2009 Volkswagen Routan: loss of power steering

Filed Sep 16, 2019 · Engine, Steering · 150,000 miles · PA

First my routan has been in my posession for I believe about 5 years. I check the oil regulary and keep oil changes, tires, and inspections up to date are regular. Since owning it, I have had a huge antifreeze leak (while on vacation), which was an easy fix, but essentially the part melted and had to be replaced, which is absurd! I was having a lot of issues with it not starting. You would have to try to start it over and over, and just when you called a garage it would start (this issue seemed to be fixed when the dealer changed the ignition, per the recall) for the past several months, the govener kickis in, and the vehicle will only go 30mph. It happens infrequently, but seems to becoming more frequent. The solution is to pull over, turn it off, start it back up, and your good to go for days to weeks until it does it again. Typically it happens shortly after starting a trip, and while gaining speed, you suddenly cannot go the speed you would like. I do believe it continues to get more frequent in occurance ****now the scary thing that gets me to file a complaint**** I have seen this listed many times already. My husband was again away on a trip this weekend. He had just done a lot of circle type steering at the gas station trying to park (I mention this because someone else complained of this issue after a round about). He parked. He started the car again, he backed up, and when he tried to turn to get out of the parking spot, there was no steering. He pulled forward. He put it in park, he turned it off. He started it, he drove 2.5 hours home with my 3 kids under 9. He had no issues. What is wrong with the car, I am afraid to drive it. Thankfully he was going 2 MPH, but I have seen cases of people on the interstate. What if I drive it, and we have an accident and my family dies? How can I drive a car that lost steering and feel safe!?

Filed Feb 5, 2018 · Brakes, Engine · 130,000 miles · TN

While taking my grandson to school this morning on a very curvy country road the engine died on my 2009 volkswagon routain. Having no brakes and no power steering made it very difficult to control vehicle. I turned on emergency flashers when car finally stoped turned to off position then restarted engine. This is not the first time this has happened to me and my wife. Problem cannot be diagnosed by dealer why can't chrysler fix this serious problem before someone gets injured or killed. I know as well as the federal safety agency that this has happened to many people. Previous recall fix for ignition switch at wv dealer to solve this problem did not work . Its a shame that many people have to injured or killed by a serious known problem like this before companies are forced to fix them.

Filed Dec 29, 2016 · Electrical · 124,702 miles · CA

My 2009 volkswagen routan dies while driving. I've on the vehicle for two years and this has been happening the whole time. That usually happens at lower speeds (under 35mph). It happens when I'm going straight and when I'm turning corners, going over or no bumps at all. When my car dies I lose steering, all power/electrical. I have taken it to volkswagen three times for this issue. The first time it was serviced for a recall fix. The problem continued so I took it back and was informed of a second recall for the same issue. So I had it serviced for the second recall fix. The problem continued so I take it back a third time. Volkswagen service department kept my car for over two weeks and then told me they couldn't find anything wrong with it. The problem has continued and seems to be happening more frequently.

Filed Jul 15, 2016 · Steering · 90,000 miles · OH

Tl* the contact owns a 2009 volkswagen routan. While driving approximately 30 MPH, the power steering failed intermittently without warning and the engine stalled. The vehicle became increasingly difficult to control. The vehicle was taken to a dealer where the technician diagnosed that the ground strap cable needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 90,000.

Filed Sep 7, 2015 · Engine · 36,000 miles · AK

Vehicle loses power, losing power steering, brakes, etc. Warning lights illuminate. Able to restart engine by shifting into neutral and turning key to start. ***happens multiple times approx every 1-3 months, random*** taken in for recall fix for this known problem in 2015. Has happened now 3-4x since the recall fix. Extended testing by vw has not established a reason. Multiple attempted fixes, no change to the loss of power. Last happened 9/6/2015, traveling 40mph downhill in gear, abrupt loss of power, followed by loss of power steering and loss of power brakes. Again, able to restart by shifting into neutral and turning the key to start.

Filed Sep 7, 2015 · Engine · 51,000 miles · AK

Driving downhill, foot off accelerator. Abrupt loss of engine power followed by loss of power steering and braking. Vehicle under known recall and has been "fixed". This incident has now occurred 3-4x since the recall fix, nearly identical circumstances approx every 1-3 months. Vw kept the vehicle for > 2 weeks, unable to identify the problem, vehicle was returned to me without any new attempts at fixing it. I will be returning it to vw and taking it out of service.

