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.
On multiple occasions, while driving on the highway, subject vehicle displayed check engine light and EPC light at random intervals and an alarm saying exceeded 4000 came on. RPM's were not over 4000. Speed and acceleration severely limited making it dangerous to pull over on the highway in traffic. Had to pull car over and restart engine. This has happened numerous times. Also experienced shaking and skipping or missing of transmission. The car has also had the engine stall or stop when at red light or stopped forcing restart of engine.
Received Max RPM 4,000 warning while on long drive. Happened and had to restart car several times. Lost ability to accelerate. Also, when car was on cruise, started shaking
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
When I first purchased my vehicle the epc came on multiple times and I had to take it back to the dealership. Fast forward last week when I was going home on the eway same issues car wouldn-??t accelerate the car was idled at the speed of 40mph it wouldn-??t go any faster for a few minutes then it took off out of no where. Also when I was taking my kids to school I was making a left turn and lost control of my vehicle because it was idled and took off out of no where. That-??s not safe for me my kids or any passengers traveling with me. It-??s also not safe for other drivers or pedestrians. Very scary moment took my vehicle in that same day to be told it was battery issues. They claimed because the epc light wasn-??t on it-??s harder to diagnose to get another battery and to keep the car overnight to see if that works if not further diagnose the car. I picked my vehicle up had my battery inspected by a different service provider and was told the battery was just fine. I keep reaching out to the location I got the vehicle from their not correcting the issue and corporate just told me to go to another dealership and gave a im sorry about your frustration comment. Clearly the car has a defect always had one since day one when it was supposed to be a cpo vehicle in the first place. And I had issues the same week I purchased the vehicle. Also haven-??t had my car a year and I-??m having all kind of issues
I was travelling on highway, 55 miles speed, all of sudden voice came from engine and car lost power and came to 10 miles and accelerator was not working it gave me message on dash bord that RPM High. i moved the car towards edge of the road and shut it. after 5 minutes i started again and went to work. However its gave me same problem while i was coming home.my car has only 20000. miles and no other issue. its dangerous when car is moving with the flow of traffic and loose power and does not move.
- Plainview, NY, USA
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The first time this problem occurred was in April right after a routine maintenance check. The car was idling in a parking lot when the engine started to vibrate and a warning was displayed that said "Max Engine Speed 4000 RPM". The car was turned off and then back on. The warning did show up on the display, but the "check engine" light was lit. The car was driven back home, and after that drive the check engine light was not lit anymore. To be safe the car was taken to the dealer. The dealer was not able to replicate the issue. Later, in July, the max engine speed and EPC warnings were displayed on the screen in the middle of a trip. At this time there was also a loss of acceleration power. The driver pulled over, stopped the car, and then restarted it. When the car restarted the warning lights were no longer on so the driver completed the trip. In the manual it says that the car can still be operated if the EPC warning light is on, but that it should be taken to a dealer. This led the driver to believe that it was safe to complete the trip and take the car to their home dealership after the holiday. The following day, the EPC warning light and the max engine speed warning both appeared in the middle of a drive. The driver was driving up a hill on a backroad with no possible pull off. The driver had to stop the car in the middle of a road directly after a blind turn. The driver restarted the car and was able to drive about 10 yards before the warning came on again and the engine cut out. The driver repeated turning the car off and then back on multiple times to be able to safely get the car up the hill and to an area where a pull-off was available. Luckily, no other cars were coming at the time the car was stalled. It was a very unsafe location! The car is currently in the process of being towed to the dealer to be worked on. This seems like a very serious safety concern that is affecting other Tiguan owners too.
Sporadic lack of acceleration when coming from a stop. When depressing Excelerator car sometimes stalls to accelerate. I feel that when this issue occurs it makes my car unsafe to drive.
