2002 Volkswagen Passat: brake failure

Filed Dec 10, 2017 · Brakes · 75,000 miles · CA

I get an audio and visual alert on my dash stating to 'stop, brake failure' it has occurred many times while driving, turning, and parked with the car on. The car's brakes have never failed to brake appropriately. I brought the car into my mechanic. The obd 2 scan shows no faults and my mechanic says the brakes are fine and these cars are known to have a faulty electronic board which falsely alerts of a brake failure.

Filed Jan 30, 2015 · Brakes · 82,745 miles · MA

There is water in the brake vacuum booster. When it is cold it will freeze up an no brakes. This is the first year for this problem had car six years.I check the pleum drain an its clean. There should be a recall on this. The part is gno 8eo 612 105 j see this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcq42rabhik.

Filed Feb 11, 2014 · Brakes · 123,124 miles · VA

On a very cold day (below freezing) in january 2013 while driving down my long driveway with a 4% grade, the brakes failed to stop the car and the car entered the road. The road has a speed limit of 50 MPH and fortunately no car was on the highway or I could have been severely injured or killed. On subsequent warmer days the brakes worked fine. I took the car to the vw dealer in charlottesville, flow vw, where they found water in the booster pump and "removed cowl drains and vacuum water of the booster." this problem is cited in a vw service bulletin on the the federal safety agency website - p 9-66c8. The invoice did not mention installing an improved pollen filter seal as is described in the service bulletin. The dealer did not charge me for this repair when I complained that it was due a design flaw. This resolved the problem until this year when on another cold day below freezing the brakes again failed to stop the car when driving down my driveway. On subsequent warm days the brakes worked normally. I tested them again on a very cold day and they again failed. I took car back to the same vw dealer on a warm day and they told me there was water in the booster pump and I would have to replace the booster pump at a cost of about $800. When I complained that the problem was due to a design flaw as evidenced by reports of similar problems on websites including the federal safety agency?s website they eventually offered to lower the price to $500. I believe this is still too much to pay for what is clearly a very dangerous design flaw that allows water to get into the brake system and that the dealer had failed to really correct last year.

Filed Jan 21, 2014 · Brakes, Electrical · 128,800 miles · NJ

In august of 2013, while backing out of a driveway, I experienced a total loss of braking. After examining the car, I discovered that the plenum that holds the battery and brake booster was nearly filled with rain water. It was necessary for me to remove one of the duck-billed drain plugs in the plenum as all were clogged with debris, preventing water from draining out. The flooded plenum appears to have resulted in water being drawn through the vacuum lines when attempting to brake. This, in turn, caused a significant amount of water to be drawn into the crankcase. Water was also drawn into the cylinders resulting in misfiring. After removing at least one drain plug in the plenum for proper drainage, and double flushing the contaminated oil in the crankcase, I experienced no further braking problems until freezing weather in november 2013. In november, while braking near the bottom of a hill, I again experienced a hard pedal with no depression and almost no braking ability, resulting in the car going into the intersection before fully stopping. The car was towed to the volkswagen dealership for repair. Two weeks later, there was again the symptom of a hard pedal? With no depression and near loss of all braking. The car was again returned to the volkswagen dealership for repair. This time, the vacuum booster, the vacuum pipes, and their related items were replaced. As noted in the dealership invoice, evidence of water was found in the replaced vacuum booster. The dealership acknowledged that the plenum had a significant high-water pollen line, indicating flooding of the plenum. It was believed by their service department staff that the brake failures in november and december 2013 were likely the result of residual water freezing in the vacuum booster, causing the booster to be inoperative. Also, the ignition coils were replaced. Updated 01/30/14 the consumer stated the insufficient fix during the 2008 campaign did not resolve the problem. It allowed for continued flooding of the plenum compartment a

Filed Jan 26, 2013 · Brakes · 110,897 miles · NJ

Cel 17887 brake booster failure. This causes a complete brake failure. Hard pedal and vehicle would not come to a stop. After doing research I found out this is a common occurrence with this make/model/year vehicle. The cause of the problem is the brake booster fills with fluid and/or debris causing loss of air pressure. The brake booster can not function without this pressure causing brake failure. I took the vehicle to a mechanic at a reputable dealer and they vacuumed out approximately 1 1/2 gallons of dirty looking water. There is still more inside the part however it is frozen due to single digit temperatures outside. After a thorough inspection of all clamps, hoses and other parts the mechanic assured me there are no cracked hoses, loose or broken clamps (no explanation as to why the booster is filling with fluid or how to prevent it from happening again). The mechanic states the fluid/debris build up inside of the booster. The cel has been reset and the problem has not recurred (yet). This is my 18 year old son's car and every day he drives the vehicle I fear this will happen again since there was no explanation for the occurrence the first time. Reports I have read from other owners state they have had the same problem on this model year. Why isn't vw being held accountable for this malfunction?

