Volkswagen Atlas owners have reported 14 electronic stability control related problems since 1996. Table 1 shows the 1 most common electronic stability control problems. The number one most common problem is related to the vehicle's electronic stability control (14 problems). For details of each of the problem category, use the links in the table.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Electronic Stability Control problems |
I bought my new vw Atlas in December of 2019. When I bought it, I noticed a rubbing/squeaking noise when I turned the steering wheel but was told that was normal for a new vehicles. So, I let it go, then came to realize it continued to get worse and louder over time. So at my 10,000 mile check, they told me it was the steering rack that needed to be replaced ASAP but that it was on back order and could take a couple of weeks for the part to come in. I was told this was not a common issue. So I waited 3-4 weeks, and the part finally came in. It was replaced and I thought I was done with repairs early on. Then, a couple of days pass and I find that there is still somewhat of a noise when I turn my wheel and especially when I'm on the backroads going over bumps. I take it back the dealership and of course, they can't replicate the problem. A couple more weeks pass, I'm still hearing a creaky noise and then one night on my way home, all of the sensor and warning lights light up in my digital cockpit. I have it towed, vw determines it's a tire sensor of which they repair. Three weeks later, here I am again and all of my tire pressure sensors are on again on my way home from work. I have a new tire from where I got a flat two weeks ago, and that tire pressure sensor light is also on. So, now not only am I having an issue with my tires but the first steering wheel noise issue still isn't repaired on an Atlas that I bought with 12 miles on it in December of 2019. Vw corporate has been called, the dealers corporate has been called and still I haven't gotten nowhere.
Car disengaged adaptive cruise control and emergency braked suddenly ("slammed on the brakes"), while dashboard lights flashed warnings of front end impact and disengagement of acc and all assistance systems. The car was traveling 68mph on a straight line, flat bridge over water. Other cars were to the side and rear of the vehicle, but no front end collision was possible at the time. Dealership claims this is a radar issue that "every car has. " extremely dangerous!.
March 5, 2020. 2018 vw Atlas, 2017 mid-year delivery. There have been multiple occasions of emergency braking being performed by the car without driving condition needing the safety intervention. There have been five occurrences to date with the vehicle: 1. Driving I-75 in to atlanta --while driving next to an 18 wheeler (18-w) [tanker] , the car slammed on the brakes while at a speed around 75 until the car was behind the rear of the trailer. There was no condition for need this reaction (the 18-w and I maintained lane control. ) 2. Some random months later, the car performed a emergency braking while on I-20 while driving between two 18-ws [ 2 tanker]. The car speed were interstate speeds and no conditions that needed the intervention. 3. While driving in traffic closed to I-20 on a four lane secondary road, the vehicle slammed on the brake due to traffic backup at a stop light. It cased my cargo to slide forward to all the seat backs. 4. This was another braking action occurred with an 18w [flatbead]. 5. March 3, 2020, the latest was a similar emergency braking with no warning lights. The braking action was not as hard and released after clearing the rear trailer of the 18-w. Since the cars do not generate an error code the common diagnostic tools are not able to find a fault. The safety systems should be modified to generate incident code when emergency braking occurs since the conditions are performed in a robotic function (non-driver condition). I generally talk to the vw service tech about this finding every time I am in vw service area to see if the condition is present in other vehicles.
I own a vw Atlas which is 2 months old. Battery died all of a sudden 2 months back. Had to jump start the vehicle. Couple of days back battery was complete down again. I used the car everyday before battery went cold in my garage.
On many occasions, the automatic braking system and blind spot detection systems have engaged at inappropriate times. Most recently, the automatic braking system engaged when safely merging with proper signaling from the right lane, which was ending, to the next to the left lane when the only vehicle in the vicinity was fully in the left turn lane. There was enough space between our vehicle and the vehicle behind to avoid a rear end collision but the hard braking was unnecessary and could have caused damage or more serious injuries than those sustained by the driver and passenger caused by the seatbelt locking on the collarbone and chest because of the sudden application of brakes. Another recent incident was on the freeway when safely changing lanes with proper signaling from the far left lane to the center lane and the blind spot detection system prevented changing lanes when the closest to the right vehicle was in the far right lane, one lane further than attempting to change into. If this had occurred while changing lanes to avoid a collision with debris or another vehicle, it could have caused damage or injuries.
Problems with fuel injector where the manufacturer advise to change the all injectors after 100k miles . Where they sending me to pay for this expenses. The acc automatic cruise control also failed where they charging $600 to reprogram the system for some reason stop working how can this happen with a new car.
The car stops on its own while driving, all lights on dash illuminate, and car starts again as if nothing happened. Twice going up the driveway and three times while on back roads. No one was in front of or behind us for two of the times. One of the times, it was during traffic so the speed was slow enough not to have an impact. One other time it stopped about half a car length away from the curb when parking the car. While on the highway, going 70, with the blinker on to get over to the center lane, the car jerked me back to the right. . I was in the right lane, a car in front of me, a car behind me, no cars in the middle lane, and two in the far left lane coming up. Absolutely no reason for the car to think there was a car to the left of me. The two cars in my original lane and the two cars in the far left lane remained in those lanes. I have taken the car to two different dealerships, a total of three times and they could not recreate the problem, so they are unable to fix the issues. My case was escalated to the se regional case manager, who put the case in for review to buy back the vehicle and was notified today, 10/18/2019, that they are not going to buy it back but they will continue to service the vehicle under the warranty. How can they service the vehicle if they can't find anything wrong with the vehicle. I can't believe they expect to drive this unsafe vehicle until someone dies! I paid extra to buy this vehicle for the safety features, which is what is causing this to be unsafe. It would be unethical to sale the car, but too unsafe for me to drive and put my family at risk of getting in a vehicle accident and dying. Please have a recall issued to address the issues before someone dies and telling consumers to disable these functions is not the right answer either. I have had issues from the beginning, but thought it was hiccups. Date is approximate.
