of november. drove it off the lot with 9 miles on the vehicle. at the time of breakdown on july 25, 2003, the car had 10,900 miles on it. the current mileage on it now is 13,000 july 25th was a very hot day. i believe it was up to 110 degrees that day. i had noticed my car running at a substantial lower power than usual, but i assumed it was because of the heat and that i had my air conditioning on high. i had to do some errands in town then i headed home, which is about 30 minutes away from the tri-cities, at this time i did notice loss of power going up the on-ramp to the interstate, but still did not think too much of the fact. i was half way home when i noticed that my car was losing even more power, the cruise quit and my speedometer went from 75 to 50 mph and that is when i noticed that my heat gauge was extremely high. i also found it odd that the inside of my car had not cooled off, but was getting warmer. i headed towards the off-ramp and as i was down shifting and applying the breaks, my brake pedal made ;puffy-popping noise and then the brake pedal collapsed to the floor. i put the vehicle in neutral and pumped the brakes to get the vehicle to stop, when the vehicle stopped, i smelled heat, or like something burning. i thought it was a fire around town. pulling away from the off-ramp, i could not get any pickup speed with my car. the car felt like it was pushing to go forward and also pulling itself back at the same time, as the vehicle tried to pick up speed, it would pull back and forth. the gas pedal was all the way to the floor and i couldn't get any speed. i could only shift into second gear and the vehicle could only maintain 15 mph. as all of this was happening, i was turning off everything i thought took power, air conditioner was the first thing off when i started noticing the car overheating and losing power, then the radio, these did not help.

Failure of door wiring harness. does not allow me to drive the car - the engin will not engage due to the electronic failure of the door wiring harness. there should be some way to override the electronic failure so that i can drive it.

I have owned a volkswagen jetta (turbo - 2003) and have had one horrible problem after another. without fail, i have taken my vehicle in for random mechanical repairs every few months since purchasing the vehicle. i found out the car was manufactured in mexico and that vw was aware of how bad their car's manufactured in mexico were. if that is the case, how can so many car owners with so many mechanical issues continue to sell in this country? i would like to report vw for lackluster performance and for continuing manufacture in an area well known for its below average standards and for continuing to bleed the consumer when it is fully aware of the issue. *tr