2010 Volkswagen Passat: check engine light

Filed Mar 14, 2026 · Electrical, Fuel system · FL

My 2010 Volkswagen CC became completely inoperable because of the active fuel pump control module recall (the federal safety agency 17V509). The vehicle stalled and nearly caused an accident. The check engine light came on just before I noticed a burning smell coming from the backseat of my car immediately after smelling that the car suddenly stalled out in the middle of a busy intersection and the engine would not start back up. I had to push it to a gas station parking lot across 3 lanes of traffic. I lifted up the backseat and found that the fuel control module was overheated and melting on top of the fuel pump so I carefully and properly disconnected it from the vehicle. The next day I had the vehicle towed to Lokey Volkswagen in Clearwater, FL. Today 3/14/2026 They did the recall repair and told me my vehicle is safe to drive. Today 3/14/2026 I drove the car 1 mile from the dealership when the exact same thing happened again the car stalled out, and I had to carefully maneuver to the shoulder of hwy us 19 s narrowly missing vehicles in the other lanes. The vehicle was then towed back to lokey Volkswagen. It is pretty clear that the issue was not resolved, and that this fuel control module failing may have affected other parts of the fuel system/wiring and or the fuel control module failed again. I have pictures of the fuel control module, and I gave the initial melted/failed fuel control module to the service department and they took it. The dealership service department is stating that this may be to do something other than the recall repair and that I may be liable for the diagnostic and towing charges. This is a very serious safety issue that almost cost me to get in accidents on the highway twice. I feel that they (Volkswagen) needs to be held responsible for rectification and to find out if there is a connection between this recall and the continuing failure of the vehicle to operate safely.

Filed Mar 25, 2024 · Engine, Fuel system · 148,000 miles · MD

The contact owns a 2010 Volkswagen Passat. The contact stated while driving at various speeds, there was a strong fuel odor inside and outside the vehicle. The contact stated that the failure persisted while the vehicle was parked and turned off. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The contact stated that the strong fuel odor had caused her to have headaches while driving. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, where it was diagnosed that the fuel pump module had failed, causing the fuel pump to leak. Additionally, the contact stated that the vehicle had failed to start and was undrivable. The dealer was notified of the failure and advised the contact to bring the vehicle to their location for the repairs. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and informed the contact that they could not assist because the federal safety agency Campaign Number: 17V509000 (Fuel System, Gasoline) had already been completed on the vehicle. The failure mileage was approximately 148,000.

Filed Jan 24, 2024 · Fuel system · 61,000 miles · FL

The contact owns a 2010 Volkswagen Passat. The contact stated that while her son was driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle inadvertently lost motive power. The driver was able to coast to the shoulder of the roadway, where the vehicle was able to be restarted. The check engine warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, who diagnosed a failure with the thermostat. The vehicle was repaired. After investigating the failure, the contact related the failure to the federal safety agency Campaign Number: 17V509000 (Fuel System, Gasoline) but the VIN was not included. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 61,000.

Filed Feb 5, 2021 · Acceleration, Engine · 108 miles · UT

108k miles. Got off of work and I went to start the vehicle. I started the vehicle the battery light started to flash and the check engine light came on and started flashing I just did a quick loop and put it right back into the parking spot that I was in. I took it into a shop they found that the starter was getting way too hot. They took the starter out and put in a new one and when they went to start the vehicle the engine seized

Filed Jun 17, 2020 · Engine · 111,000 miles · VA

My volkswagen passat has fallen to an issue many others have fallen. It appears the timing-chain tensioner failed causing the timing-chain to jump. When this happens the valves can bend and also ruin the cylinders. The error code is p0016. Vw west broad is recommending a repair of $5,100 dollars. After discussing with vw of america they will not cover as it is outside of their extended warranty 100,000 miles or december of 2019. My car is approximately 111k miles and 6 months past the date. I was not made aware of this issue so I could not be proactive in fixing the tensioner. They even redesigned the timing-chain tensioner because the old one is faulty. I am lucky I was able to make it home from my day trip this past weekend and that the issue did not take place while driving. I was in a parking lot on top of a mountain. It took 4 or so seconds to start which was abnormal, but proceeded to run. The check engine light came on, but I was able to proceed home. Several days later I tried starting the car to bring to the shop, but it no longer starts and I had to get it towed. At this point, I am prepared to send it to the junk yard because the cost of the repair is beyond the value of the vehicle. More information about this issue can be found at this litigation website where they settled. Https://www.timingchainlitigation.com/

Filed Jan 24, 2019 · Engine · 102,251 miles · PA

Service engine notification came on in late december. I called the dealership for an appointment. The person who answered told me my vehicle didn't need a 100k check up but it was due for an oil change and I could just walk in without an appointment. I walked in a few days later and they told me I needed an appointment for the oil change. I just had it at the dealership for an inspection and recall in october; the guy waiting on me wondered why they didn't do the oil change and 100k check up then. I couldn't get an appointment until after the holidays. I dropped it off january 2. January 3 at 3:30 pm I got a text stating they needed to keep it until the next day to figure everything out. I picked it up on the 4th. After driving straight home and locally, not more than 10 miles, the engine light started flickering and I parked it at home. It was a saturday. I tried to get in touch with someone but no one responded until monday. They told me to bring it back in. I called aaa; they sent a tow truck; he tried to start it to get it out of the driveway but it wouldn't turn over; I had it towed. They told me it was the timing chain and it would be over $5,000 to fix it.

