Volkswagen Passat 2005 and earlier

8u6hfd

YOu'll have to spend a lot of money for an aftermarket Nav system

morenike

Please quantify 'a lot of money'.
thx

clpurnell

Aftermarket NAVs come in a variety of forms. There is no factory nav for the Passat. You can get a portable unit like the Street Pilot III for 700-900. Or if you want to replace the stereo you can go for a unit from Alpine or pioneer (total cost about 1500-2000. The alpine and pioneer are dvd based and very similar to what you would get in a factory nav equipped vehicles.

8u6hfd

For example...the Nav system is $1700 MSRP. The Monitor is $650. This is retaining the factory stereo, but you need to find a place to but the Nav system and the monitor.

Let's say you want to put it where the radio is at, then it jumps to $3100, which includes the Nav system and radio with pop up screen.

5speeder

That A pillar is a monster. I've found it can easily hide a pedestrian in a crosswalk from me while making a right turn. (No, I didn't hit her but I did find it a bit startling when she "disappeared" into the A pillar as I waited for her to cross)

markcincinnati

I don't read German well, but I signed onto the German VW site and I thought I configured a Passat with Sat Nav. Now I agree you can't do that TODAY on VWUS models.

I assume with the new Touareg and Phaeton's which do have sat nav available, that VW's across the board will at least soon begin to offer this as an option -- On*Star should be here soon, too.

I would only add the in-dash models that are offered by Pioneer, Alpine, Blaupunkt, etc -- the Neverlost systems (like in rental cars) would be targets for damage and theft in my opinion.

vocus

Maybe either the wax at the car wash made the trim discolor, or else the heat from drying did it. Since it's so new, you might wanna see what the dealer will say about it.

stephenmbell

Hello all, I have an '03 GLX -- had it for 3 weeks to the day! Yesterday in my area, we experienced heavy rain, and I had my wipers on the "Rain Sensing" mode. Then the wipers would stop in the middle of the window?!? I would go to turn them off and they would just stop where they were? When I pushed the wiper lever down, I would get nothing.

Then after a while everything was back to normal. Then later that night this happened again. Have any of you heard of this?

Thanks

arjay1

We hear a lot from our new Passat owners, which is great.
I am curious what some of our original owners of older, higher mileage Passats think. Has the car lived up to expectations? How has wear and tear been?
I purchased my 2000 Passat 1.8t in May of 2000. I just turned 50,000 miles and have not had any repairs to date. I am still on the original tires as well as breaks and am curious about some of our other "more experienced" owners.
This is my third VW and could not be happier at this point.
R. J.

georgek44

I taking it in for service next week - the check engine light and "Emissions Workshop 1" came on. This is the first problem I have had in more than 96K+ miles other than two very minor things not done at delivery and some minor damage.

The sales staff and managers at my dealership could correctly be described as lying dirtbags, but the service department always has been efficient and honest.

trmichaels

Hi.... I'm having some sort of electrical problem with the Monsoon system in my '02 Passat... it has no power going to it all of a sudden. The red security light flashes like it always does when the car is not on, but when the car IS on, the whole unit has no power (but the security light continues to flash.

This happened to me once before, and somehow it corrected itself. This time its been a week, and I'm starting to lose hope that will happen again! The one thing I can think of that MAY have caused this..... I returned to my parked car one day to close the sunroof... I turned the key to "accessory" just long enough to close the sunroof (and prob. long enough for other accessories to start coming on, including the Monsoon). When I next got in the car, the radio unit had no power.

I'm going on a long drive this weekend and want to hear some tunes! Has anyone had this same problem???? (P.S. I checked the fuse box, and even swapped fuses with another accessory to see if that would help. It didn't)

8u6hfd

Go to the fuse panel in the dash board.

Locate fuse #42

Remove it for about a minute

INsert fuse #42

Use radio.

You'll have to reset some stations.

trmichaels

8u6hfd... Thanks for the fuse box tip.... I was all eager to go try your suggestion, until I opened the fuse panel and discovered that I have no fuse in slot #42 (several of the fuse slots are empty - the car came this way). The pictures on the fuse panel card are very cryptic, it's hard to determine what some of them are for. The one you mentioned has a picture of what looks like a tent with a circular arrow encircling it. Whatever it stands for, I obviously don't have it on my car!

