Volkswagen Passat (2005 - ) - Passat crisis at V.W.

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Mon 14 Jan 2008 19:20
Passat crisis at V.W. - Imagos
Heard an alleged rumour through the grapevine that there's a small crisis up and down the land at VW dealers with Passats dropping like flies with failed fuel pumps and some extremely angry punters.

Apparently around 600 failures/warranty claims this year alone with courtesy hire cars being supplied to almost all of them.

It's only a rumour at the moment so we'd better keep this to ourselves.

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Mon 14 Jan 2008 19:27
Passat crisis at V.W. - Pugugly {P}
Diesels or petrols ?
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Mon 14 Jan 2008 19:36
Passat crisis at V.W. - Imagos
Both so i'm told. All post 2005 models.
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Sat 23 Feb 2008 11:22
Passat crisis at V.W. - shirleym
Deisels
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Mon 14 Jan 2008 21:43
Passat crisis at V.W. - Avant
Which engine? It surely won't just be Passats.
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Mon 14 Jan 2008 22:02
Passat crisis at V.W. - Screwloose


Maybe they shouldn't have listened to that dodgy bloke who came to the back door of the factory and told them that he could get them fuel pumps "much cheaper than their regular supplier......"
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Mon 14 Jan 2008 23:18
Passat crisis at V.W. - 659FBE
They did that with the old Passat diesel. The PD diesels have a mechanically driven "tandem" pump driven by the camshaft which serves as a fuel lift pump feeding the unit injectors at around 100 PSI and also as a vac pump for the brake servo and other actuators.

Bosch always charge top whack for their (usually) excellent products, so enter the VAG bean counter division. In '04, some PD engines were fitted with tandem pumps made by LUK which became the subject of a recall - the cover bolts were either substandard or over torqued. In any event, the covers came loose and the pumps leaked fuel.

Talk about being penny wise, pound foolish....

659.
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Mon 14 Jan 2008 23:27
Passat crisis at V.W. - Screwloose

When you can do nothing about your soaring labour costs and are being held to ransom by Red Robbo revisited, then you make the savings on your components budget and fit ever-cheaper and flimsier parts.....

It's a tried and tested management strategy - it worked so well for Rover......

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Tue 15 Jan 2008 06:43
Passat crisis at V.W. - jag
same with the dual mass flywheels, the luk ones don't last as well as the sachs ones. jag.
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Tue 15 Jan 2008 09:06
Passat crisis at V.W. - Hamsafar
So this will affect Audi A6 aswell? What about Skoda Superb?

Edited by Hamsafar on 15/01/2008 at 09:06

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Tue 15 Jan 2008 10:33
Passat crisis at V.W. - DP
I hope the people affected get a quicker fix than those affected by the 1.8 coil fiasco a few years ago.

Our company fleet had three Passats and a Golf down at the same time, and the sea of dead cars at the local dealer awaiting parts on back order was growing so quickly, they were telling customers not to bring their cars down until the backlog had been cleared. It took four weeks!

I've never seen anything quite like it.
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Tue 15 Jan 2008 11:15
Passat crisis at V.W. - cheddar
Could be a different component in the Passat or could be to do with the specific installation. The Superb is previous Passat generation so should not be effected.
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Tue 15 Jan 2008 11:18
Passat crisis at V.W. - v8man
I hope my new Jetta isn't affected.
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Tue 15 Jan 2008 11:24
Passat crisis at V.W. - daveyjp
I've found this:

www.consumeraffairs.com/recalls04/2006/audi_vw.html
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Tue 15 Jan 2008 13:55
Passat crisis at V.W. - Round The Bend
Suspect nothing new here. My 2002 130 tdi twice broke down with fuel delivery problems within 15k of delivery. Not sure if it is relevant but each time it happened it was within 400 yards of starting.
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Tue 15 Jan 2008 14:23
Passat crisis at V.W. - Screwloose

Isn't it amazing; in the US, it's a critical safety issue and all the affected cars are recalled for a new pump.

