2011 Volkswagen Routan: sudden loss of power

Filed Mar 20, 2022 · Brakes, Engine · VA

While driving on a highway at 65 Mph, vehicle shut down, lost brakes, steering, and all power, had to coast to a stop, narrowly avoiding a collision. Upon exhaustive review, TIPM was faulty, causing starting issues, intermittent power loss, and fuel pump issues. As this van is manufactured by Chrysler (for VW) and their (identical) model has the same issue, it was known and recalled, it is appalling that no recall exists for this VW model. These vans are being financed and bought by families, and like us driven daily with children in them. The issue is widespread, very well known, but as in our case, not disclosed by dealerships as no official action has ever been taken, and no official record exists. We have learned all about it through trial and error, and are having to pay for possibly fatal errors committed on the part of the manufacturer - who, to state again, has in fact already recalled the vehicles due to it being such a wide spread and dangerous issue with a primarily family vehicle. Again, for clarity, the VW Routan is no longer in production, but when it was it was manufactured by Chrysler for VW, and is part for part a Dodge Grand Caravan/Chrysler Town and Country. Why is this critical recall in existence for only a portion of the vehicles? This has become a major issue as we have to continue reducing this van until we can sell or trade it.

Filed Jul 1, 2021 · TN

My 2011 VW Routan completely lost power on the freeway while driving in heavy traffic. The steering completely locked up (not lost power steering), locked up and all components died while moving. It took two people to break the steering wheel loose so that the van could be pushed out of the road by TDOT. We had the van towed and once removed from the truck it started and ran like normal. Our 3 kids were also in the van which makes the situation extremely hazardous. Previous to this, we paid $1,500 to the VW dealer to replace the TIPM unit because the van wouldn’t start on many occasions. The dealer stated that he knew Chrysler had issued a recall on their vehicles with these same issues but VW hadn’t taken any action. Other info… no dash lights are/were on. Dealer can’t seem to reproduce the issue. TDOT Officer said he’d never seen a vehicle that locked the steering while the car was in motion. This was worse than it loosing all power.

Filed Nov 2, 2020 · 100,000 miles · TX

The vehicle looses all power while driving. If you hit a bump or touch the key it causes the key connection to stop and loss of all power. Have to put car in neutral while driving and restart it. This has happened while driving on the interstate and driving on rural roads. All areas. This has happened multiple times.

Filed Oct 8, 2020 · Engine · 110,000 miles · GA

Tl* the contact owns a 2011 volkswagen routan. The contact stated that while driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle stalled without warning. The contact stated that the vehicle loss power steering and brakes during the failure. The contact stated that the fuel pump relay failed. The contact stated that the relay continued to run after the vehicle stalled and drained the battery. The failure recurred numerous times. The contact called volkswagen of marietta (1860 cobb pkwy se, marietta, ga 30060) and informed the dealer of the failure. The contact called three other unknown dealers but was not provided any assistance. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 110,000.

Filed Oct 21, 2019 · Electrical, Engine · 147,000 miles · MD

Tl* the contact owns a 2011 volkswagen routan. While driving 65 MPH, the vehicle lost power, decelerated to 25 MPH, and stalled. The failure occurred without warning. The contact was able to restart the vehicle after approximately thirty minutes. Additionally, the contact stated that the vehicle experienced intermittent starting failure. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic to be diagnosed, but the mechanic was unable to retrieve a fault code. The vehicle was not repaired. A local dealer was not contacted. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 147,000. *dt*jb

Filed May 23, 2017 · Electrical · 59,000 miles · CA

Engine hard started for a couple of weeks, then it died while my wife was driving in our neighborhood. Mechanic said it was an issue with the fuel pump relay and rigged a bypass in the fuse box. All seemed to be working ok, but then the car died again about months later. Next time we started it, the dash lit up with all kinds of warning lights, the radio power went out, and the A/C was not working. We'll see if it is the same issue or another. The fuel pump relay in the tipm, according to account on internet forums, is a faulty part and has been recalled in other dodge/chrysler vehicles, but not the vw routan (which is a caravan/town & country clone for the most part). There are many complaints of this part being defective and people losing power while driving and it is a huge safety concern.

