Defogger Heater Problems of Volkswagen Passat

The contact owns a 2015 Volkswagen Passat. When the contact started the vehicle, the check engine warning indicator illuminated. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed and the following codes appeared: (u1123-0017178 data bus error, p0441-0021406 evap ignition control system incorrect purge, p0456 evap system small leak, and p0303 cylinder #3 misfire). The vehicle was not repaired due to the cost. In addition, the front driver side window failed to function. The vehicle was taken to nemer Volkswagen (550 troy schenectady rd, latham, NY 12110, phone number: (518) 512-0024) where it was diagnosed that the window motor failed due to overheating. The dealer stated that this was a common issue among all Volkswagens and nothing could be done. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was contacted and stated that nothing could be done because the warranty ended. The approximate failure mileage was 43,900.

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The contact owns a 2014 Volkswagen Passat. While driving approximately 55 mph, the heater stopped and the windows fogged up. The contact continued driving and the heater started normally again. The vehicle was taken to the dealer, but was not diagnosed. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The contact stated that the failure occurred every time the heater was activated. The vehicle was not repaired. The approximate failure mileage was 76,000.

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The contact owns a 1997 Volkswagen Passat. While parking the vehicle, the contact heard an unfamiliar noise and the air conditioning began to blow hot air. He exited the vehicle and discovered water leaking from the undercarriage. He believes that the heater core may have failed. The current and failure mileages were 157,000.

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Fuel pump failure while driving on the freeway the car quite running. 1. 8 liter turbo in o3 vw Passat. Dealer calls and tells us our VIN number is not part of the recall. To call vw of north America and they should cover it. I talk to a women tell her the same thing as above and she ask me to hold while she submits the claim. She comes back on the line after 45 seconds or so and says that they won't cover it. The VIN number is not part of the recall. I ask to speak to a supervisor. I am told there is no one else I can speak to and this is the finally decision of vw of north America. This is not the first failure for this car. Temperature sensor replaced, brake module replaced twice, the heater core replace, the trip tronic shift replaced, instrument panel replaced, the engine flushed for sludge. Cv boots replaced. They're cracked again after 3 months.

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Heatercore failed foged up all my windows,soaked carpet and filled cabin with toxic antifreeze vapor on my way home from my uncles funeral.

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Heater core failed. I have always had the car serviced regular according to manufacturer specs. The cost is $1000. 00 to replace the part. It failed on a very cold night traveling through a winter storm. Try driving a car in the middle of no where with no heat to defrost the windows. Wrecked due to the inability to see.

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The contact owns a 2001 Volkswagen Passat. While driving less than 2 mph, scalding hot radiator fluid suddenly spewed from the vents and onto the contact's feet. She is pregnant and stated that she had not been to a doctor to check if the radiator fumes harmed the unborn child. The instrument panel completely failed as well. The dealer stated that the heater core failed. No repairs were made. The VIN and powertrain were unknown. The current and failure mileages were 124,000.

On Sunday, August 5th, 2007, while driving the car with my 7 year old son in the back seat, dense, noxious 'steam'/smoke began to come out of all vents and around the dash area in my well-maintained Volkswagen. Hot coolant also leaked into the passenger compartment of my Passat on the driver's side. Note that this occurred while air conditioning (a/c) was on & continued to pour out of vents without a/c on. My 'low coolant' indicator light (red led in instrument cluster) also began flashing. Fortunately, I was able to get the car (and my son) home without overheating after stopping on the side of a busy washington DC thoroughfare (wisconsin avenue), opening the fogged-up windows, cleaning the interior of the front windshield, and refilling the coolant reservoir/'overflow' tank with antifreeze purchased nearby. Since the 'steam' smelled like coolant/antifreeze, I immediately suspected that this was due to a failure of my car's heater core. I subsequently confirmed this diagnosis after dropping off the Passat at my long-time, certified, mechanic, beahm's auto service of silver spring maryland. Beahm's diagnosed, but did not replace my heater core on Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 (the heater core has been temporarily bypassed so that the car could be driven without additional coolant loss or of the car's windows/interior). My Passat is otherwise in excellent, well-maintained condition with only 116,000 miles, no accidents, and it passed washington DC safety and emissions inspection in August, 2007.