Over here, it's keep it quiet and we'll make a killing when they fail out of warranty... Just like the COP coils.
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Tue 15 Jan 2008 14:18
Passat crisis at V.W. - Screwloose
Our company fleet had three Passats and a Golf down at the same time


DP

Didn't you think of cannibalizing? You could have kept three going.
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Tue 15 Jan 2008 14:21
Passat crisis at V.W. - DP
Screwloose,

I was a lowly marketing dogsbody at the time. Not my problem ;-)

I think the lease company strictly prohibited such things anyway.

Cheers
DP
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Tue 15 Jan 2008 14:32
Passat crisis at V.W. - cheddar
I think the lease company strictly prohibited such things anyway.


Good idea though!

On the otherhand might have taken the pressure off the dealer to sort the problem, I guess they were paying for hire cars which focused the mind.
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Thu 24 Jan 2008 23:13
Passat crisis at V.W. - cattleman6
DP. My Seat Toledo TdiSE 1.9 110bhp from the end of 1999 has now done nearly 152,000 miles. Incredible engine. I had new cylinder head gasget and replacement valves etc at about 140,000 miles. Also a few years ago the maff meter had to be replaces.That affects the turbo.
I read in "Which", that a lot of diesel Passats had engine management problems.People found the power suddenly went and the cars wouldn't go. I would be interested in what people's experiences are and what the truth is. I see an incredible lot of Passats in the Irish Republic and when I regularly do working day trips up in Northern Ireland.VAG problems with ignition coils in petrol engines was another completely different matter.
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Thu 24 Jan 2008 23:39
Passat crisis at V.W. - cattleman6

I don't know what company you can trust nowadays. Honda Accords are not perfect, Toyota and indeed Lexus have had problems. This problem with VW will affect the whole VAG group.The new Audi A4 could be affected. I have had wonderful service from VWs in my life. The Seat Toledo ( being a VW) assembled in Belgium in a VW factory ( The Toledo assembly was moved back to Spain some years later) towards the end of 1999 is the best.
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Thu 24 Jan 2008 12:53
Passat crisis at V.W. - Akos
This is exactly what I heard from my dealer when I (well, the AA lorry) dropped my car there the second time, mid December. Since then every week I was given an ETA of the next week for fixing. Until last week that is, when they said that no chance to get it mended before mid March the earliest (that's three months so far)... And if you got your car serviced by a non-brand garage once they don't provide a replacement car either... Details at: redeynet.dnsalias.net/Blog/ You are welcome to comment.
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Thu 24 Jan 2008 21:11
Passat crisis at V.W. - injection doc
There is a lot more to this than meets the eye. I think when I mentioned in a previous thread that passats were no better than Mondeo TDCi's for fuel pump reliability I took quite a bashing . There is a firm at present ( Cheshire I belive )working very hard on a special addative for the fuel supply companies to reduce injector & pump failure as the problem is far more wide spread than just Mondeo's!. The forum has become biased towards TDCi's & its failings but I think in 6 months to a year there will be others joining the list.
Doc
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Thu 24 Jan 2008 23:45
Passat crisis at V.W. - PR {P}
My friends girlfriend has this problem. Its a Passat 2.0 TDI and it has been off the road since early december. They are expecting the part soon. Its at a dealer near Huddersfield and they had about 10 in at the time this one went in.
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Fri 25 Jan 2008 08:01
Passat crisis at V.W. - jag
the problem is the lift/priming pump in the fuel tank NOT the injection pump. jag.
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Fri 25 Jan 2008 09:10
Passat crisis at V.W. - drivewell
>>There is a firm at present (Cheshire I believe )working very hard on a special additive for the fuel supply companies to reduce injector & pump failure as the problem is far more wide spread than just Mondeo's!.
>>

I've been using Miller's Diesel Clean for the past 13 years. Until my first common-rail, I never had a fault or failure (apart form occasional heater plug replacement). I had a VW Golf MkII turbo diesel (old 1600cc engine), which was still turning in 0.35 average on smoke test, with 165K miles, on its original injectors.

