2016 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT — Complaint #2121512
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about AIR BAGS:FRONTAL:DRIVER CLOCKSPRING/SPIRAL CASSETTE filed August 18, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2121512 (ODI reference 11681294) concerns a 2016 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT and was filed on August 18, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on January 1, 2020. The vehicle had 27,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Pennsylvania based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as air bags:frontal:driver clockspring/spiral cassette, 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 air bags:frontal:driver clockspring/spiral cassette 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 2016 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2016 Volkswagen Passat. The contact stated that on seven occasions, the clock spring failed while driving at various speeds. The contact stated that there was an abnormal clicking sound coming from the vehicle with the air bag warning light illuminated on the instrument panel. The contact stated that the clock spring was replaced under warranty; however, the failure returned soon after repair. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, and a Corporate Representative was sent to the dealer to test the repair. The representative test driving the vehicle also experienced with failure, and the clock spring fractured while operating the vehicle. The vehicle was not yet repaired. The failure mileage was approximately 27,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2121512 |
| ODI Number | 11681294 |
| Date Filed | August 18, 2025 |
| Failure Date | January 1, 2020 |
| VIN | 1VWAT7A30GC |
Similar AIR BAGS:FRONTAL:DRIVER CLOCKSPRING/SPIRAL CASSETTE Complaints for 2016 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT
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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.