Volkswagen Passat brake failure problems

Filed Feb 24, 2026 · Fuel system · 115,000 miles · TX

The contact owns a 2016 Volkswagen Passat. The contact stated that while driving at 40 MPH, there was a strong gasoline odor inside the cabin. The contact immediately pulled over and exited the vehicle to inspect for visible fuel leaks, but found no leaks. While attempting to restart the vehicle, the vehicle failed to start. While driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle jerked and stalled repeatedly. Additionally, the brakes failed to function properly, preventing the vehicle from stopping as needed. The vehicle was driven to an independent mechanic to be diagnosed. The independent mechanic associated the failure with the federal safety agency Campaign Number: 16V403000 (FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE); however, the VIN was not included in the recall. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 115,000.

Filed Jan 26, 2021 · Brakes, Driver assistance · 40,235 miles · MD · crash · 1 injury

I am at the burger king drive thru jan 23, 2021, there are a few cars ahead of me. I sit at driver thru with foot on the brake about 3 to 5 minutes, when the car in front of me moves closer to pick up his food, I let off of the brake and drift forward as I get closer to car in front of me , I press the brake and the pedal goes all the way to the floor. I press harder and my car bangs directly into the back of a 2015 camara that has been garaged kept and has only 3,000 miles on it. I give the driver my phone number. Very minor damage to his car and only damage my license plate area. I pulled my car into the parking lot , turned off ignition, I then started pumping my brakes and eventually the brakes felt much stiffer after about 15 pumps of the brake pedal . One week prior to this , I took my car to the vw dealership for oil change and specifically asked for them to check my brakes and tires. I was told when I picked up my car that tires should be replace in about 5,000 more miles,but my brakes were fine. My car just passed 40,000 miles on the odometer 2 days after the oil change. Yesterday jan 25 ,2021 , I took the car to vw dealership explaining what had happened, today is jan 26 they kept the car over night waiting to hear back from specialist from vw. Meanwhile I searched internet for info. That is when I reached this site. Also my forward collision should have come before I made contact with the car I hit at burger king. I seriously don't want anything to do with this vehicle anymore. I don't trust it. I also injured my leg pressing so hard on the brake pedal.

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 Dec 1, 2017 · Brakes, Electrical · 172,000 miles · GA

Tl* the contact owns a 2003 volkswagen passat. While driving 45 MPH, the vehicle jerked and stalled. The vehicle inadvertently shifted in reverse and the brakes stopped working. The contact had to apply the parking brake. The contact mentioned that the gear shifter was stuck in park. Also, the check engine, tire pressure, and epc indicators illuminated. The vehicle was taken to heritage volkswagen of south atlanta at (678) 263-3711 (4305 jonesboro rd, union city, ga 30291) where it was diagnosed that the ignition control module needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired; however, the failure recurred. The manufacturer was notified of the failure and confirmed that there were no recalls associated with the VIN. The contact was advised to call the federal safety agency. The approximate failure mileage was 172,000.

Filed Aug 6, 2016 · Brakes, Engine · 8,932 miles · DC

Previously car was recalled in march due to camshaft & was told it was good; hence the following: I was traveling on loop 303 at 65 MPH, then on bell road at 45 MPH, then turned into my community of sun city grand at 25 MPH when brakes failed approx 3 streets from my home

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 Dec 16, 2014 · Acceleration, Brakes · TX · crash · 1 injury

2014 volkswagen passat. Cruise control failed to turn off and the brakes failed to activate, causing the vehicle to jump a curb and run off the road, injuring the consumers wife.

Filed Sep 22, 2014 · Engine · 187,000 miles · NC

Our passat is the tdi (diesel) model. We purchased it used and at around 185,000-190,000 (low miles by diesel engine standards), the vehicle completely shut down while being driven. I lost power steering and brakes. Diagnostics revealed that the chain driven oil pump assembly had malfunctioned. The chain broke and got all up in the engine and oil was no longer being pumped into the engine so the engine was destroyed requiring a complete engine repair. About 16,000 miles later, I was driving and the same exact thing happened. Did some research and found out that this is a very common problem with this model vehicle. Volkswagen has issued an internal technical bulletin telling the service departments how to fix the problem. The fix is changing out the chain driven assembly with a gear driven one. They also never made another model with a chain driven assembly after that model year. So they basically admitted that this is a faulty system yet won't issue a recall. Changing out the assembly is $1500 for the part alone and if you're changing out that part, the chances are good it's because it failed and you now have a destroyed engine as well which is a several thousand dollar job even for a used engine. There is no way to tell when it's going to fail and it's not part of any maintenance schedule. Volkswagen has told me that it's not a common enough problem to issue a recall and yet it's a common enough problem to have to issue a technical bulletin about it. I find it abominable that they know this has and is happening with this vehicle and they are not letting people know about it. Even if they refuse to pay for it to be fixed, the public should be aware that they are driving a ticking time bomb. Someone could get killed if the engine shut down on them while traveling at high speeds on a highway. No power steering. No brakes. It's completely unethical.

Filed Sep 19, 2014 · Airbags, Brakes · 189,000 miles · MA · crash

Tl* the contact owns a 2005 volkswagen passat. The contact stated that the brake pedal would travel to the floor when depressed. The dealer stated that the brake booster needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired, but the failure persisted. The contact took the vehicle to the dealer for state inspection and no failure codes were present at that time. The dealer was unable to repair the vehicle. A couple of weeks later, while driving 32 MPH, the brakes failed and the contact crashed into the rear passenger side bumper of the preceding vehicle. The air bags failed to deploy. A police report was filed and there were no injuries. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 189,000.

Filed Jul 17, 2014 · Brakes, Electrical · 104,435 miles · VA

I was driving on I-95 at approx. 78 MPH when the car suddenly says stop! Brake failure! See volkswagen service. In my research on the issue, I've found this happens on almost all 1998-2001 vw passats and audi a-4s. This needs to be addressed.