Filed Jul 18, 2010 · Brakes · 25,000 miles · MA

This complaint is related to the federal safety agency action number pe 07018. My 2002 vw passat experienced a complete transmission control module (TCM) failure in mid 2009. Water had gotten into the passenger compartment and disabled all its functions, including brakes, transmission and engine. It included sudden, unpredictable surging when the gas pedal was depressed. This occurred in a parking lot and there were no injuries. Vw repaired the car at their expense. Several months later, in very cold weather, there was complete loss of brakes and the car rolled down a driveway, across a busy street into a wall. Again there was no bodily injury and minor crash damage. Vw diagnosed the problem as water (ice) in the brake booster and repaired the car at my expense. Vw refused a request for an adjustment claiming that this event was unrelated to the first one. Last month, vw sent me an update notice for revised maintenance of the water drains and plenum chamber, as originally described in their service bulletin of nov. 2007. I consider this a serious and potentially life threatening safety issue and request that the federal safety agency take appropriate action.

Filed May 19, 2009 · Brakes · VA

Got in my car one morning and the brake felt like there was gravel in the shaft-very hard and choppy feeling when depressing the pedal. Backed out of driveway and noticed a vapor cloud behind my car but thought it was due to high humidity in air. When I tried to stop the car at the corner the brakes didn't work quite right but the car did stop. Went a little further and applied the brakes to make a turn and my care started shuttering and lots of white smoke came out the back -actually almost enveloped my car so I had a hard time making the turn due to poor visibility and the cars vibrations. Again the brakes did not respond correctly but luckily was able to pull over without hitting anything. I sat there trying to evaluate the problem by pumping the brakes and every time I did so the car shook violently and huge clouds of smoke enveloped the car. I had it towed to the dealers and they called to say that it was not under warranty and charged me over $700 to fix. I also had them do the p9 recall repair at that time. I drove the car for less than a week and then had a repeat of the same problem! This time the brakes actually failed twice before I could get back to the house. I had the same thick white smoke and the car was shaking violently whenever I pressed down on the brakes. Again had car towed to shop. They are now fixing as part of the warranty to the brake booster issue as they found new leaves clogging the brake booster lines and found total failure of that part. The vw service rep said several gallons of water came out of my engine when they removed the debris. Their solution was to drill a huge hole to allow the leaves and water to drain away from the brakes! Luckily, we borrowed my brother's van two days before to bring my daughter back from college (located in lynchburg, va which is in the mountains or we may had the brakes fail and gone off a cliff!) please do something about this-- it is totally unsafe and unethical!

Filed Dec 7, 2008 · Brakes · 26,000 miles · WI

Spring 2008, experienced water in cabin due to faulty seals/drainage. Winter 2008, experienced brake failure related to previous water intrusion.

Filed Jun 27, 2008 · Brakes · 21,000 miles · NY · fire

Tl*the contact owns a 2002 volkswagen passat. In 2007, the contact stated that water would drain into the motor during heavy rains, and cause the brakes to fail. The dealer discovered that water was entering the brake line, but never informed the contact of a recall. Instead, the dealer repaired the brake system and stated that it was a courtesy from volkswagen. After the repair, the failure recurred and the brakes failed while driving 30 MPH. The contact noticed thick, white smoke coming from the exhaust pipe. She had to strike the wheel against the curb in order to stop the vehicle. The following day, she took the vehicle to the dealer and they made repairs again. The failure mileage was 21,000.

Filed Dec 12, 2007 · Brakes · PA

1) both failures occurred in wet conditions --- once in pouring rain after the car had been driven for a while, and once during the first drive on a cold morning (just below freezing) after an inch or two of snow. 2) in both cases, the brake pedal moved only a little (an inch or two perhaps?) and then became very hard, not moving any further with additional pushing, and providing very little braking power (perhaps 5% of normal braking?). Fortunately both incidents occurred at relatively low speed, and the hand brake was not affected. In both cases, the brakes worked normally again by the time we had organized ourselves to take the car in for service --- both times, this was days later (though we had not driven the car); in the second incident, we left the car on the street overnight before putting it in our driveway the next morning, and the brakes were still not working at that time. 3) in the first incident (occuring in august '07?), we took the vehicle in for service at a service station, learned of a vw recall involving water leaking that could affect the brakes and leak water into the passenger compartment (which was also happening during heavy rain), and then took the car to the dealership (piazza acura/vw of ardmore, pa) for service --- they repaired the leak problem and cleaned the interior, but I am not sure whether they did anything about the brakes (we may not have mentioned this specifically to them, since it was mentioned in the recall). The car seemed fine afterward. After the second incident (on 12/6/07), we are once again having the car checked out at our regular service station (we have been impressed by their diagnostic skills in the past). So far they have not identified any brake problem, and we plan to take the car to the dealership next if our regular station mechanics cannot find a problem that would explain the brake failure.

Filed Nov 5, 2007 · Brakes · 25,359 miles · CA

Tl*the contact owns a 2002 volkswagen passat. The rear brake pads wear out every 15,000 miles, which is about four times faster than a normal vehicle. This is unexpected on a vehicle with such low mileage and could cause brake failure. In february of 2006, at 25,359 miles, the dealer informed the contact of this possibility. He notified the manufacturer and they denied any knowledge of the failure. The current mileage was 39,722 and failure mileage was 25,359.

Filed Feb 2, 2007 · Brakes · MA · crash

2002 vw passat with total brake failure customer is requesting compensation for repair work to car and house**nar**cc it was discovered the brake booster assembly, which was supposed to be vacuum-sealed had 1 quart of water in it. The mechanic stated that due to the cold night, the assembly froze up, and when the consumers wife started to pull the vehicle into the garage to warm it up, the brake system failed.