2003 Volkswagen Jetta: adaptive cruise control problems

Filed Oct 12, 2011 · Electrical, Transmission · 170,000 miles · MI

Tl* the contact owns a 2003 volkswagen jetta wagon. The contact stated that the speedometer failed to provide an accurate speed traveled. The contact also stated that when the cruise control switch was activated, it would cause the vehicle to surge forward abnormally. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where they confirmed that the sensor in the transmission needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was not contacted and the vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 170,000 and the current mileage was 211,000. Updated 12/14/11 the consumer stated the transmission was exhibiting an intermittent hesitation. Updated 12/20/11.

Filed Oct 16, 2006 · Lights · 63,000 miles · IN

Driving on the highway at night I noticed that my cruise control was inoperative. I researched the problem when I got home on a vw related website and found out that this was most likely due to a brake light switch located under the driver near the brake pedal. When the brake light switch is not working it causes the cruise control to also stop working. What I also found out is that since this switch was broken all my brake lights were not functioning. There would have been no way for me to become aware that my brake lights were not functioning unless I had connected the problem by researching it online. This poses a serious safety risk for those who would not associate a cruise control problem with the brake switch and therefore be driving around unknowingly without brake lights and could cause an accident by not having the proper brake lights operational. Fortunately in my situation it did not result in a rear end collision. I understand that vwofa has issued a recall for 1999-2002 models and I have a 2003 jetta. It frustrates me that vw is not responsible enough to extend this warranty to later model years as the part has not changed. In my opinion they wait until they get enough complaints for the newer years before they authorize recalls for those years. (the 2004's will fail later and so on and so on). The part number that failed on my car is 1j0 945 511 c (on my car, but current part number is f revision). I hope that this complaint will get vwofa to be responsible for this serious safety related issue.

Filed Aug 23, 2004 · Transmission · 17,000 miles · ME

The transmission in my 2003 vw jetta has not worked right since the 1st week after I bought the car. It shifts inappropriatley and hesitates when pulling into on oncoming traffic. I have been nearly hit by cars and trucks on several occasions. When going up a hill the car seems to downshift or skip a gear, this is an automatic transmission. Going 75 miles an hour recently the car seemed to down shift and I thought the car was going to spin around in the road. I was on the trans canada highway. Very scary. When using the cruise control the car accelerates extremley fast. The car has been for transmission repair 6 or more times. Volkswagon is aware.

Filed May 7, 2004 · Acceleration, Brakes · KS · crash

When the brake pedal was depressed to disengage the cruise control brakes failed. This resulted in a rear end collision. The insurance was not able to prove that the failure was due to a malfunction in the brake mechanism.

Filed Mar 5, 2004 · Acceleration, Transmission · PA

My 2003 vw jetta constantly gets stuck in park longest time has been 45 minutes my car has been into service 3 times and is still rough coming out of park also my cruise control has never worked I only have 6000 miles.

Filed Aug 27, 2003 · Brakes · 10,900 miles · WA

I recently bought a brand new 2003 vw jetta tdi at the end of november. On the day of the incident my car first started losing power, I noticed the pick-up wasn't as good as normal, secondly I started noticing the heat gauge went up as my car started over heating, thirdly I was almost home going down the off-ramp and when I put my foot on the brake to stop, the brake made a popping noise and then the brake hit the floor. I pumped the brakes and put the car in nuetral and was able to stop, as I began driving the car would not pick up any power and it felt as if the car was pulling against itself, I could not even get my car to go above 15 miles an hour in second gear. I drove the rest of the way home in 2nd, and with no brakes. When I made it home I thought there was a fire under my car because of how hot it was, the smell of burning was awful and as I got out of my vehicle there were chunks of creamy grease dripping from my car. I called roadside asst. And had them come to my house and tow the vehicle to a local dealership (overturf volkswagen). After several days of trying to find what the problems was overturf decided they could not find a problem with my vehicle. My husband and I had to force them to look into the braking system. Overturf explained to us that what happened to me out on the highway was typical and not to be concerned, I knew differently and enforced the fact that they needed to check the braking system. After several hours of debating over the fact that the breaks didn't need checked, they test drove the car again and the car reinacted the problem. In the end, my brake booster and master cylinder had to be replaced. Luckily my car still is under warrenty, but the car only had 10,900 miles on it, something like the whole breaking system should not fail with as little as mileage as the car had. One week later the car gets picked up and the next day my cruise will not set. I now have another appointment to get my cruise control fixed.

Filed Jun 30, 2003 · Acceleration, Brakes · 10,000 miles · AL

June 24th, while I was driving my four month old 2003 jetta tdi on the the highway at a 70mph, the cruise control failed to engage. After the car had stopped and began moving again the cruise functioned properly. Two days later on june 26, 2003, while in lunch hour traffic-with a co-worker in the car the brakes automatically engaged by themselves at 40 MPH. We stopped on a dime and were almost rear ended. This occured over 10 times before we got back to the office (we were less than two miles away). Dealership is replacing brake booster and master cylinder and I have requested full warrenty on new brake system from volkswagen of america. This is a potentially serious flaw that could have eaisly caused bodily injury. I have yet to learn if there is a track record of the brakes failing on the 2003 designs but wanted to begin a documentation record.

Filed Sep 10, 2002 · Acceleration · CA

When activating cruise control vehicle will stay on cruise control and not turn off. Contacted dealer. *ak