Problems with 2002 Volkswagen Passat ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

While driving, ignition coil failed without warning which caused vehicle to stall. dealer advised that manfacturer was aware of problem, but would only replace remaining coils after they have failed.*jb

My car is in the shop for an ignition coil replacement. this is the second blown coil in 4 weeks. i am disappointed in this vehicle because of these unreliable failures. this is not acceptable and i hope this will be recalled and fixed! ph

Car is approx 8 months old. car was running rough and shaking and mil light came on. pulled over and had car towed to dealership. they said they had to replace a faulty ignition coil. a week later problem repeats late night. had to have the car towed again. dealer says it is the same problem and they will have to replace all coils. not sure i feel safe driving this car any more. ts

I own a 2002 vw passat with the v4 1.8l engine. it is just one year old and has 18,700 miles of mostly highway driving on it. it has individual ignition colis for each cylinder. they are failing at an alarming rate. so far in the last 3 months two have failed and i expect the remaining ones to fail at any time. this is not uncommon for this car. failure means a tow and possibly being being stranded in the middle of nowhere. vw is aware of the problem however refuses to replace any coil until failure. i believe this is an irresponsible policy. the cars should be subject to recall and replacement. the only reasons they are not doing this that i can imagine are that either the strain on their logistics is too great or they have not solved the root cause of the problem and are replacing the coils with components that will also fail in a short time.

The ignition coils in my 2002 vw passat, with a 1.8t engine, are failing. you lose power and then have to try to get over to the side of the road. ts

1 year old vw passat, twice same problem with coil, broken turbo, it is on warranty but how many times can one go to dealer with a car which has 15000 miles ,

The ignition coil has failed twice on my 2002 passat the the past two months. the first time the car had 5500 miles on it. the second with 6800 miles on it. the dealer replaced them quickly. it is unnerving to know that this could happen again at any time.

While traveling, the vehicle began to ride rough. the engine indication light started to flash. the vehicle did not travel over 5 mph. the vehicle was serviced, and the technician noticed that the ignition coil pack(s) needed to be replaced. *ak four ignition coils were found faulty. *scc

1 ignition coil failed while driving on the highway causing the vehicle to stall. manufacturer will not replace additional coils until they fail. consumer is fearful of driving unreliable vehicle. ts

This is a follow up message to an earlier complaint. my passat's ignition coils are going bad. one has been replaced due to failure, one is going (i had the same symptoms just 2 days after i got the vehicle back from the dealer), and the rest will probably go. the newly designed coils are on backorder from vw, causing quite a bit of inconvenience. although the dealer and vw know the old coils are bad, they won't replace them with the newly designed coils until they go bad. i smelled smoke the first time my car died, and i'm very nervous that it will catch on fire as has happened to other passat owners. please, please look into making vw recall the vehicles for this problem. the car can possibly stall while in motion. it's not safe.

Faulty ignition coil. car started shaking and mil light came on. service dept at volkswagen said could take two to three weeks to fix. vw is only fixing when they are damaged. car is at 9000 miles and under a year old. please review this for a recall. ts

One ignition coil pack failed on my 2002 passat wagon (1.8t) causing the car to lose power while in traffic. i researched and learned that there are known defects with the factory installed coil packs leading to cracks and water penetration after 10k miles. i had 10300 miles on the vehicle. i asked vw of america to replace all 4 ignition coil packs with new, defect free parts and vw refused. meanwhile the vehicle is still at the dealer (1 week and counting) awaiting a replacement for the failed part. i am worried about driving the car with the defective coils and putting myself, my wife, and two young daughters at risk. if vw does not rectify the problem with 4 replacements i will have no choice but to engage the massachusetts lemon law.

You are sitting on more than 125 complaints from owners of certain 2002 volkswagen and audi models concerning failed ignition coils (also known as "coilpacks" or "coil packs"). this is a major safety issue as the failure occurs while driving and the car loses power. drivers and passengers are at risk for accidents and serious injuries as a result of this defect. the car must be towed after this failure has occurred. i have taken the liberty of compiling the complaints you currently have listed on your website which are scattered throughough various models of audi and vw and are classified under various headings. please note that the part in question is common to all three vehicles. (the code number for affected parts ends in "h') there are four of these parts per vehicle (one per cylinder) and they fail one at a time, two at a time or more. thus, owners will face this problem more than once. please take action on this dangerous defect immediately before someone gets killed or seriously injured. thank you. nhtsa coilpack complaints by 2002 model year vehicle make/model 2002 vw passat electrical system 22 electrical system: ignition 17 electrical system: ignition coil 5 engine 6 electrical: wiring harness (fire reported) 4 total passat 54 2002 vw jetta electrical system 9 electrical system: alternator/regulator 1 electrical system: ignition 7 engine 3 total jetta 20 2002 vw gti electrical: alternator/regulator 1 total gti 1 total volkswagen 75 2002 audi a4 electrical system 21 electrical system: ignition 20 electrical system: ignition coil 8 total a4 49 2002 audi a4 avant electrical: ignition 2 total a4 avant 2 total audi 51 total complaints 126

