Steering Problems of Volkswagen Tiguan - part 2

"travel assist not available" chime and yellow notification came on intermittently from around July 2024 to July 2025 in my vw Tiguan. I complained about it to the heritage vw in [xxx] and nothing was done in 2024. The noise and notifications became more frequent around July 2025 and came on every time I drove the vehicle incessantly. I took the car back to heritage vw and they said it was by battery and replaced this for a fee. This did not eliminate the problem and the dealer kept it for 2 days and found that it was the steering wheel. They charged me to replace this because the vehicle was out of warranty. However, in July 2024 it was still under warranty but heritage vw neglected to make the repair. This noise was a huge distraction to my driving as it was loud and incessant. I made a complaint to the georgia attorney general and vw corporate headquarters and neither helped me. Information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

See all problems of the 2022 Volkswagen Tiguan 🔎.

Our 2015 Tiguan has consistently had issues with the clock spring. We are now needing a third clock spring only 6 months from the last warranty repair. Yes the vehicle is available for inspection. This issue is serious due to the airbag being non operational until we get this fixed. Additionally, the horn ceases to work as well, which although its not as serious as our airbag not working, its still nice to have it as a safety tool to indicate your presence to other drivers on the road. I'm not sure if the component has been inspected by the manufacturer or anyone else. We have had a warranty repair on it through the dealership so they verified this was an issue that needed replacing. Until the issue occurs there are no warning lights or anything to notify you from the cars system. There is however an audible "clicking" sound as you turn the steering wheel. The sound usually occurs sporadically for a short while before the clock spring breaks again. Upon breaking, you can hear a slightly louder click or pop and a notification/indicator comes up on the dash to indicate that the airbag is not operational.

See all problems of the 2015 Volkswagen Tiguan 🔎.

On 4/6/24 the steering wheel locked while driving the car . Causing the car to go off the road into a 40 ft ditch and hit a tree.

See all problems of the 2021 Volkswagen Tiguan 🔎.

- power steering pump pn#5qn-423-055-a, not sure if dealer kept. - risk to both as lost all power steering in winter weather. - yes, confirmed defective by dealer - I do not know if they did additional inspection or send to manufacturer. - on 1/20/24 a yellow power steering light illuminated while driving and steering became more difficult. I took vehicle home and reached out to Volkswagen and then to local service center where I purchased. I was given a date of 2 weeks out at the countryside, IL location and then was told the orland park, IL location could accept my vehicle on 1/23/24 which when I started the vehicle and the yellow light was now red and had completely lost power steering. I had vehicle dropped off in early am. I was told they cannot provide a loaner because they are all out because they have so many vehicles in for repair. I did not get any response about situation for over a week and after few calls a week and half later I was told the rack and pinion needs to be replaced & the part is backordered & not expected until March 7,2014. Could not guarantee because were unaware of quantity & how many need to be fixed before as 1st come 1st served. The service advisor told me they have been experiencing many issues with power steering, engine, turbo, timing chain errors, and a # more of issues throughout their lineup. I asked a percentage and he stated 30-40%, this shocked me completely. He calmly said that they produce so many vehicles that this is a low #? I reached out to countryside,IL told them that I need a vehicle it the interm after negotiation they finally agreed to transfer vehicle to their location and provide a loaner. I was required to to get vehicle there myself on 1/29/14. I was not able to start vehicle because battery was dead, after jump still red light no power steering. Was told that typically they don't do transfers and would have to diagnose again. I received car back on 1/21/24 have less than 10 miles seems ok4now.

See all problems of the 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan 🔎.

My 2018 Tiguan won’t turn on. The dash says, “steering lock fault. Stop!” I towed it to the dealership and they replaced the steering column. Four days later it happened again while I was in the middle of the city at night and couldn’t go anywhere. This is a safety hazard because it could mean even after a repair, it can continue to lock up and not turn on out of no where. Both times there was never any warning given anywhere by the vehicle that this could happen. Just out of the blue it decides not to turn on and gives me that message.

