Consumer Complaint Detail

VOLKSWAGEN / SEAT BELTS / 9999

Recalls
0 Injured
Investigations
0 Death
Complaints
No Fire
Components - Details
NHTSA Complaint Number: 006112675 Incident Date: May, 23 2006
Consumer's City: PITTSBURGH Consumer's State: PA
Vehicle Transmission Type: AUTO Manufacturers Name: Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.
Model Name: SEAT BELTS Model Year: 9999
Vehicle Involved in a Crash: No Component's Description: Equipment:electrical
Vehicle Involved in a Fire: No Persons Injured: 0
Vehicle's VIN#: WVWRH63B73P Date added to File: May, 23 2021
Date Complaint Received: Jul, 20 2007 Complaint Type: IVOQ
Incident Reported To Police: No Purchase Date: -
Was Original Owner: No Anti-lock Brakes: Yes
Number of Cylinders: 6 Date of Manufacturer: -
Was Vehicle Towed: - Description of the Complaints: Twice, the rear brake lights remained on uncontrollably - intermittently at first, then permanently. this failure was trouble-shot and repaired by the dealer both times. in each case, the brake light switch had failed. from studying the switch part numbers, it appears the suffix has also twice changed to a later version - although i don't believe they were installed in that order in my car (see pn's below). i believe i have the latest version currently installed. this is an unacceptable failure mode, as it not only is a safety issue (driving around with brake lights continuously on, but if left on for prolonged period, the rear brake light bulb sockets get extremely hot and in my opinion have a good chance to melt the plastic socket/reflectors and possibly catch fire. more importantly, the abs and cruise control become inop, the throttle body alignment is disturbed causing the car to behave terribly on acceleration and many cel-type light illuminate on the instrument panel. failures occurred: 1st time: @ 34540mi, 4/7/2005. 2nd time: @ 49,746mi, 5/24/2006. orig s/w pn 3b094551a (from factory). 2nd s/w/1st replacement pn 3b0945511_ (assume basic pn), 3rd s/w/2nd replacement pn 3b0945511b). i have never had to change the brake light switch on my 1984 vw scirocco - i'm the original owner and had driven it over 174k miles! a failed brake light switch on this passat has much greater impact (lights, abs, throttle, cruise control) when it fails than it would on the scirocco (just lights), and it was the passat brake light s/w that failed twice - due to poor design/reliability. amazing and unacceptable. *tr