My atlas died in the drive thru while running (stationary but about to move when it died) without any warning. The vehicle has less than 25,000 miles and had just been serviced less than one month prior. When it died, the car dash was blinking different messages but one said, 'drive to charge 12v'. I couldn't turn the engine over; the windows would not go up; and I was stuck in the drive thru for almost an hour before someone was able to jump my car to get it to the dealer. Dealer said they had changed 4-5 batteries out of the same type of car that week. That was three weeks ago. No eta on when a battery will be available. I went nearly 10 ten days without a car and now I have a loaner. No information on cause of problem or whether a new battery will fix the problem. Neither the dealer nor vw have given me any information or guidance on whether the vehicle will be safe to drive after battery replacement'I repeatedly explained that my vehicle died while running 'thankfully not in an intersection or red light'but still no information on the issue. I also am not getting any information as to why it could take over a month to even get a battery.
2018 Volkswagen Atlas electrical complaints
Page 4 of 5: complaints 71 to 100 of 111, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Vehicle battery stopped working within less than an year, dealership service is hard to work unless the car is completely dead and will inform customers that the battery was undersized on the vehicle. It will suddenly die when auto start/stop function is engaged, it can happen while stopped at a red light.
Purchased new 2018 vw atlas with now, 10k miles. The last 2 weeks the dash sensors have been randomly going off & on. Sunday 02/10 I was driving, the vehicle shut off while in motion. Brakes locked, no steering control, no electrical. When tried to restart the first time -t he sensor said to 'drive to charge 12v battery' but the car would not turn back over to do so. Towing company was able to jump it, the battery was running @ 15v which is too high for vw (confirmed with service tech this is abnormal). Was not able to keep it running, so we had it towed to the dealership. Dealership called & said "bad battery vw atlas is known for chronic battery failure". I was told a new one is on backorder with no eta - but that my atlas is sitting in the lot next to another atlas with the same problem, that has been waiting on a replacement for 3 weeks. Will use a loaner car for a month until mine is functioning. I was also told the replacement battery may or not be a fix/solution but it's all they can do for now to get the car running. Beside myself there has been no formal recall to this to prevent catastrophic injury to vw atlas owners who own a vehicle that fails while in motion. Located on a city street - did involve local law enforcement to prevent additional threats to danger in the roadways.
Sitting at a red light and when it turned green, my start/stop function would not turn my car back on. The dash had all sorts of lights flashing and my car would not start. Said the 12v battery was drained. Had to push my car out of the way and get someone to jump my car.
I was driving the car on a city street when it suddenly just shut off and would not come back on. This is the second time this has happened, and there is no warning and no way to get the car pulled to safety.
Twice I have been stranded because the auto start stop is not providing enough power to the battery and therefor the vehicle will not start sometimes without being jumped. I have been stranded twice because the auto shut off has turned the vehicle off at a light and then the vehicle would not restarte.
Battery died after less than one year (bad cell)
I was sitting with my car parked in a school pick-up line, no-idle zone, so I had my vw atlas running on it's battery. The battery died out of the blue after a few minutes. There seems to be an ongoing battery issue with my vehicle as it has had a hard time turning over this past week. This car is only 1 year old and shouldn't be facing this issue. I'm glad I wasn't in an intersection when it happened, as I've read has happened to others. I'm taking it in to vw for inspection, but it sounds like I'm one of many who is running into the vw battery issue and I wanted to make it known.
Battery ramdomly loses charge to start the vehicle. We dorve from salt lake city to vegas. We filled up on gas with some of the electronics running and the car wouldn't start. Dash says battery was drained. Happened again when vacuuming the car after a wash. Doors were open and electronics were off, but it then wouldnt start again.
The battery keeps dying. I believe it's because the start/stop system is too much for the battery. The battery dies if we stop the car and idle for more than 2-3 minutes, with the infotainment system running.
Left fog lights sporadically blink on and off for no specific reason. This happens during normal driving conditions, and while stopped at red lights.
Engine warning light and red exclamation caution warning lights on vehicle come on from time to time without warning. These warning lights come on during normal city driving conditions. These lights usually go off on their own or after turning vehicle off and back on.
Engine warning light as well as epc warning light came on during normal city driving. Power and pick up of the vehicle became greatly reduced making travel over 15-20 MPH impossible. Upon arriving home and turning car off, vehicle was nearly impossible to restart. Car was towed from home to dealership were it was found that electrical mechanism in vehicles high powered fuel pump malfunctioned and quit working. High powered fuel pump had to be replaced.
The vehicles battery is dying.
The battery died when the car was six months old while in a store parking lot. They said it was a bad fuel cell and replaced it with the same battery. 8 months later the battery died again in the snow with two young children in the car. We were unable to jump it. The battery dying is now a know issue and they will replace it with a different battery. But they are not recalling it yet even though it is a common problem. My friends atlas died at a stop light due to the auto shut off feature. It is incredibly unsafe.
The vehicle will not start if it is really cold or it has been sitting for days without being started. I am taking it in to the dealership today.