I started to get an "airbag error" message on the dash and then noticed that my horn no longer works, and neither do any of the buttons on either side of the wheel that control the dash menus and sound/phone system. I was able to determine this is a clock spring failure. From what I read, this is not a part that is supposed to wear out or fail from the age of the car and is expected to last the life of the car. Unfortunately, I now have no horn and possibly no airbags and I can't change any view on my dash to look up anything else.

See all problems of the 2017 Volkswagen Tiguan 🔎.

Travel assist warning alarm rings all the time. It has been inspected and the vw dealership said that I need a new steering wheel. Vehicle is available to be inspected at any time. The alarm is completely distracting while driving and that alone is a hazard. Also, with the alarm ringing so sporadically, there's no way to tell if there is a true hazard or not. Inspected by dealership in December 2023, determined that the steering wheel needs to be replaced due to faulty travel assist alarm. I was told the steering wheel is on back order. I found out this week that there is no projected replacement date available! it has not been inspected by anyone other than dealership. The travel assist alarm has been ringing like crazy since November 2023. This car should be recalled. I am paying insurance and a car note for a car that is not safe. My daughter refuses to drive my car even though she's insured on it, because the alarm scares her when she's driving. Please do something.

In September 2022, we began to hear clunking sounds from the front left, especially when turning. We took the vehicle to the vw dealer and were told that there is a known issue with the steering and they will order the part. At this point, the vehicle was still under warranty. For several months, we continued to ask the dealer for an update on the part and were told that it was back-ordered but to continue driving the vehicle, as it was safe to do so. We continued to drive the vehicle as our daily driver. We also informed the vw dealer that the clunking was becoming louder and more prevalent. They continued to tell us the vehicle was safe and the part was back-ordered, with no estimate of when it would be back in stock. We asked about the part every time the vehicle was at the dealer, and called periodically to check in, almost every month until August 2023. At no point did vw reach out to us. Fast forward to September 2023. We took the vehicle to a local mechanic for a routine oil change, and asked that they evaluate the steering. This mechanic told us to stop driving the vehicle immediately as the vehicle could lose steering at any time. I immediately called the dealer and was told again that the vehicle was safe to drive. When I informed the dealer that I had in writing to stop driving the vehicle immediately, they offered us a loaner. The dealer stated there is still no estimated time of delivery for the needed part, and also stated that 800+ vehicles are waiting on the same part. I assume not all these vehicles have been parked & that most remain on the road, unaware that they may lose their steering.

See all problems of the 2019 Volkswagen Tiguan 🔎.

The contact's friend owns a 2016 Volkswagen Tiguan. The contact stated that while driving at various speeds, the power steering assist failed with several unknown warning lights illuminated. The vehicle was taken to a dealer and a diagnostic test was performed. The diagnostic test showed that the vehicle and determined that the steering rack, wheel speed sensors, and engine cooling fans needed to be replaced. The contact's friend declined the repair, and the warning lights remained illuminated. The vehicle was then taken to an independent mechanic who discovered that coolant was leaking into the engine and discovered various engine leaks. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 88,000. The VIN was invalid.

See all problems of the 2016 Volkswagen Tiguan 🔎.

Vehicle was purchased from Volkswagen marin dealership as certified pre-owned 2019 model year Tiguan se 4motion turbo color red on August 24, 2021 and has 18,664 mileage already upon delivery. We have received a recall letter for the water pump & made an appointment to the dealership& brought the car there in vw sunnyvale, CA. . According to the service advisor (tanya) that the recall we are acquiring is not in their database, but oil change service performed on 27,450mileage (estimated) during that scheduled appointment for water pump service recall letter received. My wife paid for oil change service charges and fees itotal amount paid in cash for $450. 00 - now there are issues coming out while driving (1) frequently low tire pressure front r-side (2) airbag icon shows (3) steering wheel steers to the right while driving; (4) the Volkswagen net-software was not activated nor provided. (5) the 4 alloy wheels has like a mirror scratch all over the design of the wheels this are the issues came out in the vehicle that we've purchased and owned possession. . . Please advise ,hoping to get this into your attention and safety concerns is our main priority. Submitted by mr&mrs ramirez DE cartagena.