This is the second time in two months my 2002 vw passat 1.8t has had ignition coil failures. the first occured nov. 11, 7875 miles. the second, jan 6, 9200 miles. the second time, two of the four ingition coils failed and waited 15 days for replacements. the dealer said the old coils in the car have a 90% failure rate, while the new coils they are replacing them with have a 20% expected failure rate. i do not feel safe driving a car that has those probabilities of failure. myself and other passat owners deman volkswagen find a solution for these cost-cutting related malfunctions that compromise the safety of our vehicles.

Engine ran very rough and check engine light flashed in the middle of the road. also experienced significant lack of power. car deeded to be tow to the dealership. determined to be failed coil pack #3.

Warped igniotion coil causing the vehicle to run poorly. vehicle will shut down without prior warning. please provide additional information. dealer is aware of the problem. ts. *ak

2002 volkswagen passat. ignition coil failure. returned from christmas to midway airport, chicago. car started but one of four ignition coils did not fire. if same problem occurred while driving, may have caused serious degradation of speed on the highway.

While traveling on the highway without warning, the vehicle will shut down and will not restart. please provide additional information dealer is aware of the problem. ts

Failed coil pack on vehicle after only 16000 miles. dealer service adviser stated that vw is aware of this problem in all 2001 thru 2003 vw passats with 1.8 liter turbo engines. service adviser stated that vw is having so many failures on this product that the part had to be ordered through vin direct from germany. they will not replace all four coils, only the failed items. vehicle failed on highway and became a safety hazard to other motorists until i could negotiate to safe area to investigate failure. ts

My 2002 volkswagon passat 1.8t was towed to the dealer due to another ignition coil failure. this is the second occurrence of this problem. not the same ignition coil failed.

I have a 2002 volkswagen passet that had to be towed three times for failed ignition packs. the vehicle was in the shop a total of four times. volkswagen was aware of the problem and never contacted the consumers or the owners of this problem. they advised that they would only replace the coil that went bad and not all at once. if the company is aware of the problem then they should have taken some action by notifying the comsumers. volkswagen's are suposed to be reliable, but it seems they are not at least for the 2001/2002 passet. please take time to look into this matter. my incidents occurred last feb, may, dec, and jan 03. i also asked volkswagen who would be responsible for the repairs after the warranty runs out. i was told that i could always send in the repair amount to see if they would reimburse me. thank you

Second failure of ignition coil pack within 2 weeks. currently vehicle is awaiting parts and has been at the dealership nearly 2 weeks (since 12/30/02)

Ignition coil failed while traveling, causing engine to stall. consumer was stranded. manufacturer is aware of problem, but will not replace component until it fails. ph

12/28/02 -- on start up, vehicle idled roughly and felt as though it were going to stall, so we took it to the local mechanic who said that 2 ignition coils are certainly bad. the vehicle had previously given off an electrical burning smell 2 times that went away after one minute or so, and at a different time it was difficult to start and idled roughly for about a minute or so. we are waiting to see if all the coils can be replaced at once instead of waiting until they go bad or catch fire. given the number of complaints for this problem, we certainly feel that this is a safety issue and should be addressed by volkswagen in a timely fashion and hope that they will do so in our case. ts

The ignition coils were defective and failed without warning causing vehicle to stall while driving. consumer had 3 coils fail. manufacturer is aware of the problem, but would not replace until component failed. *ts *nlm

Coil defect on 2002 vw passat 1.8 t. this car has 27k miles on it and 3 coils have been replaced in the past 2 months (there is one for each cylinder). vw has made repairs as needed, but would not replace the 4th coil. each time one goes the car has to be towed. we are at the point where we don't want to drive the car for fear of being stranded.