Any other suggestions? Ones I should try removing? Thanks for your expertise!

jcat707

I have a 1999 Satin Silver VW Passat GLS 1.8T Tiptronic. It has been great. My parents bought it new back in 1999 and they gave it to me in 2001. It only had 16,000 miles when my parents gave it to me and now it has 27,000. It has been great for these past 4 years. The only major problem that I have had with my Passat was that the sunroof suddenly stopped working but that was fixed under warranty. The minor problems that I have been having are the excessive amounts of brake dust on the wheels and my headlights and taillights burning out all of the time. Other that that, the P-mobile has been great. I wouldn't trade it for the world. When I go off to college next year, this Passat will be right there with me the whole 4 or 5 years is nothing unexpected happens to it.

warhawk5

Maybe the security system in the radio got tripped somehow? Have you tried punching in the radio code? If the security light is still flashing when the car is on, that might be your problem.

mshoak

I second that response. Have you changed your battery lately? Have you done anything that would affect the power supply to the battery? It sounds to me like it was tripped somehow. See your manual for directions on how to enter the code.

vocus

The same thing happend with my Jetta when I had it. I took it to the dealership though, and on the paper it said they 'reprogrammed' the radio when I got it back. I don't know if they did the fuse trick or not though, and didn't try it myself because I didn't know about it at that time.

gatorsnap

I believe I posted about this earlier, but I had this problem with my monsoon - went out to start the car and the monsoon was dead as a doornail - I took it to the dealer and the mechanic went in a pulled a fuse, counted to ten, put it back in, and everthing worked hunky-dory. He said if it did it again they would replace the monsoon.

    I guess if you can't figure which fuse goes to the radio you could pull each one, count to ten and put it back in.

    Now the bad part of my story - I have now found out that it isn't just the radio that does this. I came out from work to go home (on a 105 deg afternoon) and my climatronic (A/C) was dead. I took it straight to the dealer and nabbed the same mechanic out of the service bay. He checked all the fuses, and sure enough one was blown. He replaced it and it blew again. He replaced the control module and it blew another fuse. So he said I need to bring it in in the morning so he could trace the short. At that time he thought a blower motor was roasted.
     The next morning the short was gone. They tried all kinds of combinations (like opening sunroof while moving electric seat with the windshield wipers on) and nothing would blow it.
     The A/C works like a champ right now, but I don't have a clue if and when it will bug out again.
     I still love my car - it is just too smooth at 115. Just hope I don't blow a fuse when I'm really cooking along.
 
     Gator

ppage

I just replaced my fuel pump on my 2000 passat wagon after it died and I had to tow it. I had to tow it again 3 weeks later for a dead bad battery. Today, my car died again while driving it. I had to have it towed. I have 50,000 mi. on it. I read that some folks had problems with their alternator and also something about the fuel coils? Obviously it was not the fuel pump($600). I saved the old one. Any ideas? This is it. I am selling the car. I am now afraid to drive the darn car! It sputters and dies at lights. It always starts but it wont keep going once you put it into gear. I am just sick about this car. It is so beautiful and fast but I paid way too much to have such a unreliable car. My hope is to get it fixed and pass it on to a dealer for a trade in honda. If you drive a VW, you better have a AAA card and honda key in your back pocket.

outrun

Better bring a pillow and blanket, cause it'll put you to sleep as your driving.

They're about as much fun as a root canal.

-Craig

ppage

ok, I won't get a honda because I hate root canals...how about that young yuppie Scion? anyway, i would have preferred some advice this morning on some choice words to get the dealer to fix my passat but the honda joke sure made me laugh! thanks.

outrun

I'm just being an [non-permissible content removed]. Honda makes great cars. The new Accord is very nice, but still lacks some key features that the Passat has had for years.

I would consider an Accord EX 4cyl with 5 speed manual as a replacement for my Passat, but it doesn't have curtain air bags. Instant elimination for me.

Oh, it also doesn't have side mirror defrosters (no Accord in the US does).

-Craig

vocus

I have to agree with you on what you said about the Hondas. The 03 Accord EX V6 drove very nice, but I resent having to purchase the top line model just to get traction control and side airbags when every Passat has both of those features standard. Especially since the Passat's design is 5 years old and the Accord is all new. The Accord also doesn't have ESP, which is available for $280 MSRP on any Passat.

catherine9

I totally agree with what Vocus and Craig have said. I've been looking for a car more reliable than my 2000 Golf, but with as many safety features, and in the same price range. I can't find anything. I would lease the Saab 9-3 in a second if I knew for sure the car would be more reliable. The Civic gets good safety ratings, but at 2500 lbs, I doubt that I could walk away if hit by a 4500 lb. SUV. Any suggestions?

outrun

All those 5 star side impact crash ratings that the Accord gets is very misleading. Look at the HIC scores (head impact). The star ratings don't include those. The Accord (non curtain airbags) number is way above (worse) than the Passat, yet the Passat got 4 stars.