In 2003, I had a PSA 2.0 HDi kill its fuel pump at 9 months / 10K miles. (possibly due to a lift pump problem - they changed both, and 6 months later did a factory recall to change the lift pump again!)

Only this past week, I had a new fuel pump put on my '05 Mondeo TDCi (130hp). Hadn't failed, but had developed a slight oil leak. (warranty, thankfully)

I'll keep on using Millers Diesel Clean. I don't believe it's doing any harm, and it might be doing some good.
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Fri 22 Feb 2008 13:28
Passat crisis at V.W. - knowwun
I'll keep on using Millers Diesel Clean. I don't believe it's doing any harm and

In 2003 I had a PSA 2.0 HDi kill its fuel pump at 9 months

Only this past week I had a new fuel pump put on my '05 Mondeo
TDCi (130hp). Hadn't failed but had developed a slight oil leak. (warranty thankfully)

it might be doing some good.


It appears you are wasting your money, clearly it's not doing any good.
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Mon 11 Feb 2008 15:27
Passat crisis at V.W. - greenpark
Happened to me last week - engine just went dead. New car with only 5K miles. Was told by agent that there was a problem (7 cars waiting on new fuel pumps). Have been given a hire car - could be weeks before new part arrives!>> Heard an alleged rumour through the grapevine that there's a small crisis up and down
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Mon 11 Feb 2008 18:56
Passat crisis at V.W. - Pendlebury
..When you can do nothing about your soaring labour costs and are being held to ransom by Red Robbo revisited, then you make the savings on your components budget and fit ever-cheaper and flimsier parts.....

It's a tried and tested management strategy - it worked so well for Rover......<<

Toyota and Honda have some of the highest labour costs in the world, yet still turn out a better quality product (although not completely without faults) and still remain competitive on price and beat most companies hands down on profits.
The issue of labour costs is a complete red herring most of the time.
What you will usually find is that the management team have built in a load of "innefficient checks and red tape" to monitor and control spend - but subsequently adds loads of costs in waste and is all completely NVA.
That is my observation anyway.
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Fri 22 Feb 2008 09:35
Passat crisis at V.W. - style guru
Just been affected too. 2006 Passat 140bhp tdi started hesitating - Main dealer in Hertfordshire changed a wiring loom, then injectors and now its awaiting a 'fuel pump'. None in country and on back order from Germany - with no idea when parts will be available. Dealer has 3 other Passats awaiting same part. Meanwhile I'm in a courtesy hire car at VW's expense without my hands free phone kit etc. A pain but thank goodness its a warranty issue and I'm not paying myself. I'm surprised it's not affecting Tourans, Golfs etc and other VAG group models that use same bits.... or is it?
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Fri 22 Feb 2008 23:36
Passat crisis at V.W. - Imagos
A pain but thank goodness its a warranty issue and I'm not paying myself>>

yup, as long as you don't damage that Europcar hire car.. your fault or no..
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Wed 19 Mar 2008 19:15
Passat crisis at V.W. - style guru
A month on and still waiting. Estimated date for fuel pump is now early April. Main dealer in St Albans has 15 Passatts awaiting this part -what a joke. Why has VW allowed this state of affairs to continue and how is it building new Passatts if there are no pumps available?????
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Tue 25 Mar 2008 13:03
Passat crisis at V.W. - Guidor
I too have suffered from a faulty 1.9TDI Passat fuel pump. Fortunately it only stalled the engine on tick-over - causing annoyance to London drivers but no near miss -I was able to limp to the dealership who says there are over 1,500 cars in the UK waiting for replacement pumps.
The waiting time is anything from 6 weeks upwards.
Given the heating & Aircon problems already experienced maybe this is the last VW I chose for a considerable time.
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Sat 23 Feb 2008 11:21
Passat crisis at V.W. - shirleym
Well my deisel 2.0TD1 has been in the garage for almost a month now waiting on a new fuel pump!! The car is a 55plate and has covered only 69,000 miles.
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Sat 23 Feb 2008 11:31
Passat crisis at V.W. - bhoy wonder
What is going on at VW? The company is doing no favours for themselves. This cutting corners has to stop they are saving £1 here but at the end of the day it costs them £100 and the likely hood that these customers will not buy VW again. I for one doubt that I will buy VW again and I have had a few VW?s.