Filed Jul 27, 2016 · Electrical · 71,000 miles · TX

Was driving car around 55 MPH when the car just turned off and lost all power steering and brakes, engine just cut off without warning. I was able to pull the car over to the side of the road and restart the car. The car was taken to a service station and no codes were found to why the car just stop working.

Filed Mar 30, 2015 · Brakes, Electrical · 61,000 miles · NC

I was driving along a highway with my wife and children when all the power in my vehicle shutoff. I lost power to the engine, power steering, and power braking. I was able to get the vehicle over to the side of the road without incident. Since then I have had several electrical issues and the volkswagen dealership has attributed it to a failed totally integrated power module (tipm).

Filed Aug 20, 2014 · Electrical, Fuel system · 60,000 miles · IL

7/2/14 - after being idle for 1hr the car would not start. After several repeat attempts it did. It would crank as normal, no dashboard warning lights ever came on. 8/8/14 - after 3hrs of highway driving we stopped to fill up with gas. Eco fuel never used the same crank issue occurred as 7/2. 8/9/14 - after 8hrs idle time the van would not start until repeated tries. I brought to dealership, they could not get the problem to repeat and suspected the tpim module. 8/10/14 - after 8hrs idle time the van would not start. When it finally did I drove 1/4 mile from the house and the van shut down completely. Lost all power steering and normal braking almost resulting in an accident. Called dealer back up and brought back into dealership 8/12/14 with expectation to have $900 tpim module replaced. Directing the dealership to leave the car outside overnight, push it in and then hook up to computers for evaluation they were able to find low fuel pressure reading from the fuel pump up until the it finally cranked over after several tries. After the initial start the van would read normal fuel pump pressures while running, turning it off and turning it back on again. However this does not explain why it shut down while driving. The car was returned and a new fuel pump was ordered for 8/19/14 install. 8/15 - 8/18/14 - the van shut off while driving twice not to mention everytime it sat idle it would have the same start up issues. 8/19/14 when the dealership received the fuel pump it was the wrong one. But the model# and serial# were exactly the same! So as it stands they can't fix it until they identify the fuel pump.

Filed Apr 29, 2014 · Engine, Steering · 30,000 miles · MD

My 2011 routan suddenly lost power while I, with my kid on board, was driving on a highway in march 2014. Can you imagine a vehicle stopping in a flow of vehicles at 70+ MPH? All lights were on. I managed to restart the engine and was able to drive but the check engine light was still on. The dealership from whom I bought the vehicle "repaired" it and told me that "everything is fine" by having a brand-new set of wiring. A month later, the same life-threatening issue happened again while I was driving. This time, the vehicle stalled and I could not rotate the steering wheel at all. Now the vehicle is again with the dealership for diagnosis. As a matter of fact, about half a year ago before these losses of power happened, I experienced another problem with the vehicle. The acceleration was not very responsive. That is, when I hit the gas pedal, the vehicle initially did not accelerate at all and after 2-3 seconds, it suddenly accelerated. This really frightened me as I tried to change lanes. Now I have no confidence with this vehicle at all. I am deeply worried that even if the vehicle is "repaired" this time, I and my family could get injured or killed by having a car that randomly shuts off in the midst a stream of fast-moving vehicles. This type of vehicle should be banned from the road for the safety of innocent people.

Filed Jan 6, 2013 · Electrical, Engine · 30,852 miles · OH

Driving down i70 west bound going 70 MPH in indiana and engine turned off lost power every light on dash came on and the was a blinking red light in center of dash. Some how I made it over to the edge of the road and put it in park. The van would not start. I noticed I was on the white line and wanted to move the van over more, but I could not get the van into neutral. I could feel the every car and truck drive by. I was scared for my life. I was traveling with my wife and 3 children under five on the coldest day of the year. I kept thinking a drunk driver is going to clip us. We lucky to have enterprise pick up my family and I got towed back to the dealership. The only thing the dealer could find was a blown 10 amp fuse for the ECM. They replaced the fuse and drove the van for 200 miles and the said the van drove fine. They don't know what caused the fuse to blow. The only way for them to find out what was wrong was to have it happen again with a computer hooked up. They sent me on my was with a box of 10 amp fuses a week later. I would not expect this from a 2011 with 30000 mile. I don't feel safe in this van, but its not worth anything on a trade in. Don't know what to do.