The car was taken to the dealer with a failed engine. two engine coils had failed, but the dealer admitted that all four coils were defective. the dealer had the car for 2 weeks and replaced only 2 of the 4 coils. since the coils are rationed, they will not replace the remaining coils until they fail. am i suppose to wait until i have an accident on the highway? both the dealer and the manufacturer admit the defect. why hasn't a recall been issued? there are 40+ customers at this dealership with the same problem, all waiting for a major part that is not available. i will not drive the car until all four are replaced. i have a young son and will not drive the car with a known engine problem, particularly a problem that appears to be pretty widespread. (the other complaints listed on your web site for this model sound like i could have written them.) the manufacturer when contacted has been completely unresponsive. *jb ****dimsii ivoq entry posted after 12/12/02 cut-over to artemis*****770835

2 ignition coils failed in less than 3 weeks. one on the road. we had to pull over, the second time on a parking lot. what's next?

Volkswagen of america has a known component failure with the ignition coils on all vw and audi 1.8t engines in all 2002 models. these components fail without warning causing the car to stall and/or lose power dramatically and can cause the driver to lose control of the vehicle. vw has stated that they know the components are bad (4 per engine) but will only fix these items as they fail. i personally have had this failure twice and they will not correct all of the components. please investigate this and force vw to recall all of these vehicles and replace all of these know bad components.

Car started up not running on all cylinders. refused to run on all cylinders. engine warning light (mil) came on. manual and dealer said to have vehicle towed to dealer in this situation. car went to dealer. bad ignition coil is diagnosis. dealer says none available in u.s. or canada. dealer doesn't know when it can fix. car is 4 months old with 3,800 miles and is undriveable. no date set for when it will be repaired. ts

The check engine light had illuminated. the vehicle started to misfire and shake. the dealer replaced one of the ignition coils. mr scc

Two ignition coils failed causing vehicle to stall. dealer replaced and advised that remaining coils will likely fail, but will not replace until they do. ph *ts

Ignition coil failure. first one failed, dealer replaced but informed us one failed coil would be replaced, not all 4 even though vw knows there is a problem with this type of coil. they will not issue a recall, but because so many are failing, there is a backorder on the parts. due to the high demmand, they will only replace failed coils because they do not have enough coils to due the right thing, replace them all. their response is to have the customer turn off the car, call roadside assistance, and wait for a tow. 18 miles after the first failure, a second failure occurred. we called roadside assistance, and were informed it is usually a 90 minute wait. we live in massachusetts, it is winter, and the car is used to transport an 8 week old and a 3 year old. vw wants them to wait without heat until a tow arrives. i contacted vw customer care and was given the company line. they fail to see the danger in having two children waiting in below-freezing temps for a tow. this incident has so changed how i view vw and has basically rendered a vehicle that is less than 1 year old useless. we are afraid to drive it, expecting another engine failure.

The engine light flashed on and off and the car made a vibrating noise on 12-21-02. the vehicle is a 4 cyclinder 2002 vw passast with 5200 miles which i purchased in june of this year. i had it towed to fairfax vw in fairfax, va on 12-22-02. the tow truck driver advised me that he had towed a number of passats over the past few months that had burned out coil packs. the car was repaired on 12-23-02 and 2 of the 4 coil packs had burned out. i was told that vw was aware of this problem. i asked the dealer why the other 2 coil packs were not replaced and they advised me that vw will only approve the replacement of the burned out ones. i feel that if vw is aware of this problem that all of the coil packs should have been replaced since the other two may eventually burn out, too. this could cause severe mechanical damage if the vehicle is driven under these conditions.

2002 volkswagen passat at dealer for 3rd time in the last 2 months. three ignition coil failures and one computer fix/update. still waiting for part to come in for the latest failure, 25 days and counting.

The engine started idling rough and the check engine light was flashing. happened in neighborhood, limped car home and had it towed to dealer. dealer replaced faulty coil pack. without car for eight days.

Having the same ignition coil pack issues as other vw 1.8t passat owners. dealer had 10+ cars in to be repaired. estimated 2 wks. to fix. dealer says vw is aware of issue, but they will only repair the coil that's broken.this is costing them more money in the long run as they have to provide rentals to users, and will be liable should a coil failure cause an accident or even death. have tried to address with vw but it's been dismissed (their case number 30003124). this is a huge safety issue that needs nhtsa support. another concern is that my windshield wipers are deffective and the local dealer has had them on backorder for over a month. apparently there is a nationwide shortage and there are no other replacements for the passat blades. the dealer asked that i come so they could replace it with those off a new car.