VW sort yourself out.
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Wed 19 Mar 2008 19:24
Passat crisis at V.W. - nick62
"If only everything in life was as reliable as a Volkswagen."
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Tue 25 Mar 2008 13:28
Passat crisis at V.W. - Hamsafar
"If only everything in life was as reliable as a Volkswagen."
- these days, I'm starting to think it is!
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Tue 25 Mar 2008 13:46
Passat crisis at V.W. - madf
I had an A4 with fsh.
In 40k miles I suffered numerous failures (car had done 60k when I bought it).

It was by far the worst car I have driven for unreliability in 20 years - and I had 3 Rover 800s in that time. The apparent quality of the Audi was far better than the Rovers: trim did not rattle etc.. but the Rovers were paragons of reliability compared to the Audi.
Prior to the Audi I considered the Rover 800s the worst cars I had ever driven!

Say no more.
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Wed 26 Mar 2008 00:18
Passat crisis at V.W. - Avant
Still can't see why it should affect only Passats (unless one of madf's A4 woes concerned the fuel system).
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Wed 26 Mar 2008 08:20
Passat crisis at V.W. - Galad
>>Still can't see why it should affect only Passats (unless one of madf's A4 woes concerned the fuel system)>>

And not Skoda Octavias or Seat Toledos?
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Wed 26 Mar 2008 10:17
Passat crisis at V.W. - Galad
Looks like the Passat isn't alone with fuel pump problems ....I wonder if they use the same brand as Airbus :-(

tinyurl.com/2jdpv5
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Sun 30 Aug 2009 18:20
Passat crisis at V.W. - trackrod
Just to let any other Passat owners or drivers know that the problem has n't gone away, my 2006 1.9TDI has been giving me surprises since April. The VW dealer fitted a new fuel pump, they said "There is nothing wrong with the car but we will replace it just in case". It broke down within two weeks and then went reliably for 3 months before causing problems again, always within 3 miles from a cold start. Currently it is off the road being diagnosed again.
My employer has a fleet of Passats and they have all been unreliable, in particular with the fuel system and the clutch/flywheel.
My previous company car was a Peugeot 307, you know the one that was reputed to be unreliable, I only drove it for 146,000 miles so I would n't know!
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Fri 8 Jan 2010 14:45
Passat crisis at V.W. - Passat vw
hi i own a vw passat 1.9 desiel, a few problems hav occured in the car, wen i took it to the vw garage, they giv me a quote of 900 pounds, was wounderin if anyone knows a cheaper, garage which fixes vw passats in the area or manchester of nearby manchester thank you.
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Fri 8 Jan 2010 14:51
Passat crisis at V.W. - Rattle
There is a VW Audi specialist which is now in Sale called Chorlton VW Audi. No idea if there are any good or not.
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Fri 8 Jan 2010 16:07
Passat crisis at V.W. - WorkshopTech
Whats up with the car?
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Fri 8 Jan 2010 18:20
Passat crisis at V.W. - AlastairW
You could try the General Motor Co in Hazel Grove, Stockport. A friend of mine works for them, and seems to know everything there is to know about VAG products. Apparently they get many referrals from main dealers that dont want to bother with older cars.
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