1) radar auto-brake: when parallel parking and backing ( going in reverse ) parallel to the curb, at maybe 2 mph and 10 inches from curb, I got yellow stop, stop !!!!!!! message followed by sensation of hitting an object and being thrown into the seat. Only there was no object. Ran out of a car, nothing and nobody there, at least for 50 yards. An auto-brake engaged. That is really broken. Interference caused it to do that ? overheated computer in 90 degree sun ? 2) transmission logic: unrelated to above, when going in slow traffic 2-10 mph, pressing gas shifts transmission into higher gear instead of lower, resulting in hit-like engagement and actual inability to rev the engine and accelerate. Slow and deep pedal movement does downshift and accelerate but too much. All cars are like that and I test drove several. 3) transmission logic: related to (2) above, paradoxically in sport driving mode, when trying to accelerate and merge highway from 10 mph, transmission shifted up several gears, not allowing to rev the engine, and resulted in rpm decay /power loss -- very scary. That launch was timely aborted, and driver later merged the road in manual "tiptronic" mode. 4) improper gas pedal calibration: compared to other german, japanese and american cars, vw Atlas has abnormal and unsafe gas pedal calibration. From a stop, only lightly feathering the pedal results in civilized controlled motion. Normal gas pedal pressure results in a car rocketing forward uncontrollably. Vw has to talk to some other manufacturers and get their gas calibration consistent with other cars, so it can be driven steady and safely at slow speeds when necessary.
The car is 6 months old. We have 5 documented cases of the vehicle stopping/braking on it's own for no reason. The dealer and vw corporate do not have a fix and suggested we keep driving it to get more documented occurrences. The vehicle poses an extreme safety risk at this time due to faulty braking assist mechanisms. 2 of the 5 occurrences involved it throwing the parking brake on by itself and the other 3 were drastic slow downs with nothing around. All incidents reports are attached and are exactly what was turned into the dealer and vw corporate.
On Monday 6/10/2019 at 18:10, I was driving west on California highway 91 in riverside California. I was on the phone with my wife, the car was on cruise control, going 65 mph. There were no cars in front of me, I was driving in the second lane from the right. My car approached an 18 wheeler truck and it was passing the truck. The truck was on the right lane, my car approached on the next lane to the left. The car was still on cruise control and I was still on the phone with my wife. As the car was passing the truck, the vw Atlas executes an emergency brake as if something was in my way. The car gave no warnings before applying the brakes hard.
I was driving my 2018 vw Atlas with 8,800 miles on it on 11/5/18. I was stopped at a traffic light and when the light turned green the car's engine did not turn back on from idling and all the lights on the dashboard started going off telling me various things. I do not think having an ecofriendly car is worth it turning off to not turn back on when it's supposed to. I had to have it towed to the dealership, who fixed the car telling me that there were software updates and that the battery was drained. The printout from working on it says that the battery charging system is good but the battery was defective internally, on a car that's a little over a year old. There was absolutely no warning, the car would not recognize my key, would not turn on, and essentially was useless in traffic and extremely unsafe. I am thankful my children were not in the car. Vw claims the problem is fixed but reading others complaints I am doubtful and afraid that it's only a matter of time before this happens, without warning, again. I cannot have this happen due to safety reasons, being a single parent of two young kids, and I had to also miss a day of work to deal with a problem that should never have happened in the first place. I am also wondering if this problem has anything to do with my car having an oil spill after an oil change that the dealership did incorrectly in August. They did not tighten the cap to the extent it should have been tightened and oil spilled all over my garage, stained it, and it's never coming out. Vw fixed that and gave a free oil change in the future? I really hope that did not mess up my new car and cause this new issue to happen. I cannot have any more issues happening with this car and the battery/computer issues need to be fixed so that they don't ever happen again.
Battery issue- the start/stop feature drains the battery. A 2018 Atlas battery died while the car was on at an intersection. Was in the middle of an intersection waiting to turn and the car shut down. It cause everything to try off and steering and braking were impossible. It is a known issue at vw and there is no recall.
Automatic braking system is faulty. When I pull out of driveways or parking lots the sensors are activating and the maneuver braking is applied and the car comes to an abrubt stop in the middle of the road. Everytime this has occured there has not been an object or car present. This system is faulty and dangerous. I have 3 children in the back seat and this makes me very concerned for their safety when I drive this vehicle. Vw service is looking into the issue and has given me a loaner Atlas that is doing the exact same thing. I have a video of the issue occuring.
The driver side, front wheel suspension system has been replaced twice due loud vibration noises, rattling noises, and repeated steering issues. The steering wheel violently jerks to the right or left and pulls the car out of the desired direction of travel. The vw Atlas is at the dealership service department for a third time since date of pirchase (Feb 2018) for the same steering issues and noise issues. The �auto-braking� system that's designed to prevent rear end collissions has malfunctioned on two separate occasions. Both malfunctions were when pulling out of a parking lot with a downgraded slope toward the street. On both occasions, as I was pulling out of the parking lot to merge into moving traffic, the electronic braking system engaged as the car was moving down the sloped parking lot exit leaving the vw Atlas frozen in place as street traffic was rapidly approaching. I had to put the vw Atlas in �park� and back in �drive� in order to release the electronic break system. This auto-breaking feature has created to safety situations where my vw Atlas was completely stopped while attempting to merge with moving traffic, nearly causing accidents in both situations.