Heater core failed- clouding the window to a degree that we nearly had an accident before we could get the car pulled over.

Heater core failed, causing sudden and substantial loss of visibility in rush hour traffic. Interiors of all windows were severely fogged with coolant mist. I was forced to make an emergency stop to avoid an accident. Aware that vw has frequently replaced this known deficient component out of warranty, I contacted vw of America three times. I was consistently told that I would receive no help. Cost of heater core replacement at dealership was $1600.

There were no events leading up to this incident. The heater core broke on my 2000 Volkswagen Passat. When this happened white smoke was emitting into the passenger compartment causing a film on the windshield. This caused a fog on the windows reducing my visibility severely causing me to have to pull over quickly. The smoke has an odor of antifreeze and in fact that is what it was. When I got home I checked the antifreeze and it had dropped to half of what it was. This is a known issue at Volkswagen whose only recourse is that I should have purchased the extended warranty when I bought the car. The worst part about this entire experience is that after nearly crashing my car I have to pay $1200. 00 to repair this defect.

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: the contact stated while driving 45 mph on the highway, white steam erupted from the air conditioning vents without warning. The contact inspected under the hood, and determined the coolant was low. The vehicle was taken to a dealer for further inspection, who determined the heater core needed to be replaced. The manufacturer was alerted.

Heater core failure. Venting of noxious fumes into passanger compartment.

Hot coolant suddenly started coming out of the vents and caused all the windows to fog over. Had to pull of freeway and get a tow. No indication of a problem prior to the failure. Problem turns out to be a bad heater core. Had heater core bypassed because of the cost of the repair.

: the contact stated while driving a terrible smell was present and white gases started coming from the vents. It was taken to an independent repair shop where the mechanic determined the heater core needed to be replaced. The manufacturer has been alerted. 04/11/06.

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Car is 3 1/2 years old. 52,500 miles. (2500 miles out of warranty) engine coolant flushed/replaced at 40,000 miles as required. Heater core just failed while on the freeway, blowing vapor into the cabin and steaming up the windows to the point the car was barely drivable. Vw America would not assist with the repair citing the age of the vehicle. I guess vw considers a car that's less than 4 years old to have significant problems. Repair cost is close to $1300. I will never buy a vw again, and I have already dissuaded a colleague at work from buying one as he was in the market for a new car.

The contact stated the heater core was leaking coolant onto the floor, not allowing the windshield to completely defrost. The vehicle has not been seen by a dealer and no repairs have been made. Updated 01/19/06.

Heater core failure. Initially I only smell the radiator fluid. Then it quickly changes over to steam actually coming out of your vents. This causes your windows to fog up. Radiator fluid came shooting out of the dash but on the passenger side. This probably would have scalded someone if they were sitting there.

Heater core is leaking, and makes driving impossible due to decreased visibility, and the fumes coming off the heater core cause me to cough for a few days if I actually drive my car.

Bad heater core needed to be replaced after 48,000 miles. Dealer service unwilling to cover repairs.

I haven't experience a failure yet, but I have a 1997 Passat vr6 and it seems that many people with my model have experienced heater core failures, especially while driving. I'm filing this report as a preemptive mechanism.

Heater core failure - heater core failed catastrophically, dumping hot coolant in the drivers side foot well, and obscuring visibility by rapidly steaming up all windows. Upon request, vwoa replaced the heater core and covered parts/labor 100% as a good will gesture. This should be a formal recall as the heater core in this vehicle is the same part (same part number, manufacturer, etc. . . ) that was the subject of formal recalls in the late 1980's and early 1990's golf/jetta/corrado/passat chassis.