Started car one morning (6-month-old car w/ 6,470 miles), and check engine (mil) light flashed, car sputtered and felt as if it would stall. called dealer who seemed quite sure it was a coil pack failure. volkswagen of america is aware of these defective parts, but due to lack of supply will only replace failed parts. car was at dealer's shop for two weeks before the part arrived and was installed. dealer/vw assumed all costs of rental car (est at $500 / 14 days @ $35/day!). turns out only one of the four coil packs failed and was replaced, but vw of america won't replace all four even though they're aware of the high number of failures. very likely that the remaining three will fail, and i will have to take the car back in for service/replacement. this failure also poses a safety hazard, as loss of power can occur on highways, etc.

Coil pack failed five times. no answers from vw.

One of four coil packs (a.k.a. ignition coils) failed in my 2002 volkswagen passat 1.8l turbo. upon phoning the dealership, i found that they currently have 20 other cars on their lot with the identical problem waiting for replacement parts that are on national backorder. in order to appease their customers, the dealer had been pulling the part out of 2003 models, but they ran out of cars to cannibalize. i have further learned that this is a widespread problem in late model vw's as well as audi's with the 1.8l engine, and although vw is aware of the defect, they have not authorized their dealers to replace the other three coil packs. also, while my car could potentially break down three more times because of this defective part, there is currently no recall scheduled by volkswagen.

Coil pack on vw 1.8t engine defective so many bad ones dealer don't have replacement part. ts

2002 vw passant. i am told that all late 2001 and all 2002 models with 4 cylinder engines where supplied with defective ingition coils. this has resulted in my car breaking down three times. it either spontanisly (sp) loses power or loses all power and the car shakes. this is potentially deadly in high traffic situations. vw north america is aware of the problem, but refuses to replace all 4 coils. they will only replace them as they fail. this means that for thousands of owners, they each have four chances to be involved in a wreck when the engine fails.

There were problems with the ignition coil pack. the dealer was contacted and stated that there is a back order on the part. *nlm the engine malfunction light had come on and the vehicle began to shake. the vehicle had to go back to the dealer for a second time for the original problem. scc

My cars check engine light came on, and the car lost power and ran very roughly. i managed to make it to an off ramp before stopping the car. i called the vw road side assistance and they sent a tow truck to take the car to the dealer. i had my wife, my son, my sister in law, and my dog, so finding a way home was not easy. i was lucky that when this happened i was still within my "home" area, and was able to find a friend with a large enough car. after the dealer opened the next day, they told me it was a coil pack that had gone bad and the part will take a week or two to get. i have a rental that is paid for by the dealer, but it is not the same type of car i bought, a station wagon. i did some research to see what a coil pack is, and found many owners with the same problem, and the problem happens more than once. i am verry concerned that this will happen again and i won't be near a friend who can rescue me and my family.

While driving at any speed, without warning vehicle will die out. the dealership indicated that this is caused by the ignition coil going bad. this part is on back order, cause it is a common problem with this model/year vehicle. ts

While driving vehicle was jerking. a warning light illuminated for emission or catalytic converter. towed to dealer, and dealer replaced ignition coil. please replace all four coils.

The ignition coil continued to break which caused vehicle to lose power while driving. the dealer was notified. *jb the left front headlight had burned out, and the left speaker had gone out. the ignition coil was replaced and the mechanic reprogrammed the ecu in order to correct the misfires. *scc

One of the four ignition coils failed, which caused the engine light to flicker on and off. *jb

The coilpack on my 2002 vw passat gls 1.8t failed. it basically snapped into 2 pieces. this is a concern since i have heard of hundreds of cases of this happening in vw's, and vw will only replace the failed coilpack, not the other 3. in my opinion there should be a recall on this part, vw and it's dealors know that the likelihood of more failures in the same car a very high.

Ignition coil pack failure (s) caused sudden loss of power and lurching of vehicle when attempting to accelerate out of driveway onto road. no accident occurred and vehicle was driven slowly back to parking. power was not recovered and engine vibration was severe. no prior warning was given. check engine light came on after failure. followed a cold night while car was parked for 12+ hours. after parking car overnight again, failure recurred upon start up and vehicle was flat bedded at no cost to vw old skybrook,ct, where it was determined that according to ecu all 4 coil packs misfired. car has been awaiting parts for 4 weeks and has not been returned to service as of 1/4/03. ******dims 11 ivoq entry posted after 12/12/02 cut-over to artemis***** 770817. *ak *jb