While driving home on friday january 6 at around 230pm, my vw jetta wagon's driver's side seat heater, set on "4," overheated and ignited the seat material, which burned through and began to burn my pants. Smoke began to fill the cabin; luckily I was only a few blocks away from home. When the smoke began, I smelled a plastic burning smell, and veered sharply off the road, thinking the car might burn. I shut off the seat heater control, then drove to my home, one block away. I shut off the car, got a fire extinguisher from inside, then returned to the car. The smoke had just about stopped; a dime-sized burned hole was in my seat, as well as a slight browned area on my pants. I have made an appointment with the dealer to have it looked at, and have filed a case with vw of america case # [xxx]. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u.s.c. 552(b)(6).
2004 Volkswagen Jetta seats complaints
Page 2 of 2: complaints 11 to 22 of 22, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Tl*the contact owns a 2004 volkswagen jetta gls (na). The contact stated that while driving 25 MPH, the driver side heated seat caught fire. The contact turned the seat warmer off. The vehicle was taken to a repair shop but there were no codes produced for the failure. The contact called the manufacturer who advised her to take the vehicle to the dealer for inspection and took a complaint. The vehicle was not repaired. The failure mileage was 150,000.
The driver's side heated seat in our 2004 vw jetta tdi became extremely hot near the driver's right thigh and there was a electrical burning smell in the car. My wife, who was driving at the time, had a minor surface burn as a result. Fortunately, she was wearing jeans, which prevented it from being worse.
Noticed drivers heated seat was very hot on left thigh. Yesterday I smelled smoke, and put my hand under my leg. Burned hand. Turned off heated seat and pulled over. Noticed a burn on fabric.
Heated seat burned. Electrical burning smell and extreme hot spot on upper right thigh.
I smelled a burning or foul-smelling chemical odor after driving for 01 minute and noticed that my seat was so hot that it burned my hand when I touched it. I then smelled smoke and I immediately switched off the driver side seat heater. After stopping, I noticed that the seat appeared burned in a roughly circular patch that looked similar to a cigarette burn. The foul odor has persisted even with the seat heater off after the incident. The incident happened on 16 dec 2008. This is the first time the incident has occurred.
About two months ago I had a dealer replace the switch for the heated seat in my 2004 vw jetta which had become inoperable. The seat is not used that much, let alone the heated portion. This past sunday I was driving home with my wife in the passenger seat with the heated seat turned on. After about two minutes my wife noticed what felt like a pinching sensation on her leg. She put her hand under her leg and was quickly burned on her hand, and at that time we could smell something burning. The burning stopped after turning the switch off, but a clear burn mark was left in the seat. I have taken the car to the dealer and was told that they did infact have a recall for the replacement of the switch but not for a short in the seat which is what this was. The total estimate that I have received to repair the seat was about $900.
Seat warmer on driver's seat in 2004 vw jetta wagon overheated until it felt like it was going to catch on fire. Velour seats show impression of heating element. I noticed for about a month that it was very hot and the last time I used it I noticed a smell. I turned it off immediately and had it disconnected by a mechanic to prevent a fire.
Our 2004 vw jetta 1.8t has had numerous problems from a clicking/popping noise in the front end at approxmiately 10,000 miles, to the transmission locking up while operating vehicle. The clutch/disc went completely out at 15,000 miles. All the interior and exterior lights went out as my wife was driving in the dark on a non lit back road to work, transmission locked up between 3rd and 4th gears, transmission still slipping, back door locks do not un-lock when remote is activated, service department has re-torqued everything on vehicle but this has not made problems go away. Since may 2005, the service department at local vw dealership has had my car fora total of 62 days for service and it is still not fixed. Problems continue to mount and the dealership for the most part states "that they cannot replicate the problem." the dealership replaced all the wheel bearings in the front of the vehicle and this did not stop the clicking/popping noise, they replaced the clutch disc this did not clear up the problem, the electrical problem could not be replicated per dealership, the engine continues to have a whistling noise, transmission continues to slip. The driver's side leather seat has the seams pooping loose and a part of the frame is pushing through the leather. Trunk latch has been replaced 2 times. Dealership states car is safe to operate, I beg to differ!
My wife just pulled into the garage after a short trip to the store. When she backed in smoke and flames came from the seat heater control (seat heater was off at the time). This could have been very serious if we had been driving at the time!
2004 vw jetta wagon, tdi: velour heated turned on, after driving less than 1/2 mile,heated seat burned approx 1" hole from the inside out. Smoke, flames observed. Seat turned off to contain fire. Car taken to vw dealer to assess. Parts on back order. Waiting for parts to be available. Should be factory recall because of concern of other heated seat possible malfunction and potentially a life threatening situation if occurred at high speeds.
While driving my 2003 1.8t volkswagen jetta, the seat heater on the driver side malfunctioned. I felt a very small point of pain in my leg, but didn't really notice it until I started to smell smoke. I immediately shut off the seat heater (which was on a setting of 3 out of 5 initially), pulled the car over to a parking lot, got out, and fortunately nothing caught fire. I brought the car in to my dealer (trend motors in rockaway, nj), who promptly fixed the problem, and have ordered a new seat cover to replace the one damaged by the malfunction. The car was covered under warranty at the time of the problem, which occured on november 4, 2004.
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