Cruise Control Problems of Volkswagen GTI

Cruise control & disengaging from the cruise control by applying the brake pedal. On Tuesday, March 27th, 2018 I was driving south on I-15 coming from mesquite, nevada and headed back into the las vegas valley. As I passed the exit to take the great basin highway west towards the town of pioche, nevada there was a long semi truck in the #2 lane and I was in the #1 lane on this two lane highway. The semi truck made a lane change into my lane because he wanted to get around the vehicle in front of him, after the truck came into my lane I had to adjust my speed. At that moment, I had my cruise control on doing 77 mph, I applied my brake pedal to decrease my following distance now that the truck was in front of me. As I applied the brake pedal, the vehicle wasn't braking and started to go faster towards the bottom bumper of the truck. I couldn't stop my vehicle or make it slow down and eventually ended up running into the back bumper of the truck. Debris from the impact started flying all over the roadway and then my engine hood flew backwards and into my front windshield. I then tried to safely pull my vehicle over to the right and onto the shoulder . The engine hood came back further and was resting against the front windshield where my vision was totally blocked. Prior to that I saw the driver of the semi moving onto the right shoulder, but when the engine hood was firmly against the windshield I just stopped rolling forward for the fear of running into the back of the truck again because I couldn't see if and where exactly he stopped. Immediately after I came to a full stop, I had my passenger make a call to the nevada highway patrol and give our location and the details of what occurred. Luckily we were safe and alive, although a bit shaken.

See all problems of the 2012 Volkswagen GTI 🔎.

While using cruise control at highway speeds, the cruise control's accelerate and decelerate buttons occasionally perform the opposite function: pressing decelerate will accelerate the car, pressing accelerate will decelerate the car. This only happens for the first 1-2 button presses, then the buttons return to their normal function. This has occurred 6-7 times in the past two weeks.

In slowing to pass through heavy traffic I disengaged cruise control (which had been set to 70mph) by hitting the brakes. Several minutes later while traveling approximately 15mph - the cruise control re-engaged spontaneously causing the car to accelerate forward. I slammed the brakes again - which caused the cruise to disengage again - at which point I switched cruise control off.

The cruise control dash light went out during operation without warning. The light went off and on for about a week. The light, at this point had no effect on the function of the cruise control to maintain speed, speed up or slow down; the speed remained steady even without a functioning dash light. One week after the light began to go on and off, the malfunction spread to affect the speed of the vehicle or failed to work completely. During operation of the vehicle at 65 mph and using the cruise control, noticed that the vehicle began to accelerate to 85 mph by its self without previously setting that speed or without even physically inciting change. The last experience with use of cruise control the malfunction caused complete shutdown of the cruise control system and slowed the car without will of the drive. The vehicle, on the highway, began to slow down as though the gas pedal had been depressed. It shuts its self off as it pleases, or accelerates as it pleases. The use of cruise control has since been discontinued and will not be used until further evaluation is undergone.

See all problems of the 2007 Volkswagen GTI 🔎.