2008 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT — Complaint #1837195
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about ENGINE AND ENGINE COOLING:ENGINE:GASOLINE filed August 30, 2022
NHTSA complaint #1837195 (ODI reference 11481994) concerns a 2008 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT and was filed on August 30, 2022. The owner reports the failure occurred on March 30, 2022. The vehicle had 170,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Texas based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as engine and engine cooling:engine:gasoline, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT cohort independently describe similar engine and engine cooling:engine:gasoline failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2008 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2008 Volkswagen Passat. The contact referenced NHTSA Campaign Number: 17V509000 (Fuel System, Gasoline). The contact stated that on multiple occasions while driving, the steering became difficult to maneuver. The contact stated that the RPM increased rapidly and the engine revved without the accelerator pedal being depressed. The check engine warning light was illuminated. Additionally, the contact stated that she was able to maneuver the vehicle and turned the vehicle off. The contact stated that she was able to restart the vehicle without a failure. The contact then stated that a week later while driving the failure recurred. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the ECM needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure. The contact was advised to take the vehicle to the dealer. The failure mileage was approximately 170,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1837195 |
| ODI Number | 11481994 |
| Date Filed | August 30, 2022 |
| Failure Date | March 30, 2022 |
| VIN | WVWTK93C38E |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.