Owner of 1996 Volkswagen Passat glx. Driving low speed when I heard a pop & hiss sound. Tons of steam came through the air conditioning vents & under the dash. I pulled the car over and found leaking coolant under vehicle on passenger side. Heater core failed. I had to tow my vehicle back to my house and contacted Volkswagen of America to repair. No response from vwoa as of yet as I contacted them via email a couple days ago.

Heat exchanger (heater core) failure at 50004 miles.

In January 2004 I drove back to school in virginia after spending christmas with my family. On the way back while I was on the pennsylvania turn pike my heater core burst, spraying boiling hot coolant (both liquid and steam) into the vehicles interior. The liquid for the most part caused damage to the carpet, and fortunately any that was sprayed on my side of the compartment was blocked by my pants. The steam however filled my compartment, making it impossible to see and causing a near collision with another vehicle before I was able to open my windows and clear it out. The injury listed as such is in regards to my breathing the coolant in, which is harmful to ones health. Maintennance had been performed previously on my vehicle just before that replacing the aux water pump, and I had the coolant system flushed and maintennance done on it at that time at an authorized vw dealership. There have been several problems with my cooling system, the aux water pump, the heater core, and the thermostat. Fortunately police were passing by at the time and gave assistance, as well as calling a tow truck.

Windows fogged up due to a faulty heater core. This was causing poor visibility to the driver.

Heater core failed 2. 5 years old.

Heater core defect - this car is only 3 years old with just over 50,000 miles and now needs a new heater core - a $1500 repair! when the heat is turned on, an anti-freeze mist (not too healthy for the driver!) comes out of the vents and all of the windows fog up. The only way to clear the windows is to turn the heat off and sometimes that doesn't even work and we have to turn the a/c on to get the windows DE-fogged. I did some research and found that Volkswagens (vw) have had heater core problems for 10+ years, and some of the older vw's were in fact recalled for this problem. Vw has obviously not made any changes to the heater cores being put into newer cars. I bought the car in the spring and had no way of knowing that this was going to be an issue until it started to get cold outside. Now I'm stuck trying to get vw to offset the cost.

While driving at any speed and without prior warning chemical fumes are coming through the vents. Dealer stated heater core failed.

No event leading to the failure. . . I was driving down the freeway at 65 mph when my heater core failed. . Causing solding hot coolant to rush onto my feet while driving. . I had to brake while coolant was all over my feet. . . Burning them. . . Nearly causing and accident!.

The contact owns a 2002 Volkswagen Passat. The contact stated that her vehicle was a lemon when she purchased it in 2002. Water enters the vehicle from the sun roof whenever it rains. She received a recall notice, but the vehicle was not repaired according to the recall. The vehicle was taken to the dealer more than fifteen times, but it has never been repaired. The failure mileage was 500 miles. Updated 8/24/09 the consumer was told the water leak was coming from the after market speaker. The headlight tail light and fog light bulbs were replaced. The check engine light illuminated and the coolant bottle had a hairline crack. The heat in the vehicle was not working properly. The technician discovered the heater core had a blockage. The water pump was leaking. Both outer cv boots were replaced. There was a large evap leak at the purge valve which was replaced. The cruise control light was on. The right side valve cover gasket was leaking oil and the alternator was replaced. Updated 08/26/09.

There were numerous problems with this vehicle. The filter and carpet on the back passenger side was replaced. The mlp light had come on and the dealer installed a new vacuum hose. The radio did not work, standing water was found in the back right side of the vehicle under the front seat, the pollen filter was clogged and the air pollen filter was cracked due to the factory, the back door locks refused to open and could not be opened from the inside or out, a bumping noise was heard coming from under the vehicle, the engine revved, the vehicle lurched forward and accelerated at rapid speed all while the brakes were pumped with no response. The vehicle hit a curb doing over 50 mph all while pumping the brakes until it finally stopped 20-30 yards into a field damaging tires, rims and the bumper.

Any time the heater is used there is a burnt caramel odor. I suspect this is a coolant /heater core leak causing the problem.

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