Steering column locks upon start up. The light is red on the dashboard. You can not power steer the car thus making the car unusable. The code that comes up is to replace the steering rack. This is a $2k part rebuilt and a $3k part new. This is happening on many many vws. Ours failed at 130k miles and 6 years old. I’ve heard of others failing at 80k miles, etc. This is absurd that this is happening! a car is supposed to move and steer that’s what makes it a car. Volkswagen needs to recall this and reimburse those who have paid to have it fixed. The car is incredibly dangerous to drive with the steering rack failing.

Clock spring - crackling sound in steering wheel when turning right and left; airbag indicator.

I've had a 2022 vw Tiguan sel-premium 4-motion for about 1 week. It has approximately 23,000 miles on it. After a few days of problem free driving, the car displays a warning "travel assist currently not available" upon startup and also while driving. The problem sometimes goes away on its own, other times it keeps warning the driver of an error with the system. I've seen in reoccur at least half a dozen times in one week. There is no way to fully disable this system to prevent the warning from occurring. I ran a scan of the error codes, and found code b17b8f2 to be the issue. I cleared the code and then it returned within 15 minutes. Research led me to find this is a very common problem. Vw has issued their own TSB which can be found on this website. TSB transaction no. 2070207/1. It appears the entire steering wheel needs to be replaced to resolve this issue. In my mind, this should be a voluntary recall on all models affected by this problem. It appears this is a manufacturing defect but I've also seen that there is a huge backlog of steering wheels needed before parts can be installed to rectify the situation, leaving owners without a remedy to fix a distracting warning light and sound.

The contact owns a 2010 Volkswagen Tiguan. The contact stated while driving approximately 65 mph, the vehicle lost power steering functionality. The contact stated that the forward momentum allowed her to pull off the roadway. The contact stated that the steering wheel started shaking violently. The contact stated an unknown red warning light was illuminated. The vehicle was turned off and restarted and the power steering functionality returned. The contact stated that the failure was intermittent, however the failure had reoccurred several times. The contact had taken the vehicle to an independent mechanic where it was diagnosed and determined that the power steering assist, and rack and pinion gear needed to be replaced. The vehicle had not been repaired. The manufacturer had not been informed of the failure. The failure mileage was 125,068.

See all problems of the 2010 Volkswagen Tiguan 🔎.

Car was purchased new on 3 oct 2022. I was at dealer on 17 Jul 2023 for the 5th time for issues with infotainment screen going black and/or freezing. Diagnosis revealed it needed another f5 computer chip (the 2nd replacement). In addition, I was informed I needed a new steering wheel. A few days later, lane departure and travel assist function would turn off/on spontaneously, frequently pulling me from my lane. As of 23 Jul 2023, the infotainment screen died. I no longer have a my backup camera which I rely on extensively. In addition, I lost my navigation, apple play, radio, phone charger. Vw has no eta for a replacement parts and stated a loaner was not included in my purchase warranty. I am investigating their buyback program, however that may take over 45 days. I do not feel safe in this vehicle.

Hi dmv, (NHTSA. Gov), the steering light issue, dealer currently do not have an eta, the car is at the dealership still waiting for parts. Is unsafe to drive with this issues because the steering got stuck. Thank you for the opportunity to share this problem. Sincerely george.

Driving down the highway at speed, power steering fails and cannot control the vehicle. Shut the car down and cannot get the issue to go away. Got the car home without power steering. Issue was gone next day. Took car out to see if issue was gone, while making a turn power steering once again fails on the car. Had to limp the car home at a very slow rate of speed. There are many reports of this happening to the vw power steering. The dealer wont even look at the car when I called to see if I can bring it in to be looked at.

