My spring clock broke on my vehicle. I can hear a clicking noise coming from the steering wheel as I turn. I airbag indicator light went on, my horn and controls on the steering wheel no longer work. It is a frightening feeling knowing that the airbags may deploy at anytime or not at all in an accident. Looking online to research the cost in replacing this piece, I have found that it is a very common problem.
2012 Volkswagen Passat steering complaints
Page 3 of 3: complaints 41 to 46 of 46, newest first, as owners wrote them.
Clicking noise started inside steering wheel. Turning all the way to the right popping noise with airbag error message. Now no hands free controls, horn. ...updated 03-11-15 *bf updated 6/18/2015
No accident. A premature failure of part 39462 - electric defective steering column control module which controls airbags, horn and other items in the steering column.
Upon pulling out of my driveway and turning the steering wheel there was a cracking noise and then the air bag light went off with an airbag error. At which point all mechanisms within the steering wheel stopped working. After taking the car to the dealership it was determined that the steering wheel clock spring broke, because of this the airbag, horn and other steering wheel mechanisms are not functional without repair. Further research online shows that this has consistently broken on other 2012 volkswagen passat between 50k and 60k miles on it. I further addressed my concern with volkswagen customer cares to ask why there has not been a recall on this part, they indicated that not enough customers have submitted claims. Because this fails/breaks at this mileage it is outside the standard warranty, there is "nothing they can do about it." I requested to speak to a manager multiple times, and was told I would have to wait 24 hours. It's unfortunate that volkswagen doesn't care about the safety of their customers, and has not addressed this problem with a recall.
When I started my car, a loud strange noise came from the steering wheel. The controls on my steering wheel would no longer work, and a warning light came on for my airbag. As my husband drove us home, I searched the owner's manual for the airbag warning light. The error message is to warn the driver that the airbag is not working properly and may not deploy as it should or may deploy when it's not supposed to. The owner's manual did not warn of an accident, but I'm pretty sure the airbag deploying unexpectedly would probably cause a car accident. My husband took my car in to the mckinney, tx vw dealership first thing the next morning. They said the clock spring had malfunctioned. They replaced this part, but my steering wheel still makes a clicking sound when turning. This is the same sound we heard while we drove home the night before with the warning light on. I returned to the dealership and was informed the clock spring was defective. They replaced the clock spring again, but I again heard the same clicking noise when turning. When I returned to the dealership a third time, I was told that all of the passats make this noise, and that there is nothing wrong. My steering did not make noise the first 40,000 miles I put on the car, so I'm worried there is a defect with this part. I bought this car brand new. I found online that a lot of other passat owners have this same complaint, and many of them had clock springs replaced because they were told they were defective as well. With so many defective parts, this seems worthy of a recall since the airbag could deploy without warning causing a major accident.
Car has constant pull to the right. Driving requires constant pressure to the left on steering wheel. Car has been to dealer 4 times for alignment and although they adjust it, right pull persists. Sometimes, steering has a feel as though car is erratic. Car never settles into tacking in a straight line which seems very odd and potentially dangerous. Apparently this is a common issue and volkswagen cannot rectify the problem.
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