This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Thank god I was not going fast. Vehicle shut down completely while driving. Was able to put in park and was able to start it back up. Apparently, the Routan is manufactured by crysler and this issue also happens with the 09 town and countries as well.
The contact owns a 2009 Volkswagen Routan. The contact stated that while driving approximately 25 mph, the ESC warning light suddenly displayed, and the braking system erroneously activated causing the vehicle to abruptly stop. The contact stated that after turning off and restarting the vehicle, the vehicle operated normally. The cause of the failure was not determined. The local dealer and manufacturer were not notified of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 140,000.
Five times in the past 6 months the power in the van basically turns off. The steering becomes next to impossible and the brakes become extremely tight to the point you can't even use them. It is terrifying to have zero control over your car considering I have 4 children. It has happened while I was going only 30mph and also when I was going 45 mph. It happens when I'm going straight and has also happened while turning. Since the latest issue I refuse to drive anywhere that I can't take back roads to.
Vehicle will intermittently not start even after multiple try's. vehicle shuts off during driving events city and highway. ABS lights come on and stay on. Interior lights come on automatically during driving. Have had the vehicle to a VW dealer 4 times for this issue and they cannot diagnoses, nor remedy the issue. I have spent well over $2,000 for these VW dealer visits. This vehicle was built by Chrysler for VW and Chrysler issued a recall on the tipm for the Chrysler vehicles. VW refuses to issue a recall for the tipm. This is a major safety issue that causes the vehicle to shut off during driving and all power and braking functions are lost. At this time, I have no choice but to pay an additional $1,500 to have VW replace the tipm in the hopes that it resolves this dangerous safety issue and keeps my family safe. NHTSA must investigate this issue with Chrysler and realize that it applies to VW Routan vehicles built by them as well, and force VW to recall the vehicles and fix the issue at their cost and provide full reimbursement to all Routan owners who have this same safety issue. What actions are NHTSA taking on this critical safety issue?
I was driving my 2009 Routan this morning (8/6/18) in a round-A-bout when out of blu my steering and brakes completely locked up and my ABS light came on. I had traffic behind me. I almost went over the curb and caused an accident due to this happening. I praise god that I and everyone around was safe. My vehicle has already had the ignition ssswitch replaced twice. I had it checked for codes and nothing came up. I noticed a huge amount of complaints regarrding this. What is it going to take to get this fixed" there are lives on the line. When a vehicle shuts down on the highway that will cause a major accident. Is Volkswagen and NHTSA willing to live with that knowing that this has been a major issue with this vehicle for some time? how many injuries or deaths do you need to prove to you that this is a safety issue"
- Clare, MI, USA
Search CarComplaints.com for these popular complaint phrases...
The contact owns a 2009 Volkswagen Routan. While driving approximately 70 mph with the cruise control activated, the vehicle suddenly accelerated past 90 mph on its own. The vehicle failed to accelerate when depressing the brake pedal and the cruise control could not be deactivated. The driver had to switch the engine off in order to stop the vehicle. The vehicle was taken to coventry motorcars (2152 boston tpke, coventry, ct), but was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was not notified. The VIN was not available. The failure mileage was 78,000.
We were driving the vehicle when all of the sudden it stalled! there is no check light on and when it does this we lost all power breaking and steering. This almost happened to us around an elevated corner luckily we had just past the curve when we lost all power. In reading this is a common problem on the town and country Routan Grand Caravan and all associated models. Something should be done due to the danger and potential risk to human life! we bought this van to keep our children safe not have to worry of it will loose power steering at 30 mph in a canyon corner!
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 NHTSA 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.
Randomly stalls while driving- brought to mechanic, paid almost $1000 to try to get fixed, brought back when everything paid for didn't fix & was told to report ignition switch recall to VW to get fixed. Also lost power to rear dvd within days after purchase & never knew what to do. Brake pads are bad within 3-4,000 miles- windshield washer squirter unrepairable. Biggest issue is the ignition switch though, if that what is causing van to stall - while going steady speed, usually occurs over 25 mph for more than 5 miles- van starts jerking like it's going to stall & when sitting at a stop light or sign, or parked, idling, stalls & takes multiple attempts to restart - this has been happening since I purchased my 2009 Routan in 2014 when it had less than 60K miles. I have brought to mechanics that are friends & to multiple dealerships & shops to diagnose & fix & paid for everything out of pocket to get fixed or replaced & it has never fixed the problem for more than a week. For the brakes, I buy only the mid level or high level grade brakes & have had to switch both front & rear brakes, rotors & calipers out @ least 3-4 times per year since about 1 month after ownership. Every time, 1-2 brake pads were completely bad & gone while the others were about 50-70%. another issue, that has never been able to get fixed is the A/C- after recharging, the A/C will blow cold on the drivers side front only & hot throughout the rest of the car. When heat is on, same problem, only blows heat in front & cool in back. How do I get all recalls for my minivan repaired through Volkswagen" how does the process work? I have 5 small children & this is our only form of transportation. Will I be provided with a loaner that will seat my entire family while my vehicle is being repaired" please advise as I have had this minivan for over 3 years with these issues and spent thousands of dollars
I am having all kinds of brake problems! I had to replace all the pads and rotors which where badly rusted at 28000.and now at 44000 I will have to replace them all again and callibors I also had all 4 tires go flat at different times because of valve sensors corroding and falling into tires! skylight leaks! drivers side sliding door does not close automaticly!ruber on running bourds kept comming off.dealer finnaly reinbursed me after going back 2 OR3 times to have them glue it down. I spend more time trying to fix it than driving it it only has 44000 miles! vehicle is a lemmon!
