2018 Volkswagen Tiguan: jerking or lurching

Filed Dec 11, 2025 · Airbags, Driver assistance · FL

One time the car Just Lost power on the freeway and the e-card engine light came on and the cat Ran rugh and stalled and jerked hard almost causing me to cause a serious accident...I took it to vw and explained the severity and they bypassed that And installed a new water pump..2months later the same thing happened exactly to where I was very lucky and very upset...and took it to them once again and explained more issues where I'm urging . As to the front warning light and motion has came into play a few times witch was shocking...also the car would be on slow mo mode....and constant warning lights would come on the dashboard as well as the car would feel so unstable and Feel as if it were On gear 1/L while in the drive position...also the Eco turn of feature would playout ..and stall from time to time..then the car would get stuck on speed when foot would come off the accelerator to brake before a stop sign or red light intersection witch just started to concern me and I again took these concerns to Rick case vw and They thought I was inventing this story..then the car leaked coolant..and it rusted out the whole bottom of my car ..hoses...and they replaced the thermostat this time around and now the car has misfired..could not start ..idle was ver rough and just vibrated dramatically and damaged coils and spakplugs and blew out fuel inject #2 and can't hold pressure past 30 ..changed out the spak plugs and coils and the car is just crippled and its a safety hazard and in many occasions has almost caused me to cause a serious accident...

Filed Jul 21, 2023 · Engine, Transmission · 92,000 miles · MA

The contact owns a 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan. The contact stated that on several occasions while driving at undisclosed speeds, the vehicle started jerking. The contact stated that the EPC warning light illuminated, and a message was displayed on the instrument panel “Engine Speed - Max 4,000 RPM”. The contact stated that when the message was displayed on the instrument panel, the vehicle would decelerate to 15 MPH with the accelerator pedal depressed. The contact pulled over and turned off and restarted the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to the dealer; however, the failure could not be duplicated. The contact stated that she was informed by the dealer that the failure was a known issue and was due to a faulty transmission. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 92,000

Filed Aug 2, 2019 · Acceleration · IL

The car is having issues accelerating after a cold/hard stop. At stop signs, after stop lights, the car jerks and has a hard time gaining power. On the high way I have issues accelerating. This has become dangerous and scary, I am not in control of he acceleration of my vehicle. I have taken it to the vw dealer one tech said "try premium gas" the next tech says, "nothing is wrong with your car". I am extremely disappointed and ready to change brands after 10 years of being avw owner. This problem is putting my life in danger every day that I drive it.

Filed Feb 14, 2019 · Transmission · 2,000 miles · CA

Dangerous jerkiness and loss of power when shifting through first 3 gears. When coming out of a stop the vehicle experiences noticeable lag as it shifts through each gear. Engine revs, power drops, and then it suddenly jerks into gear. Took it to dealership and was told there are no trouble codes and I should just keep driving. Issue was reproducible in normal and sport mode, and was verified by the technician when I made him accompany me on a test drive.

Filed Jan 25, 2019 · Engine · 4,200 miles · NY

Vehicle has a significant hesitation when starting from a stopped position. When pulling into traffic you step on the gas and initially the vehicle does not move which causes you to press further on the accelerator pedal. Eventually vehicle suddenly jerks violently forward. Dealership advises that since there are no trouble codes there is nothing wrong. Has been an issue since new.

Filed Nov 29, 2018 · Acceleration · 550 miles · OR

Accelerator position and engine response on this vehicle is very inconsistent slow to respond from stationary position making the vehicle unpredictable and often unsafe. Depression of accelerator produces inconsistent results ofttimes the vehicle struggles to start moving, then other times from stationary, the vehicle lurches forwards with exact same type of accelerator input. These experiences are in all modes.

Filed Oct 12, 2018 · Engine · 2,450 miles · IL

Everytime I drive when engine is cold, it feels like engine is going to die. I can feel small jerking, like car is running out of fuel. Fuel tank is full. I read many complains and forms, vw doesn't care. I contacted them via twitter, no response yet.

