2015 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT — Complaint #1851309
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SERVICE BRAKES, HYDRAULIC:POWER ASSIST:VACUUM filed November 2, 2022
NHTSA complaint #1851309 (ODI reference 11491877) concerns a 2015 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT and was filed on November 2, 2022. The owner reports the failure occurred on October 10, 2022. The report was geocoded to Michigan based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as service brakes, hydraulic:power assist:vacuum, 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 service brakes, hydraulic:power assist:vacuum 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 2015 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
Power brakes are not functional on startup when cold -- brake pedal is very stiff and takes a lot of pedal pressure to stop the car from moving while exiting driveway. Generally, braking improves within a minute or two of driving, but sudden stops in this condition are difficult and unsafe. The dealer service department diagnosed a leaking check valve in the vacuum system and the brake booster needs to be replaced - safety-related components such as brake boosters should not be failing at such an age.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1851309 |
| ODI Number | 11491877 |
| Date Filed | November 2, 2022 |
| Failure Date | October 10, 2022 |
| VIN | 1VWCV7A37FC |
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.