general problems of the 2008 Volkswagen Passat

Steering lock warning light flashes yellow and car takes two to three attempts to start. Periodically light changes to red with audible. Car occasionally shuts down while driving but recovers before stopping completely. This has been happening for over a year and is now getting significantly worse. Dealer serviced about 4 weeks ago and key fob replaced but no other notations. Full dealer inspection but no mention about this issue. There seems to be a lot of comments about this issue. Please research as it is definitely not a "one-off".

When I turn on ac the car loses power and the batter icon and check engine light comes on and the steering wheel locks up. After I turned off ac and attempted to restart car after a few trys it started back up and the check engine light went off. . This had never happened before.

While merging onto an on-ramp on a toll road, at approximately 50 mph, the steering tried to pull the car in the opposite direction of the one I was turning. This was a "cloverleaf" on-ramp, with a tight turning angle. I immediately slowed down to about 30 or 35 mph, as I was beginning to come out of the turn and it happened again. I was turning the the right and steering would turn the steering wheel to the left for a second or two. I was forced to try to maintain the correct direction and avoid crashing. I brought the car to the dealership, but they were unable to duplicate the issue. It only seemed to happen on this one particular on-ramp at the time. Approximately a month later (on a Monday, 10/20/2014), I was on another similar "cloverleaf" on-ramp but at different location and the same thing happened, while turning to the right. Later that day the same issue occurred while I was turning to the left on a lesser exit ramp, and the steering wheel would "glitch" and try to pull the car to the opposite direction. Being aware that this had happened a couple of times, I was very cautious about my speed on these ramps. Regardless of the speed, the issue would still occur. The next day, the steering issue happened again at a different location, three times while on the ramp, pulling the car in the opposite direction. I brought it back to the dealership that same week on Friday (10/24/2014). They were finally able to duplicate the issue and said I needed to have the entire steering rack replaced. Since the problem was getting worse and could cause an accident, I was forced to have the repair made, which cost more than $1,700. This was a very scarey issue and I was very afraid it would cause me to get into an accident.

The car was parked and would not start even after a check of the battery. The car had no power whatsoever and could not be placed into neutral to tow-the electronic emergency brake was also locked. The vehicle sat two nights in a shopping center parking lot before a towing company could figure something out. The tow was $106. 00 to the vw dealership. The dealer wanted $107 labor charge for each problem. I already looking at a $214. 00 bill for the starting issue and brake. I told the technician if the car starts the brake should release according the operators manual-its electronic. How this happened is a complete mystery as there had never been even the slightest indication. I have seen many, many reports of this same issue with this car on the internet as I did some research after this happened. I received a call from the dealership- the steering wheel module was $565 since the dealership had to move the car and try and get it started , ,,which seems ridiculous to me given that the car only has 90,000 miles. I tried to get some help from vw customer care given that this seems like a design flaw. . . It really is upsetting to have to pay so much for a car so lightly used with only making 3 monthly vehicle payments and. Vw was completely unwilling to work with me in any way. German engineering = german junk!.

Exhaust pipe broke at the flex pipe. Hot exhaust gas burned through the wiring of the electronic steering rack. Lost steering and then engine shut off completely and not able to be restarted. Exhaust pipe, steering rack & steering wiring was replaced (wiring needs a heat-shield to protect the wiring).