Filed Aug 23, 2018 · Engine, Fuel system · 8,000 miles · WI

When starting vehicle (either cold or warm), vehicle has a several seconds hesitation when pushing down accelerator. Vehicle does not move, hesitates then lurches forward as if the vehicle is not getting sufficient power to move. Vehicle has been to the volkswagen dealer several times and they have been unable to repair. This is dangerous when you are entering a highway or crossing a multi lane road and have to move quickly and the vehicle does not respond.

Filed Aug 16, 2018 · Body, Fuel system · 3,338 miles · CO

In the first month of owning the vehicle, the fuel pump and fuel tank had to be replaced. Since then the vehicle has displayed intermittent loss of response to the accelerator pedal. This occurs when first shifting into drive, the vehicle will not respond to any input into the accelerator pedal. The engine rpms will hold at 1000 or drop to almost stalling the car. After about 10-20 seconds of this, the car will suddenly recognize the throttle input and will lurch forward. There is no indication of when the vehicle will decide to respond to the throttle input. The b-pillar on both sides of the car started to rattle when the ambient temperature was over ~55 f. This has been serviced once, per a technical service bulletin from volkswagen. The service simply made the problem intermittent. The tsb states that the problem is caused by the air bag modules rubbing on the metal of the frame and body. Additionally the tsb procedure instructs the service technician to slide a screw driver between two pieces of body or frame metal, and use a hammer to bend the panels apart from each other. Has this be proven to not compromise the structure of the vehicle? The transmission consistently fails to find the correct gear to be in at low speeds or from a stop. When starting from a stop the transmission has a harsh shift in the first 3 gears. The transmission at time will start off in the 3rd gear, with the throttle fully engaged, and will take several seconds to determine that it needs to be in the first gear. By the time it finally shifts into first, it is at the peak RPM's for first gear and will harshly shift into second gear. This is then quickly followed by another jerky shift into third gear. Starting the car off in third gear has caused issues for making a turn in a break in traffic to the point where I can no longer reliably deem that to be a safe maneuver.

Filed Jul 5, 2018 · Acceleration, Transmission · 1,500 miles · IL

The vehicle has a start/stop feature that is on by default and is dangerous when waiting to make a turn. It temporarily shuts the car down and restarts upon release of the brake pedal to move the car forward which causes severe hesitation in excelleration. To make matters worse the transmission in this vehicle jerks and hesitates. When it does finally kick in it causes the car to surge forward to fast and makes it difficult to drive and handle in a turn, epecially with oncoming traffic. Have almost been t-boned a few times due to both of these issues. We dont feel safe in this vehicle!! These issues need to be addressed by volkswagon before someone is seriously hurt. We love the styling and look of our tiguan but feel the transmission and start/stop issues are very unsafe!!

Filed Jun 14, 2018 · Engine · CA

My everyday experience with this vehicle includes - hesitation when accelerating quickly, jerking forcefully when accelerating slowly, random jerking while driving. It seems as though, even as an automatic car, I can feel every gear change. Especially on the freeway, I feel extremely unsafe when I attempt a lane change. When I put my foot on the gas to quickly speed up, my vehicle hesitates and does not match what I am doing on the pedal. The hesitation is especially dangerous for other vehicles on the road. I am extremely anxious when driving my vehicle because I do not feel in control. I worry that, at any point, it will hesitate or jerk forcefully, and cause harm to me, my passengers, and/or those in other vehicles around me. Please note that this is an ongoing problem. This was not a one-time occurrence. This does not just occur when driving at certain speeds. The hesitation and jerking occur daily.

Filed Mar 28, 2018 · Driver assistance, Electrical · FL

The safety alert that stops your car in case of a collision stops my car with none or thing in front or on the side of it. My backup camera stays on consistently when driving forward. The electronic middle console constantly freezes up and won't allow me to do anything or goes completely black. This has happened multiple times including the most recent in this complaint. The engine also jerks forward and is very dangerous trying to pull out onto a busy street. When I mentioned this to the dealership they said the car need to learn how I drive. It has 6600 miles on it?