63 of the
2,009 complaints filed about the Volkswagen Golf
are about the throttle and cruise control —
3% of everything owners reported.
The worst model year for it is 2001.
63
Complaints
3%
Share of all complaints
9
Crashes
0
Fires
Acceleration & Cruise Control complaints by model year
The contact owns a 2015 Volkswagen Golf. The contact stated that the vehicle jumped the curb while driving, but he was able to regain control. The driver turned off the vehicle and restarted it. Recently, while reversing out of a parking spot and placing the vehicle into drive, there was sudden acceleration, and he crashed into a fence in front of the dumpsters. The brake pedal was applied, but the vehicle continued to accelerate. The contact's neighbor was jumping up and down in front of my vehicle, waving his arms; the driver was able to stop approximately six feet in front of his neighbor. The vehicle was turned off. While reversing, the vehicle accelerated and crashed into a parked Jeep, causing damage to the driver's side front and rear doors. There was no police report filed, air bag deployment, fire, or injuries. Additionally, the EPC has been turning on. The engine was chugging. The vehicle was restarted, and the light cleared. On one occasion, the EPC light stayed on, and cylinder number 5 had stopped firing. The local dealer was not contacted. The vehicle was not diagnosed or repaired. The manufacturer was contacted. Additionally, the contact wanted to send the complaint copy to the insurance company and manufacturer to obtain the EDR to provide to the police and insurance company for his claim approval. The failure mileage was approximately 114,500.
NHTSA complaint #11708381 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The contact owns a 2017 Volkswagen Golf. The contact stated that while the vehicle was parked and occupied, while attempting to depress the accelerator pedal, the vehicle independently accelerated and crashed into a parking lot barrier. The contact stated that none of the air bags deployed. There was no injury sustained. No medical attention was required. A police report was not filed. The contact stated that the vehicle was not diagnosed by a dealer or independent mechanic. The vehicle was towed to an Auto Body Shop. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not deemed a total loss. The contact related the failure to an article read online on Edmonds Auto Reviews. The approximate failure mileage was 96,000.
NHTSA complaint #11696778 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
While driving with the cruise control set to 55 mph, the car began an uncommanded acceleration. When I looked down on the dashboard display I noticed that the cruise control target speed was set to 95 mph. I switched of the cruise control and resumed manual control of the speed. When I switch the cruise control back on I observed the target speed rapidly increase from the intended 55 mph to 95 mph accompanied by moderate vehicle acceleration. I again switched off the cruise control and resumed manual control of the speed. Sometime later during the drive a cruise control error message appeared on the dashboard. Subsequently the problem was identified as a faulty cruise control switch (part number 5G0-959-442-AE-ICX). The switch was replaced and the fault has not reoccurred over a few hundred miles of driving. While this malfunction can be overridden using the normal cruise control disconnect procedures, uncommanded acceleration poses a safety risk to driver and other motorists or pedestrians.
NHTSA complaint #11621140 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Infotainment center will randomly go into "component protection" mode, and the center console will become stuck in a loop of rebooting. While component protection is active, the following systems become unavailable: Backup camera, radio, climate controls, advanced driver assist systems, park assist system, drive mode button, cruise control Situations that have occurred to me personally: Climate control fan becomes stuck on high, radio stops functioning, radio power button does not respond, parking menu button does not respond, car drive mode button does not respond, advanced driver sensor assist button does not respond, climate control button does not respond. Attempt to resolve this issue through Volkswagen certified technicians 6+ times.
NHTSA complaint #11583431 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
My clock spring has failed three times now the first few times I had it fixed at the dealership but my warranty is now no longer valid once since I bought it from the dealership and it has failed again saying my airbags deployed and none of my features on my steering wheel work at all not even my paddle shifters and nor does my horn. And this has happened every time all those things have not worked when it is gone faulty.
NHTSA complaint #11546976 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
While driving suddenly falsely detects obstructions and auto brakes , the acc system entirely turns on and off while driving , same with forward collision and lane keep assist. The dangers I’m having of auto braking on false obstructions is unfit for driving daily and is causing a road hazard as it almost has made me have accidents.