Car has multiple malfunctions. Has had noisy valvetrain, lack of power upon acceleration, has sputtered with a load on engine especially uphill. Car shut off completely while at 60 mph and nearly caused a catastrophic collision with my whole family in the car. Car presents substantial safety risk. Multiple codes/warnings have flashed up on the display screen(Evap, Trans, fuel inj, etc). Transmission went into "emergency mode" after being started up today, then went away after restarted. Car has been to dealership but issues were not properly addressed/ignored. VW of America is well aware of issues with these cars but ignores the consumers needs and puts consumers at great safety risk by doing so. This vehicle has both engine and transmission issues as well as odd electrical anomalies.
The contact owns a 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan. The contact stated while driving approximately 70 MPH, the EPC warning light illuminated, causing the vehicle to go into limp mode. The vehicle decelerated to approximately 20 MPH. The contact pulled over and assessed the vehicle; however, did not physically see any issues with the vehicle. The vehicle was restarted and she proceeded to drive however, the vehicle failed to exceed 27 MPH. The vehicle was taken to the dealer to be diagnosed. The contact was informed that the injectors needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired. The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The approximate failure mileage was 91,000.
We have same issue with our 2018 Tiguan as many other people out there. After our first oil change we had engine oil light came on. Did not reported to dealer till after second oil change. They checked for possible leaks and put us on oil consumption test for little over 600 miles. They couldn't find anything and told us to keep eye on it. We are on 3rd oil light so, they now put us on second oil consumption test. I owned many VW including 2019 jetta we bought for my son and never had any issues with burning oil. I read many complaints and issues about burning oil on VW engines, so I reached out to someone that I know and specialized in european cars. I asked my friend and multiple mechanics and they told me that this is not normal and that it will get worse were it will burn more oil. I was also informed that VW knows that they have issues with these engines, something with bad cylinder seals and they cannot figure it out for last 12 years how to fix it and would not admit it. I guess this doesn't happens with every car, but when it happens they tell customers that is normal. This is bs and someone needs to do something about it. No one from service department have not told me anything so far and I hope after second oil consumption test that they do not come to me a say it. That would be bad. We have service report when we brought a car for first time we reported this issue and there is nothing stating that this is normal for engine to consume( burn) oil. If this is a normal with their engines they should inform and educate their customers when they are buying this car to keep eye on oil and keep adding after certain miles. Not every car has this issue, it is case by case and that is what tells me that this is not normal. We were thinking to keep this car but now after what I learned will never get another VW. Please help..
When vehicle is in a cold state, ie not driven for several hours or overnight. Temperature between 45 to 60 degrees. When the vehicle is turned on, and shifted into drive, the transmission has a long delay in acceleration. It takes the car 5 minutes of driving before this delay goes away. I left home and wanted to make a left turn onto a major street but the vehicle would not accelerate immediately, it's occurred several times.
This vehicle has an erratic and often severe hesitation when accelerating, which makes it extremely dangerous to drive on the highway as the driver can not gauge the rate at which the car will speed up. It happens less frequently when driving under 40 miles an hour on a city street but is unpredictable at speeds above this. I've been driving for over 25 years and this is the first vehicle in which I've experience this uneven lag. I've also experience issues with the auto start/stop function, when the vehicle is stopped on an incline at red lights it has failed to restart, requiring a manual restart (put in park and restart engine). This vehicle does not seem safe. The most recent occurrence of the acceleration lag was June 14, 2020, but it had occurred regularly since I purchased the vehicle from the dealership in January 2020.
When accelerating, engine does not respond accordingly. Engine hesitates to accelerate and will stay in the low rpms despite the pedal being full pushed in. After a few seconds(maybe 15-30sec), it will rapidly accelerate corresponding to where the pedal is. This constantly happens, it has occurred ever since I purchased the vehicle 1 year ago. I cannot tell if it is an issue with the engine, the transmission, or the electrical components between the 2. it makes trying to merge onto a highway, accelerate into another lane, or turn onto a street very dangerous as I cannot be certain when it will accelerate. This issue occurs in all modes (eco, normal, sport). I have taken this to a dealership once but they said they couldn't find anything wrong with it. Additionally, there is an issue with the side passenger seatbelt sensor. It keeps going off if I have my phone charging sitting on top of it or if I rest my hand on the seat.