I have had issues with the battery dying on my atlas for the last several months. I have driven it, gone into a store for 5 minutes and coming back out and the battery is dead. Or the car won't start the next morning after sitting my heated garage overnight. In my instance the car has been stationary the entire time but I know others have had this happen while in motion. This has happened 7-8 times recently and its unacceptable for this to be happening on a car this new. I have not had the car not restart in an intersection yet like many others have had happen but regardless its still a significant safety concern and vw needs to address this issue. I have read many items that people have taken their cars into the dealer to get the battery replaced and the problem still occurs. Vw needs to recall 2018 atlas's for this problem and find a permanent fix for this problem. It is clearly an issue that they know about and need to take action on it now. I can't have my family in vehicle that that I don't know when it will or will not start.
Had the car for 18months and have started having issues with the battery failing for no reason - car gives a message that the voltage is low and will not start. Happened after very short time of the engine being turned off a couple of times, no valid explanation from the dealer as to why suddenly started happening. Happened once on a highway, once at home. Now worried that we don't know when it will happen again.
Epc light plus check engine light came on. Car would not start. Dealer replacing battery, but concerned it will happen again based on cases I've read in vw forums: https://www.cargurus.com/cars/discussion-t73111_ds837472. Vehicle was stationary, parked in a school parking lot.
Drove to husbands office and parked in lot. After about 5 minutes received a warning that I needed to drive to charge battery. Tried to go but car wouldn't start. Had to be towed to dealership. Service center said that battery was dead and needed to be replaced. Bought the car new in july 2018. Read online that this appears to be a known problem with 2018 atlas.
Vehicle, inside our garage, will not turn on. Battery is dead, receive error message that 12v battery is low, lights flash and sounds happen, but will not turn over. Our atlas is just over a year old. A couple weeks ago, various lights came on then went away and didn't return until today. Also waiting on recall for catalytic converter that was before christmas due to check engine light coming on over and over. Been at least 3 weeks waiting for that part. Disappointed in an expensive new car having this many problems right from the start. Calling the dealer today about the battery issue. For the record, this is the car that is driven on a regular basis for my husband's commute to work and kept in the garage.
Intermittent stalls, sometimes in traffic or at busy intersection during normal operation and caused by discharged battery and/or poor battery charging
Car died in the middle lane of traffic and won't start. Tried jumping with our portable charge but that didn't work. Gives multiple errors from airbag to 12 volt battery to low beams.
The battery on my vehicle has died multiple times. It is only a year old but it has died while driving in the auto start/stop mode and after parked at work and in my garage. Today it was -25 degrees f and it completely died on me after being at work for 4 hours, which was incredibly dangerous. Also, more often than not, my auto start on my key fob doesn't work either.
I had 2 incidents when using the start-stop system. The first time was a couple of months back. I was driving to my work. When I stopped at a red light (very busy avenue at mathilda ave, sunnyvale with 4 lanes traffic in one way), when I tried to start, the car would not start. I had to restart the engine again to start the car. The second time, 12/2/2018 5:50pm. I was driving with my wife and two of our kids (one infant under 1). We stopped for the red light at the cross road of jackson st and meek ave, hayward (very busy intersection with 3 lanes traffic in one way). When I tried to start, the car completely stopped there and would not ignite at all. We had to call 911 immediately because the speed limit is very high and it put my family into a risk of being hit. The battery completely failed and I can not even put it to a n gear to push the car manually. We had to wait for the officers to come and helped to stop the traffic. The officer helped us to jump start the car and we were rescued. I can not imagine that what would happen if there were a hit accident. We were stucked there for more than 1 hour. Now that I am feeling very unsafe to drive this car again let alone that it put my whole family into a risk of being hit by running high speed traffic. The dealership service stated that the battery had low voltage reading at 62%, and battery defective was found. The battery was replaced 2 days after. I got the reply from vw custom care that the 2018 atlas should be good to drive without being returned or replaced. I feel that is unacceptable. From the manual of 2018 atlas, the start-stop system won't switch off the vehicle in case o the battery voltage is low. Why did the start-stop system shut down the car in case of a known low battery voltage at 62% ? *dt
Car automatic start/stop function frequently fails to restart engine. This has happened over ten times with two of those almost ending in me being rear ended at high speed. Dealer says battery is defective and replaced the battery but issue is happening again. No way to permanently disabled start/stop function. This is a safety hazard.
The random problems we are experiencing are electrical related issues. When unlocking the car with the fob the car sometimes does not adjust the seat based on the fob, nor does it recognize the satellite radio, the radio gets stuck on the am setting, etc. Other times the car engine shuts off but everythiing else is on just like the auto engine shut off feature. Something is wrong with this car. It drives fine and the issue is random but frequent. I don't know what else to say.I am an it professional and the only thing I can think of is that my atlas has some type of software/electrical bug. On sunday morning the radio was not working after I started the car. I had to shut off the car and radio several times in order for it to work. This happens regularly, very random. Always when turning on the car.
After stopping at a red light at the traffic the car would not restart, the battery of engine died.
The vehicle was purchased in november of 2017 and the battery cannot maintain it's charge. We have experienced a drained battery five times in the first year of ownership. The most recent occurrence happened on 12/2/2018.
My vehicle battery died after refueling. And I had to call for roadside assistance for a jump. Vehicle infotainment system showed 2 messages: 1) 12 volt battery low and recharge while driving 2) error start/stop system
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