VW DSG reader stories round 2- Failures reported in non-recall models

Published August 26, 2009 by Zane Merva

It’s time for round two of reader-submitted Volkswagen DSG failure stories. Today we have three stories, each bringing new light to how widespread the DSG failure issues may be while posing an entirely scary question- Is the current recall just the tip of the iceburg? You don’t want to miss this.

UPDATE: Volkswagen announces new recall of 53,000 vehicles and service program to address DSG issues

Read round one here- How long has Volkswagen/Audi known about DSG recall related failures?

Our first email comes from Dr. C. Kolodny, who owns a 2009 Jetta TDI and despite experiencing the “flash of death” , his dealer refuses to fix the transmission under the recent Volkswagen/Audi recall.

Dr K. writes:

Our 09 Jetta TDI transmission failed at 8000-mi. Went into and stuck in neutral at highway speed. The dealer said it was working fine when towed in and said VW of N America would not authorize any going into transmission. Now the big recall 3 mos. later. Guess what? My VIN is not being recalled. Again they will not do anything! My wife and kids are at their mercy again!

I asked Dr K. to elaborate:

Dear Zane, the car is DSG. At 8000 mi. it went into neutral at highway speed and the idiot lights on the instrument panel all flashed continuously. It would not go into gear for 75 min. until the tow truck came and towed it to Autobahn VW in Fort Worth. When the truck came, the trans. had started working again but we of course had it towed anyway. The dealer said that he had never heard of this problem before (if you can believe that now) and that VW would NOT authorize any going into the transmission. He said that they would Reset??? it. I seriously doubt that they did anything at all. I called VW of N. America and spoke with someone in customer care fairly high up in the chain and threatened legal action if they did nothing and put my wife and two young kids in this potential position again. He would not budge. Now they tell me that my VIN is NOT on the recall list and they will absolutely do nothing! I called today and argued rather vehemently with a customer care supervisor and threatened legal action which I may well pursue. The mishap occurred about 3 months ago. Has not repeated itself though I have NO doubt that it will. Now has 15000 on it. Feel free to publish any of the above. Respectfully, C. Kolodny

Also a TDI owner, Kurt K from Orlando, Florida writes:

We purchased a 2009 VW Sports wagon TDI several months ago from David Maus VW in Orlando Florida. This problem started soon after we purchased it. We took the vehicle in for the 90 day inspection and reported the problem. They returned the car stating it was a faulty connector. The flash of death continued while my wife was traveling on the interstate. She parked the car gave me the keys and said “I am not driving this vehicle until this is fixed” I had the vehicle towed to the dealer and they told me they could not find the problem or get the vehicle recreate the transmission failure. I spent hours on the phone with VW of America and they never told me of this DSG sensor issue. My friend sent me the article Saturday and now they are replacing the sensor. The sportswagon has been at the dealer since 8/14/09 for the second time and we have yet to get it back as of 8/25/09 0530. We may get it back today but we have lost faith in VW and fear we have a lemon on our hands with 3,300 miles on a vehicle that should go 300,000 miles.

Up early today had a nightmare of a head on collision and was unable to get back to sleep. Not sure if it was related to the “Flash of Death” but It will take a lone time before we are comfortable with this vehicle.

We’ve even received an email from China.

I am a VW owner in China. We have exactly same DSG problem in China. The only different is that VW China ignore us and won’t recall. I will show you a video first:

This video shows that the VW car lose power when people were driving on highway with a speed of 140 km/h. It’s horrible! There were at least 13 people had such problem in China, who had reported online. VW China just said “there is no such problem in China.” I hope you can report this issue.

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So what’s the deal Volkswagen? We find it hard to believe that while only certain models with the DSG transmission are being recalled, other vehicles with the same exact transmission are perfectly fine. We encourage not only Dr K. and Kurt K. to keep on pressuring VW to make things right, but anyone who thinks their vehicle may have an issue with its DSG transmission whether it’s on the recall list or not.

As always, we welcome you to share your DSG transmission stories with us.

4 Responses to “VW DSG reader stories round 2- Failures reported in non-recall models”

Airman Lam Says:
August 26th, 2009 at 4:57 pm

I have the same issue with my 2009 JETTA TDI (under 1 month old and under 1000 miles). I purchased my car at an off base military car sales dealer in ITALY, so it is US spec. I typed my VIN number in the recall website and my car is not listed. I get this problem daily now but sometimes only for a split second while I’m driving (shoots up to 5,000+ RPMS when driving at low speeds). It even happened to me while I was using cruise control. So far I have had to rent a car from the dealership over this issue and others (rear passenger window malfunctioning and opening all by it’s lonesome, and center console plastic popping out of place). VW better make this right….

Rod White Says:
August 29th, 2009 at 12:20 pm

Have 2009 GTI, problem with flashing gear lights occured at 1100 miles. Brought it to dealer where I bought it in Laurel, MD. They had it 2 days, could not duplicate or find the problem. Two days later, happened again, was stuck at an intersection. Brought it to a different dealer in College Park, MD. Within one hour they diagnosed and found the problem was the trans. temp sensor. I was in contact with VW Customer Care during this process which helped. I also emailed NHTSA about it and they replied and asked me to send them my service invoices and I did, as well as 10-12 pages of message board posts with others having the same exact problem. I’d like to think I helped a tiny bit in having the recall become official, since NHTSA was in contact with me about this safety problem. Thank God!

Scott Says:
September 1st, 2009 at 4:46 pm

Another interesting note in this sago of the DSG recall: On Aug 28th, VWGOA issued a press release about the Mechatronic unit in addition to their standing recall of the faulty sensor. In this latest press release, they state that the company will extend its New Vehicle Limited Warranty to cover DSG transmissions affected by the customer service program (Mechatronic unit) and the voluntary safety recall (sensor) to 10 year/100K miles. When I called the VW Loyalty Center on Sept 1st, they had NO idea of what I was talking about and would not confirm the press release!! This is getting SCARY!

Gary D Says:
December 28th, 2009 at 10:12 pm

Reminds me of why I hate DSG. With that said VW should buck up in these cases. They are usually good about this kind of stuff, so I’m not sure why they are playing hardball in what should be a pretty obvious problem.