My car hesitates when accelerating at a complete stop. I press the accelerator to pull into traffic and it seems the car just doesn't want to go! this makes it very dangerous to drive period. It takes a few seconds for the car to 'wake up' and finally accelerate.
I was driving through neighbor and noticed car was running rough and shifting hard. I got it to 70 mph and red exclamation point and epc light came on. The message was 'engine reached max RPM of 4,000'. I lost all power and could not get the car to go over 50 mph
On multiple occasions, subject vehicle displayed check engine light and epc light at random intervals, causing car to unexpectedly be limited to 4,000 RPM and unable to accelerate past 40mph. As a result, this put driver in extremely unsafe situations and endangered safety of passengers and fellow drivers, particularly on highway. First encountered at 34,000 miles on odometer. Persisted through 41,000 miles. Seconds before error is encountered, vehicle would run rough and undergo rough shifts. In addition, vehicle also suffered with sluggish acceleration from stop. Vehicle taken to service center multiple occasions. On first encounter, technician instructed simply to reset vehicle. When taken second time, code P0203 injector short circuit cyl 3 was diagnosed and engine harness replaced. However, issue continued. When taken third time, injector harness replaced.
Severe hesitation when trying to accelerate, most noticeable from a full or near stop. Pulling out quickly into moving traffic often results in moments of no acceleration at all. It can be frightening and potentially dangerous. A quick google search for "Tiguan hesitation" brings up many complaints about this issue. Dealer is aware but says there is nothing that can be do as it is the nature of the transmission and engine. VW America says thank you for the feedback and they will "keep an eye out for trends and report as needed." I believe that if not corrected this issue will result serious accidents and injuries. The date below is the last time I experienced the issue but has happened many times since leasing the car this past January 2019.
Driving at 42-45 mph on a 0% slope. Car initially maintaining about 1,300 RPM. Without changing speed, pressure on the accelerator, or incline of the road, transmission would shift down by 3-4 gears resulting in a jump in the RPM up to about 3,200. Vehicle would cycle through the down shifting and the jump in RPM, and then shifting back up to lower the RPM back to normal. Within 1.2 miles, car cycled through this three times, and that was what I could capture on video! it continued for 15-20 miles before I could get it to a Volkswagen dealership. Finally, the engine temperature gauge shot up and sat about maximum value for about 3 seconds and then fell back down to dead center (normal operating temp). At that point, I was already on my way to VW to drop it off. About 1 mile from the dealership, I got the "check coolant! see owner's manual." Alert on my dash even though the temp gauge was normal at that time. Finally got to VW and was told the transmission thing was normal ("they like to hunt a lot"). I don't believe that for a second. After 18,000 miles, I would not all of the sudden realize the transmission doing that. Shifting by one or two gears is probably normal for a dsg, and I'm sure that has been happening all along - but it is so small that I don't notice the change. When a car shift down by 4 gears within 1-2 seconds and the car lunges forward as the RPM shoot up to maintain the speed, that is something that isn't normal. Currently vehicle is still in the shop. Will likely need a new water pump, coolant reservoir, wire harness (due to coolant migration). They also think there may be transmission fluid inside the coolant reservoir, but are still trying to tell me that the shifting problem is "normal"... I'm tired of dealing with Volkswagen and their shifty service department and procedures and can't wait to get rid of this car.
Cars response to driver accelerator inputs is hesitant and erratic. Car motion is unpredictably when accelerating from stand still. The performance is not predictable and very without apparent external environmental factors. Unpredictable performance endangers car occupants while entering traffic. The behavior has been determined by dealer as normal against other 2018 models but is different against 2019. VW us has not returned inquiry requests.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Chicago, IL, USA