2002 Volkswagen Passat acceleration problems

Filed Dec 15, 2014 · Acceleration, Electrical · 125,000 miles · CA

I was driving the car about 30 minutes prior to incident traveling at approximately 45 MPH with my child in the car and without warning of any kind my car shuts off and I almost got rear ended . I was able to coast to the side of the road put the vehicle in park tried starting the vehicle and it started right away . I drove vehicle home without incident . I took the vehicle to a mechanic and they couldn't find a problem no engine codes where present . I drove the vehicle for a week and this same scenario played out again I wasn't driving the car any further at this point because again I had my child in the car and again also got rear ended . Had it towed to a different mechanic and they to were unable to find any engine codes or problems . I had my boyfriend drive the car home and it stalled on him at a red light . Car wouldn't restart so he had to push the vehicle across a lane of traffic to the shoulder of the road . When the car cooled down for 2 hours it restarted and drove fine no check engine light or codes present .. After a month of headaches with the car we discovers it was a faulty engine speed sensor this is a very dangerous part to fail without warning leaving the car powerless if this happened on the freeway I wouldn't have been so lucky I imagine.

Filed May 24, 2012 · Acceleration · 113,000 miles · CO

While accelerating to pass another car, I fully depressed the gas pedal and upon releasing it, noticed it was stuck in the fully depressed position. Upon putting the car in neutral and hitting the gas pedal while it was it the stuck position, it became dislodged and was functional again. This is the second time this has happened to my car while driving it, the first time being in mid-november 2011. When the car is off and in park I am now able to recreate the pedal getting stuck, as it gets stuck about 25% of the time when fully depressed. I have not yet had a mechanic look at the pedal.

Filed Jul 6, 2010 · Acceleration · 154,450 miles · CO

My 2002 w-8 passat four times this weekend would not disengage the cruise control when stepping on the brake. The brake feels very solid and cannot be depressed until a very quick & hard quick pressure is put on it about 3-4 times. I noticed after that incident (frightening) that it does not happen going down hill, only uphill or even a slight incline.

Filed Feb 18, 2010 · Acceleration, Electrical · 55,000 miles · RI

2002 passat wagon, automatic transmission, accelerator pedal became stuck while getting on highway during a cold morning. Brakes were non-responsive even when car was put into neutral. Car continued to accelerate, driver put car into a lower gear which slowed down the car a bit and finally put the transmission in "park". This caused the car to eventually stop. To get off the highway, driver slowly drove off onto the exit ramp after calling 911 and being advised to get off the highway which had no shoulder. After that the car and brakes appeared to function normally. The next morning car would not start due to the battery being drained and was towed to vw mechanic. After being inspected for 2 days the mechanic did not find anything wrong with the accelerator or the breaks and there was no evidence that the pedal got stuck on the floor mat. No error codes were found on car's computer. We had had no prior problems with the car other than a dash message indicating a break fault would occasionally light up on cold wet days. The vw mechanic could never find anything wrong with the breaks after repeated visits and attributed the message to a computer glitch. After the incident with the accelerator we traded the car in for a new one of a different make since we did not feel safe driving it, despite assurances that nothing unusual was found with the car.

Filed Feb 3, 2010 · Acceleration · MD

My wife told me last night that there have been 2 cases over the years with her 2002.5 vw passat where her gas pedal also stuck and her car accelerated to 80mph+ on nj rt 1 before she put it into neutral. She remembers that it happened on very cold mornings. Is it possible that vw uses a similar design to toyota in these cars?

Filed Feb 2, 2010 · Acceleration · 80,000 miles · NJ

Approximately 2 years ago, or slightly less, I was driving my wife's 2002 vw passat when the car began to accelerate without apparent cause and we could not stop the acceleration. I turned the ignition key off, and leaving the car in park, re-started it, only to observe the engine again racing. We eventually figured out that the floor mat was the cause of the problem and removed it. My wife sometime later replaced the mat and had no recurrence, but when I drove the car, it happened twice more before we permanently removed the mat. As we had no further problem, we thought no more of the issue, but with the recent publicity over similar situations which resulted in serious crashes and loss of life, we decided it was best to report this series of events.

Filed Jul 29, 2009 · Acceleration, Electrical · 500 miles · VA

Tl*the contact owns a 2002 volkswagen passat. The contact stated that her vehicle was a lemon when she purchased it in 2002. Water enters the vehicle from the sun roof whenever it rains. She received a recall notice, but the vehicle was not repaired according to the recall. The vehicle was taken to the dealer more than fifteen times, but it has never been repaired. The failure mileage was 500 miles. Updated 8/24/09 *cn the consumer was told the water leak was coming from the after market speaker. The headlight tail light and fog light bulbs were replaced. The check engine light illuminated and the coolant bottle had a hairline crack. The heat in the vehicle was not working properly. The technician discovered the heater core had a blockage. The water pump was leaking. Both outer cv boots were replaced. There was a large evap leak at the purge valve which was replaced. The cruise control light was on. The right side valve cover gasket was leaking oil and the alternator was replaced. Updated 08/26/09.

Filed May 2, 2007 · Acceleration, Lights · 67,707 miles · CA

Brake switch light failure. My first indication of failure was the brake lights remained on after shutting down the car. I pumped the pedal and this extinguished the light. The car continued to operate normally for another 500 miles until I noticed the cruise control was out. I then noticed the brake lights were not operating at all. After researching the problem I found that this is a common problem with vw's. To my surprise though the passat which uses the same switch other vws have been recalled on has no recall yet. This switch is a very dangerous switch as it disables the brake lights providing no warning to another driver behind the car.

Filed Mar 16, 2005 · Acceleration · 52,000 miles · PA

When accerating from a dead stop the vehicle has a delay before taking off. Consumer was concerned that he will be rear ended because of this.

Filed Nov 30, 2004 · Acceleration, Body · SC

There were numerous problems with this vehicle. The filter and carpet on the back passenger side was replaced. The mlp light had come on and the dealer installed a new vacuum hose. The radio did not work, standing water was found in the back right side of the vehicle under the front seat, the pollen filter was clogged and the air pollen filter was cracked due to the factory, the back door locks refused to open and could not be opened from the inside or out, a bumping noise was heard coming from under the vehicle, the engine revved, the vehicle lurched forward and accelerated at rapid speed all while the brakes were pumped with no response. The vehicle hit a curb doing over 50 MPH all while pumping the brakes until it finally stopped 20-30 yards into a field damaging tires, rims and the bumper. *sc