This morning on the way to work, I experienced shaking and hesitation upon accelerating. I turned around and went back home and immediately got the car into the dealer. I was told that the number 2 ignition coil was failing, which was causing the problem. I looked up the problem and found this link: http://www.vwproblems.com/trends/ignition-coil/ which specifically instructs to contact you to file the complaint. I bought the car on 9/30/2011 brand new. I am not sure the life of the ignition switches, but the car is technically out of warranty, and repairs are being filed under my extended warranty.
2012 Volkswagen GTI engine complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 13 of 13, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Within seconds of starting, the engine stalls (making a sputtering sound) and dies. This seems to happen on warm starts, not hot, not cold. I'm typically able to move the car (only a few feet) before the stall out occurs. The temperature gage seems to be around the 11 o' clock mark when this occurs. Specifically, it's happened after driving the car for 20-40 minutes, then letting the car sit for 1-2 hours. The car starts up again and runs anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour after the incident - closer to the 30 minute mark, pressing the accelerator seems to help the car from stalling. It is difficult to duplicate this behavior, there are no warning lights indicating what the issue may be, and it seems that there is either no fault code generated by the electrical system or it is being erased periodically. This has made it difficult to have the issue diagnosed and repaired by dealer service centers. This is very dangerous, considering it may cause the car to stop in traffic leading to an increased risk of crash. This is not an isolated report, there are other complaints on this site and on several vw forums posted online (these accounts include several videos that confirm this is a consistently experienced problem). Potential issues commonly identified include the fuel pump, fuel filter, or the fuel pump control module. Another vw vehicle - vw tiguan, model year 2007-2014, has been recalled for a similar issue attributed to the electronic control module (ECM) of the vehicle.
Vehicle is a manual 6 speed. Two incidents - first, the car wouldn't engage into reverse from a stop until the vehicle ignition was turned off and on several times. Car operated normally for about 2 weeks. Second incident, car wouldn't engage into any gear while moving 10-15 MPH uphill while in first gear. During loss of power train, the engine revved in the 4000-5000 RPM range, smoke was visibly coming out of the engine bay and there was complete loss of brakes, including the emergency brake. The vehicle started to roll backward downhill and was stopped by turning the vehicle into the sidewalk. Towed the vehicle to boardwalk vw in redwood city, ca and the service personnel and tow truck driver witnessed that the vehicle's reverse power train was not engaging properly. After 2 days of diagnostics, the technicians were not able to replicate the issue and concluded that the vehicle was operating within manufacturer specifications. No repair was formally performed.
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