Filed Mar 25, 2015 · Brakes, Engine · 71,000 miles · ME

We have owned the vehicle for about 2 months with no issues, when we purchased the vehicle it came with a clean carfax listing no recalls. On 3/10/15 my wife was driving on a 2 lane country road going about 35mph when the vehicle suddenly lost power and she lost control of the vehicle. The engine appeared to have cut out, she had no power steering and no power brakes and was unable to stop or steer the vehicle. The dash displayed the anti-slip light, but no others. The vehicle slowed down to a stop, thankfully there was no oncoming traffic as she was no longer in her proper lane, and no cars behind her. She was able to put it in park and restart it as if nothing had happened and it was fine after that for the rest of her commute. We contacted vw about the issue and they requested that we bring the car to a vw dealer for inspection. We did that, and vw claimed that our vehicle was not impacted by recall # rna1, but instead they insisted the issue was caused by a faulty egr valve, and gave me an engine trouble code of c121c that they claimed corresponded with the failing egr valve. Vw charged me over $100 for the diagnosis, and a day later after complaining to vw customer care they agreed to refund the charges. I brought the vehicle back to the independent dealership that I originally purchased the car at the same day that vw diagnosed this, and they were not in agreement with the egr diagnosis, and also could not corroborate the trouble code c121c as being related to an egr issue, rather it comes up as a torque request signal denied trouble code instead. The independent dealer also found that I had stored codes for ABS malfunctions, sunroof errors and mic/ccn instrument cluster. The independent dealer cleared these codes before leaving that day. On 3/25/15 my wife was driving at about 35mph when the cars engine shut off again in a similar fashion. No codes

Filed Sep 27, 2014 · Brakes, Steering · 57,311 miles · AZ

While driving in phoenix az the van began to shake and steering became difficult. (this has happened in the past multiple times intermittently). Later the same evening brakes began to squeak and grind. Until this day the only issue had been the intermittent shaking while braking. There was no squeaking prior to the grinding. Right rear caliper was replaced along with all front/rear brakes rotors drums and hardware. Cost=$780.55.

Filed Jul 1, 2014 · Electrical · 56,212 miles · MD

Your site wouldn't allow pull-down for affected parts earlier, here is part of the e-mail report I first sent dealer 5/6/14: " ..something new is a problem w/my routan but I want to check in prior to making an appt. Since we so recently had it in for diagnostic check up. Here's what's happening it's very scary: 6 times now over the last 2 weeks it's just conked-out/shut off while I'm driving, leaving me with no steering, brakes or anything! Fortunately it's happened in low traffic areas on fairly straight roads so I've been able to coast to the side, but I'm getting scared to drive my van. Yesterday- it conked out three times...bringing kids home from school-- again very scary, and once on a turn which was difficult but luckily no one was behind me... These events... All happened at low speed 15-30 MPH and happen so quietly I can barely tell it's happened... It's like the key/ignition somehow flicks all by itself into the acc position. Then I have to wait til the van stops, turn the key and van all the way off and re-start. Then it seems to start up fine. But this happened three times just yesterday p.m.... It's dangerous, and I'm getting more and more scared to drive my van, but I have to with four kids and activities." today 6/30/14 (again) dealer found no problem. Cost to replace switch $989.00. I researched delphi, china, austin martin and fully believe a commonality with gm recall exists. The routan is a vw & chrysler complicating my research. I've followed hierarchy- dealer, vw, now the federal safety agency but hit a road block(no pun). Please investigate this asap. Update 6/30- gm recalled 8m more as "unintended key ignition rotation"- exactly what's happening with my routan. I tried submitting this complaint earlier- but your website wouldn't allow. So this is not someone jumping on the bandwagon. This is real, please help.

Filed Jun 25, 2014 · Electrical, Engine · 65,000 miles · CA

While driving, engine shut off like the ignition was turned off - lost power steering and brakes. This has happened multiple times since incident date. Volkswagen service could not diagnose the problem.

Filed Nov 12, 2013 · Engine · 33,000 miles · WA

Vehicle engine will turn itself off and lose power while driving down the road. Able to pull the car off the road and immediately restart the engine. It causes a loss of power steering, power brakes, etc. This has happened multiple times and whenever taken to dealer for diagnosis the issue can not be duplicated. Usually happens when the car is cold, but yesterday it happened after we had been driving for a couple of hours. You can watch the RPM's drop every now and then and sometimes it will catch it and keep the motor running, but sometimes not.

Filed Jul 2, 2013 · Electrical, Steering · 376,500 miles · MN

I was driving approx 65 MPH on a highway. Without a warning (no check engine light, no battery light, etc) my engine turned off while still cruising at 65 MPH. The vehicle still had momentum, but no power steering to safely pull the vehicle over. I had to wait for the road to turn, so I can position the vehicle to stop on the shoulder of the vehicle. I almost crashed into other vehicles, because I had no control of the car other than braking in the middle lane of a highway. Towed vehicle dealer found a blown engine fuse. They replaced the engine fuse. Two hours later, same scenario and same issue came back. Towed back to the dealer, and they believe its a grounding wire. Please investigate this issue. Could potentially translate into major accident or death.