We have had brake problems since we bought this vehicle. The brakes wobble and make noise. It started with less than 15,000 miles on the car. We have had to replace pads and rotors several times. Once under warranted and a few times after. We have had to change the hearings as well as the brakes and rotors. The problem is primarily with the front wheels and brakes. We are having the same problem again. The internet is full of complaints about this issue.
After my van has been sitting for a while and it been warmed up for 15 minutes. With in the first 2 to 5 miles of driving the traction control light will come on and the van will shut off and the steering wheel and break will fail. Then I have to turn the key to off and restart the van and it sometime repeat itself if I'm stuck in traffic.
The contact owns a 2009 Volkswagen Routan. The contact stated that while driving 40 mph, the brake pedal failed to respond when depressed. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 73,300.
I bought this Routan aprox 8 months ago, nothing but problems, it has shut down in city traffic and highway speeds, I am aware of recall #28H1 from VW that 2 VW dealerships deny even exist.the dealer I bought this from test and diagnosed it as a defective wins module { ignition switch } and contacted a VW dealership in barre Vermont and said they would order a module and scheduled a date to install it, a couple of days before appointment I myself decide to bring in myself and called to verify the date and time, there service department asked me for a recall number of which at the time I did not have because my service manager where I bought it from set this up.after tracking down the correct service rep at walker VW in barre Vermont she informed me they did not order the part and there is no wins modules available yet 06/01/15 even though this recall was dated in March of 2014, still no fix whats up with that " I guess our lives and the lives of our loved ones do not matter it is time for someone or the NHTSA to impose some serious preasure on volkswagon and demand that our vehicles be repaired correctly they should be brought up on charges for deceiveing the public.even my own dealership has not been telling me everything until I corner them or catch them off guard, come to find out after squeezing it out of my own local service manager is that a wins module had already been replaced in my Routan for the prior owner, probably to pasify the customer.I am at this point looking at the legal grounds we all should have against these corperations like volkswagon or even Chrysler since they produced Routans for volkswagon. I would hate to trade this vehicle in just for some other sap to be stuck with a lemon.its just not safe or dependable and we have a long trip in two days 50/50 chance we make it down and back with know problems ??"
My wife was driving our van when she pulled out onto the main road from our driveway when the vehicle lost all power, including power steering and brakes. Fortunately there was no accident but she did have to stop the vehicle and cycle the keyswitch to restart the vehicle. I have contacted the closest dealer to have this known recall fixed on our van only to be told they have to witness this event happening. Though this has happened 3 times since we bought the car used 3 months ago it is a very intermittent issue. The dealer is about an hour and a half from our house which makes it a 3 hour round trip and a day off from work. I don't mind taking a couple of days off to get this problems solved but the service manager told me some of these vans have not been repaired for 4 months because they cannot duplicate the problem. Whatever happened to the customer is always right" needless to say this is a safety issue and a huge liability. I did contact Volkswagen customer care and they told me the dealer should replace the part and it does not have to be witnessed by their personnel. With that information in an E-mail I once again contacted the dealer and they basically told me VW customer care was wrong and they would have to duplicate the problem in their shop. I am very frustrated with this whole process. It is a known problem...shouldn't they fix it before harm or even death comes to my loved ones" the dealer is lithia VW (phone (541) 774-7500) in medford, Oregon and the service personnel I talked with was named [xxx]. I do have the E-mail from VW customer care and that came from a representative named [xxx]. I would appreciate any help in this matter. Thank you! information redacted pursuant to the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).
The contact owns a 2009 Volkswagen Routan. The contact stated that the front rotors had to be replaced three times since the vehicle was purchased and twice in the last year. The vehicle was taken to the dealer. The technician replaced the rotor, caliper, and hub. The technician insisted that the failure was normal wear and tear. The vehicle was not properly repaired. The failure mileage was 65,000. Updated 5/26/15 updated 10/3/2017
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
The contact owns a 2009 Volkswagen Routan. While driving approximately 40 mph, the steering wheel seized without warning. In addition, the contact stated that the brakes failed to respond when the brake pedal was depressed. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The contact received notification of NHTSA campaign number: 14V396000 (electrical system); however, the part needed to do the repair was unavailable. The contact stated that the manufacturer exceeded a reasonable amount of time for the recall repair. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The failure mileage was 91,770.
While driving typically at speeds less than 45 mph the vehicle engine will shut down and electrical power at the dash is lost. Vehicle will restart after it shuts down. Problem is not consistent. Dealer can not verify the complaint, therefore can not repair. NHTSA recall 14V396 appears to be the correction for the issue. Dealer will not perform the recall until they duplicate the issue. Has been at the dealer for 6 days with no duplication of the complaint.
Was driving on a residential street when the engine shut off without warning. Completely lost all power (steering, brakes, etc). Was able to pull over to side of road thankfully only going 25 mph and no traffic. Put vehicle in park, started up immediately and ran fine after that. Received recall letter in mail the following week stating the ignition switch can turn off without notice incident happened 2 additional times, similar circumstances. Spoke with dealer and VW corporate on 3 separate occasions. Volkswagen states they do not have a solution for the recall repair at this time, nor will they do anything about the possible safety issue of the vehicle shutting off and causing an accident.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Girard, PA, USA