NHTSA complaint #11531206 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Over the last two months, I've had over 30 incidences where the car will either randomly shift extremely hard into a gear or will hesitate, stutter, lose power while accelerating. Some of the shifts have been so hard that they've thrown me forward. Some of the losses of power are extremely dangerous as I'm accelerating at highway speeds. I have a full log of at least 30 of these incidents (and detailed as best I could) and they are attached. I picked May 11th because that was the hardest shift/loss of power which caused me the greatest harm. I've been able to reproduce the errors in drive, sport, and Tiptronic mode. The errors occur in all gears, but are most common in 2nd and 3rd (although the higher gears are involved as well), which leads me to believe it's not the transmission, yet the mechatronics unit or something outside of the transmission and engine itself. The troubling issue here is that the car is recording absolutely zero fault codes for diagnosis; that is, the car is shifting, stuttering, hesitating randomly and erratically and no diagnostics are being provided to resolve the issue. Technicians are able to guess what the issue is, but cannot give a guarantee what the problem is without the fault codes. This is the greatest safety concern, but luckily no crashes so far. I was interested to learn that there was a recall on the same model by the Australian government related to the pressure accumulator and I'd like to see if this could be the issue, since I'm experiencing the same symptoms as those described in the recall: https://www.vehiclerecalls.gov.au/recalls/rec-005369. The contact stated that the loss of power issue still persists. The contact stated the issue is a faulty crank trigger.
NHTSA complaint #11525100 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The shift knob for the manual transmission broke off the shift assembly while accelerating and merging onto the freeway. This is what happened the first time the knob broke off. It has happened 3 times due to the part being physically broken. My safety and the safety of others was at risk. When a car is moving at speed and no longer has the option to shift into a higher gear, you become stuck at a slower speed and this happens very suddenly. If you apply brake then the engine will loose RPM and stall out causing the car to loose control of acceleration suddenly and could result in lose of control. This is stated in the VW owners manual under how to drive a manual transmission. The issue has been confirmed by the local dealership and by VW corporate. The component has been inspected my VW dealership. The vehicle has zero warnings or ways to monitor this.
NHTSA complaint #11507364 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
First, the airbag warning light came on, then followed by the horn not working and cruise control was lost. I also suspecting the power steering is also gone. This is related to the clock spring failure from my research online. This should have been recall because this is a safety hazard.
NHTSA complaint #11503331 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Manual shifter knob has popped off while driving a number of times with virtually no effort (I'm not a hard shifter at all) and primarily when at speed and other dangerous times. Seems to be a poorly crafted plastic clip that is being reported by numerous manual transmission owners.
NHTSA complaint #11492517 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
The car idles rough during initial cold start up, intermittently hesitates during acceleration and feels like it misfires during cruising. My dealer found that the ignition timing was retarded by 5º and told me to use better gas, citing a VW field service action (https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2020/MC-10176770-0001.pdf). The problem persisted after they treated the fuel. The car has never thrown a code causing the check engine light to turn on, and so the dealer has declined to investigate further. My records show the car was only filled with premium fuel, using VW recommended brands (BP, Exxon, Mobil, Shell) in the 2,000 miles prior to the service appointment and was only filled with regular fuel twice (due to the Colonial Pipeline shutdown) since the car was delivered new from the dealer.
NHTSA complaint #11431238 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
Intermittent warning light on dash indicating, "Cruise control system malfunction".The owner's manual says to have the system checked by Volkswagen. The dealer said the vehicle is operating normally. I first noticed this the day after service action code 24FX was completed on 4/8/21. I noticed this four more times since.
NHTSA complaint #11428235 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2018 VOLKSWAGEN GOLF. ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS, WHILE DRIVING, THE VEHICLE ACCELERATED WITHOUT WARNING. THE CONTACT TOOK THE VEHICLE TO SUNTRUP VOLKSWAGEN (LOCATED AT 6000 S LINDBERGH BLVD, ST LOUIS, MO 63123, (314) 892-8200) FOUR TIMES, BUT THEY WERE UNABLE TO DUPLICATE THE FAILURE. DIAGNOSTICS REVEALED A FAULTY VALVE, WHICH WAS REPLACED. THE VEHICLE WAS NOT REPAIRED. THE CONTACT ALSO STATED THAT THE VEHICLE WOULD ALSO ACCELERATE WHILE ON AN INCLINE. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOTIFIED OF THE FAILURE. THE APPROXIMATE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 16,000. *BF CONSUMER STATED VOLKSWAGEN IS UNDER NO OBLIGATION TO HONOT THEIR WARRANTY AS LONG AS THEY MAINTAIN THAT MY CAR IS OPERATING NORMALLY. 'PARTS OF THIS DOCUMENT HAVE BEEN REDACTED TO PROTECT PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6).'