Filed Feb 16, 2017 · Engine · 73,000 miles · IA

Tl* the contact owns a 2010 volkswagen passat. The contact stated that the check engine indicator illuminated. The dealer diagnosed that the engine was failing, which required the engine to be replaced. The manufacturer was not notified of the issue. The failure mileage was 73,000.

Filed Jul 11, 2016 · Engine, Transmission · 45 miles · MN

While driving home (approx 50 mile trip) I heard a loud screeching noise from the engine area. I was traveling on a highway at about 60mpg. I pulled over, turned off the car and saw smoke and smelled burning from under the hood. I opened the hood and smoke billowed out of the back of the engine bay. I looked under the car to see if it was leaking anything and found a large amount of what seemed to be oil dripping from the car. I then noticed a trail of oil from before I stopped the car. I left the car in place for a tow to not damage the vehicle anymore than it already was. It was towed to the vw dealership in town where they diagnosed the problem is that the pcv valve stopped working correctly, which caused the rear main seal to fail and become completely destroyed. They said that the entire engine needs to be taken out to replace the seal and is going to cost $1700. Vehicle did not have any indication of problems before the screeching noise and did not have any check engine light come on during the problem. Vehicle has just over 100,000 miles and vw of america denied to help out in anyway when contacting customer service. Another incident with exact same issue was found when I looked at open claims on the federal safety agency and many other claims are easily found with a simple google search. I have had all maintenance performed on time and at vw dealerships and was never advised to get the pcv replaced as normal maintenance.

Filed Jul 28, 2015 · Fuel system · 93,525 miles · SC

My car stalled as I was starting to accelerate through a busy intersection on the way to work and caused an oncoming car to lock up his tires and swerved to avoid hitting me. The car would restart but not run enough to clear intersection for 10-12 attempts. After clearing intersection I was able to park car and leave it for rest of day. When returning to car it started and ran fine on the way home from work. I continued to drive the car for next 2 days with same failures happening only 1 time a day but not at same time or place with no warning or check engine light. On 3rd day a check engine light occurred and upon reading with obd ii computer is was p2293 fuel pressure regulator 2 performance error. I have since taken the vehicle to the vw shop and they are stating I have a bad electric fuel pump issue in the tank and need to replace it along with the control module at a cost of $900. In addition they are saying my rear main engine seal needs to be replace at a cost of $1600 although not related to stalling issue. They fuel pump I have found very similar issues described on internet with similar years and it is a safety issue. It should be a warranty recall not a user responsible issue. I work for a large global automotive supplier to and no that this failure not acceptable for vw and definitely should not be for its consumers. I called vw customer care and they said they will not do anything for the cost of either repair since it is out of warranty. This will likely be the last vw I will every purchase.

Filed Mar 25, 2015 · Engine · 88,898 miles · CA

While traveling downhill, the engine increased to 400 rpms while traveling at 15-25 MPH. I then returned home. The engine light never came on; however, the d (drive) light began flashing, and I realized that the car was in limp mode. It was towed to the dealer, which had serviced the car every 10,000 miles, (and had actually replaced the turbo recirculation valve at 39,637 miles as a result of my concern that there was a burning smell while driving). Roseville volkswagen diagnosed the current problem as being the multi-clutch assembly, as well as a faulty intake manifold. The intake manifold is covered by a voluntary extended warranty; however, the multi-clutch assembly is not covered in 2010 sedans. It appears that volkswagen did extend the warranty on 2007-2009 models for the multi-clutch assembly; and it appears from several threads (vwvortex.com, forums.tdiclub.com, myturbodiesel.com, vweosclub.com) that the multi-clutch assembly continues to be a problem in 2010 models. Volkswagen of america is taking no responsibility to extend my warranty, which expired at 85,000 miles. I am concerned because the check engine light never appeared, and this could have happened while driving on a freeway, instead of on a street near home. Additionally, this problem may have begun approximately 20,000+ miles ago, as I again smelled a burning smell at that time, and was told by the dealer to ignore it, as it was probably a plastic bag that was burning on the engine. However, the smell lasted for several months, and I now realize from reading the threads that this was probably the beginning of the problem with the multi-clutch assembly.