2015 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT — Complaint #2153435
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about VISIBILITY:DEFROSTER/DEFOGGER/HVAC SYSTEM:HEATER CORE filed December 2, 2025
NHTSA complaint #2153435 (ODI reference 11702531) concerns a 2015 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT and was filed on December 2, 2025. The owner reports the failure occurred on November 17, 2025. The vehicle had 103,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Illinois based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:heater core, 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 visibility:defroster/defogger/hvac system:heater core 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
The contact owns a 2015 Volkswagen Passat. The contact stated that cool air was being blown inside the vehicle. The contact stated that the heater failed to heat the passengerâs side of the vehicle. Additionally, the defroster failed to properly defrost the windshield while activated. The contact linked the failure to VWP:16â05; (Heater Core Limited Warranty Extension). The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic who referred the contact to the manufacturer for assistance. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and confirmed that there was no warranty coverage on the vehicle for the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 103,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 2153435 |
| ODI Number | 11702531 |
| Date Filed | December 2, 2025 |
| Failure Date | November 17, 2025 |
| VIN | 1VWCV7A35FC |
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.