NHTSA complaint #11220197 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
WHILE IN THE NUMBER 2 LANE ON THE FREEWAY, USING CRUISE CONTROL, WE APPROACHED A SEMI TRUCK IN THE NUMBER 3 LANE. WE WERE MOVING MORE QUICKLY THAN THE SEMI TRUCK AND DID NOT CHANGE LANES NOR DID THE SEMI TRUCK. THE FREEWAY WAS STRAIGHT. THE AUTOMATIC BRAKING SYSTEM TURNED ON AND ENGAGED THE BRAKES WHEN OUR CAR REACHES APPROXIMATELY THE REAR AXLE OR IS NEXT TO THE BACK MIDDLE OF THE SEMI TRUCK. BRAKES ENGAGE IN THE SAME FASHION THEY DO AS IF THERE WAS A HAZARD IN FRONT OF US. TO BE CLEAR, NOTHING AT ALL IS IN FRONT OF US, JUST THE SEMI TRUCK TO OUR RIGHT.
NHTSA complaint #11210177 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
TAKATA RECALL HAVING AN ISSUE WITH ACC OR ADAPTIVE CRUISE CONTROL, INFO SCREEN SAYS ACC NOT AVAILABLE, THIS IS SECOND TIME HAPPENING, FIRST TIME DEALER SAID IT JUST NEEDS CALIBRATION, IT JUST HAPPENED AGAIN. THE CAR IS STILL UNDER WARRANTY, ONCE IT EXPIRES AND IT HAPPENED AGAIN, IT WILL BE OUT OF POCKET EXPENSE. PLEASE TAKE ACTION TO THIS MATTER, MULTIPLE PEOPLE BEEN HAVING SAME ISSUE.
NHTSA complaint #11066846 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
TL* THE CONTACT OWNS A 2016 VOLKSWAGON GOLF. WHILE DRIVING VARIOUS SPEEDS, THE VEHICLE EXPERIENCED UNINTENDED ACCELERATION WHILE BEING OPERATED IN SECOND AND THIRD GEARS. THE CONTACT INDICATED THAT THE VEHICLE'S SPEED WOULD INCREASE BY APPROXIMATELY 35 MPH WITHOUT DEPRESSING THE ACCELERATOR PEDAL. THE FAILURE WAS INTERMITTENT AND WOULD OFTEN OCCUR AFTER THE VEHICLE HAD NOT BEEN DRIVEN FOR SEVERAL HOURS. THE VEHICLE WAS TAKEN TO SEVERAL DEALERS WHO INDICATED THAT THE ISSUE WAS A CHARACTERISTIC OF THE VEHICLE AND NO FAILURE WAS FOUND. THE MANUFACTURER WAS NOTIFIED OF THE FAILURE. THE FAILURE MILEAGE WAS 3,000.
NHTSA complaint #10984229 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
WHEN VW UPDATED THE SOFTWARE TO CORRECT THE DEFECTIVE CAMSHAFT, THEY DISABLED THE CRUISE CONTROL FEATURES AND ARE UNABLE AND UNWILLING TO CORRECT, THE VEHICLE IS RUNNING WHEN THIS DISABLED FEATURE IMPACTS THE CAR UNDER ALL DRIVING CONDITIONS.
NHTSA complaint #10915886 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.
DRIVING AT HIGHWAY SPEED (60MPH) ENGINE SHUT DOWN ABRUBTLY AND GLOW PLUG WARNING LIGHT CAME ON. THIS RESULTED IN HAVING TO COAST ACROSS THREE LANES OF TRAFFIC WITH DIFFICULTY IN STEERING AND BRAKING TO NARROW SHOULDER AREA. ENGINE WOULD CRANK OVER BUT NOT RESTART. VEHICLE TOWED TO DEALER. DIAGNOSIS IS HIGH PRESSURE FUEL PUMP FAILURE, A KNOWN ISSUE WITH THESE VEHICLES.
NHTSA complaint #10899262 — an unverified report by a vehicle owner.