See all problems of the 2014 Volkswagen Tiguan 🔎.

A few days prior to this incident, I noticed a crunching noise as I would turn the steering wheel every now and then. As I was turning right to pull into my driveway, I heard the clock spring crunch and finally give up. Airbag light on. Airbag error when I start the car. Steering wheel buttons and horn unresponsive.

See all problems of the 2013 Volkswagen Tiguan 🔎.

The car has always had initial take off problems, pressing the gas to accelerate out of my driveway or any place I’m first taking off at when turning on the vehicle again, the acceleration cuts out in the middle of accelerating and then all of a sudden revs up. That’s with keeping a steady consistent foot on the gas pedal. It jerks down and then jerks up and is not able to avoid. Through the last few months I’ve also noticed involuntary steering-I start to think it’s windy outside pushing me from side to side but the trees are clearly not moving as if it is. Then I was driving today, started it up, got about 5 miles from my house, starting shaking the whole car while accelerating up and the epc and check engine light was blinking. I had to turn around to bring it home, wouldn’t let me go past 35 without shaking intensely but made it back to my driveway.

The power steering won’t kick in and has left me stranded several times. This happens all the time and is a safety issue for sure.

The contact's daughter owns a 2014 Volkswagen Tiguan. The contact stated that while his daughter was driving at an undisclosed speed, the vehicle experienced a loss of power of steering assist. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic, who informed the contact that this was a common failure with the year, make, and model. The contact was informed that the battery needed to be replaced. The vehicle was repaired; however, while parked, the steering wheel seized. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 100,000.

While driving down the road the steering wheel began to wobble and shake really bad and the power steering light came on and then power steering locked up, I was barely able to get out of the way of oncoming traffic which was very difficult for me because I have lupus and not very much strength in my arms. Had to turn car off and restart several times before getting the light to stay off long enough to get home but it was still wobbling, this was a very scary situation for me.

While making a uturn my neighborhood with steering wheel turned to the left I started to hear and feel a "clicking and grinding" noise in steering wheel. Moments later, the airbag error light illuminated on dash and has not turned off. Front driver airbag error, airbag will not deploy in the event of a collision. Horn no longer works. Steering wheel controls do not work. Airbag error warning light displayed on dash and alarms during vehicle ignition. Clock spring seems to be defective and complete power steering failure has happened on multiple occasions, in very dangerous and inconvenient situations (I. E getting on the freeway). Once the engine and computer is powered down and restarted, no longer power steering failure for the time being. No active recall but all sources say this is the recall that has been covered previously. Car is unsafe to drive.

See all problems of the 2012 Volkswagen Tiguan 🔎.

I purchased this vehicle in June 2022 vw of orlando north florida. I had issues with salesperson [xxx] as he caught himself in lies. Anyway, my vehicle has 5,000 miles I keep in excellent condition I was going to detail and add some wheel options when I observed all 4 tires on this vehicle do not match. 3 are scorpions and 1 is pirelli. Which means unbeknownst to me I’ve been driving this new Tiguan and SUV with different tires. I was always aware especially vehicles awd should be fitted with the same tires. This is a violation, a safety hazard. I contacted vw of America, vw orlando and others I will take this incident complaint all the way to the president if I have to when I purchased this vehicle I was charged for ventilated front seats which was included in the car cost. A disclaimer read they are not installed even though there are buttons. The took off $200 I’m not a mathematician but a 2,000 option not connected with a $200 credit appears they made 1800 extra off me. I want this investigated, as a former law officer I know this is illegal and a very bad safety issue especially regarding the mismatched tires [xxx]. It appears this dealership is selling cars with dangerous tires what else did they cheat on. Thank you information redacted pursuant to the freedom of information act (foia), 5 u. S. C. 552(b)(6).

Power steering goes out randomly after cold weather, even while driving. There is no warning before the power steering goes out. I have almost crashed into another car several times because of this. Many people have had this exact problem with this make and model.

See all problems of the 2009 Volkswagen Tiguan 🔎.

While driving the vehicle, frequent faults stating "travel assist is currently not available" display on the instrument cluster, along with a warning light. During this time, the travel assist features can not be used. The error occurs randomly, and can happen multiple times back to back - it is not uncommon for the car's warning sound to alarm 10 or more times in a 20 minute drive. Scans of the vehicles's modules show multiple communication errors stemming back to the "control module for steering wheel touch detention". After taking the car to the dealership for an official diagnosis, it was determined that the steering wheel is indeed faulty and must be replaced. The car had just under 6000 miles prior to being brought to the dealership for diagnosis.

Unknown.

When I first purchased my vehicle the epc came on multiple times and I had to take it back to the dealership. Fast forward last week when I was going home on the eway same issues car wouldn’t accelerate the car was idled at the speed of 40mph it wouldn’t go any faster for a few minutes then it took off out of no where. Also when I was taking my kids to school I was making a left turn and lost control of my vehicle because it was idled and took off out of no where. That’s not safe for me my kids or any passengers traveling with me. It’s also not safe for other drivers or pedestrians. Very scary moment took my vehicle in that same day to be told it was battery issues. They claimed because the epc light wasn’t on it’s harder to diagnose to get another battery and to keep the car overnight to see if that works if not further diagnose the car. I picked my vehicle up had my battery inspected by a different service provider and was told the battery was just fine. I keep reaching out to the location I got the vehicle from their not correcting the issue and corporate just told me to go to another dealership and gave a im sorry about your frustration comment. Clearly the car has a defect always had one since day one when it was supposed to be a cpo vehicle in the first place. And I had issues the same week I purchased the vehicle. Also haven’t had my car a year and I’m having all kind of issues.

Airbag light came on. At the same time we lost all of our steering wheel controls as well as our horn. Some vehicles are covered by a recall but supposedly this yr and model isn't covered for some reason.

My vehicle has been to the dealer multiple times for a well-known and common error: travel assist unavailable. My dealer is saying that the steering wheel needs to be replaced, but the parts are 200+ on back order with no update on when they will come in. This is a major design flaw with this vehicle.

I suffered a front-end collision on 11/15/2022 in my 2017 vw Tiguan. I was going on I-66 in virginia 40-45mph back to college at howard university, and a car stopped suddenly after being cut off, but it was raining horribly and I was in half a foot of water, so even with braking, I hydroplaned into the vehicle in front of me, causing insubstantial damage to them but very significant damage to my vehicle as well as whiplash.

The clock spring failed in my steering wheel. There is no active horn or airbag for the drivers side. None of the steering wheel system works. The steering wheel was making a clicking sound for a week and then one night the airbag error light came on and has stayed on. The vehicle was taken to vw they said it is the clockspring that needs to be replaced but they are on back order for months.

The dealership for my vehicle is over 70 miles away. My battery died and I went and replaced it. When I did all sorts of lights came on in my car, my power steering wouldn’t work, my cruise control wouldn’t work, and my ac wouldn’t work. I took it to the dealership to see what was going on with it. It turns out my battery was placed backwards in my car and when that happened it fried the fuse for my entire system, it broke my ac unit, it broke my alternator, and messed up my electrical system. Yes I do believe there is a risk to my safety with this issue. I could not turn my car when I drove it. I was told by service representative that this has been happening a lot more often with people who are just trying to change the battery. The only time the vehicle was inspected was by the service department at the dealership. No they’re weren’t any problems prior to failure and they appeared after the battery was placed.

Steering wheel lock every time I start the engine.

While driving steering became very stiff and I could not turn the car. The red steering icon lit up on the dashboard and a gurgling sound was coming out from underneath the dash. The car only has 50,000 miles and I have never experienced a steering problem the car was nearly underivable. I took it to the dealer and they stated there was a 50851 fault torque sensor reading out of range and the steering rack had to be replaced with updated harness tierods and related hardware.