I'd rather have a broken ankle than a broken head.

-Craig

ppage

Well,well, well. This morning as I am towing my passat wagon for the 3rd time in 5 days, AAA states that I have run out of free tows and that now on until my renewal in Dec. every call will cost $53. After leaving my car at the VW dealer all day and the mechanic calling me for my keyless key to get in the glove compartment so he can check out the "electrical system", 15 root canals would be less painful than todays repair. In the end, the guy tells me that "we forgot to change the fuel filter at your 40,000 maintenance so it was dirt getting into the system! I then request my $600 back from the new fuel pump they put in 3 weeks ago. Obviously the fuel pump was fine, it was just a dirty filter. The mechanic could not follow my logic. So, while I no longer have my AAA card, i still have the honda key in my back pocket but I feel better knowing that my VW has outsmarted the mechanic and it's the mechanic and not my car that needs a hit on the head and the honda key. But I will say that I went into the dealership using all sorts of lingo about recalls on emission coils etc, that I picked up from car talk. I also told them that my whole neighborhood now knew my car was a lemon and that my brother in law worked for a radio station called "5 on your side". Who knows what really worked but all the excitement seemed to get the neurons going in the mental midget mechanic. Thanks for making me laugh today.Actually, I would consider a Mitsubishi Outlander but it does'nt come in a V6 yet. I am not quite ready to give up on the VW luxury yet I guess.

jcat707

ppage:I just had a root canal performed today and there was no pain at all. I wouldn't mind getting another one done tomorrow.

everyone: I don't really see the problem with having problems with a car. I can see the problem when you are out of warranty but during the warranty, i feel that people should stop complaining. If your car has a problem, just take it back to the dealership and have them fix it. From my experience, you always get a loaner car and all of my loaner cars have been equal to or better than the car in service. I know what some people might say, "If i paid $30-$40,000 for my car, it shouldn't have any problems." but every car will have some kind of problem and to fix it, just take it back to the dealership.

ppage

jcat:are you one of those who love pain or are you still under the influence of novacaine? Anyway, I was complaining about my passat because the warranty is expired and the car is 30 months old and has been towed 5 times, at my expense, and i paid $600 for a fuel pump that apparantly I did not need. My car was undriveable for 7 days. The mechanic forgot to replace the fuel filter at the 40,000 mi check up. Here in Ca. we may recall our gov. but it's impossible to recall mechanics mistakes. We also watch the environment so dealers don't give out loaners, we walk to work! Where do you live? Must be somewhere in the midwest...everbody in the midwest is honest. Will you call the dealer for me and get my money back? I sure would appreciate it.

ufgators

There was a post a while back about expensice headlight replacement. The halogen headlamps and Daytime Running Lamps are covered under the warranty, so if you have extra time your dealership can replace them for free!

bjbird2

"I would consider a Mitsubishi Outlander but it doesn't come in a V6 yet"

Isn't the Outlander the SUV that failed the rollover tests, and as a result had an exclusive article in Consumer Reports about how unsafe it is? Doesen't sound like a good replacement for the Passat.

chrisboth

...get rid of the car immediately. I'm not being fececious and i owned a 01.5 indigo blue v-6. It was repurchased under lemon law for airbag malfunction 4 times plus a few other idiosyncracies regarding not starting and instrument cluster freaking and some other electrical components going bad (horn, window controls) If you have problems that are documented from the first year or 12k miles forward, speak to an attorney...trust me. Speak to one anyway. I read the PA law and thought i had no chance and then spoke to an attorney who got it all back for me in 3 months - taxes, registration and interest too.

I am adamant that once these cars start to have ANY electrical issues they are doomed. Sell sell sell. IF you have one that is working fine, you are lucky and you have a great car that will perform for years apparently. The regional manager who did my repurchase suggested that most german cars once a problem is identified in electrical system, it is a phantom problem machine for the rest of its life...The new 7 series is my attorneys most repurchased car right now as it has so much stuff running through miles of fiber optics that the old WWII 12 volt systems fail 1.5 per hundred or something like that.

Now i still find myself missing the car immensely even with new g35. I may still try the new one out next year for girlfriend who misses mine but would never ever own without warranty. Also reccommended one to my boss who purcashed last week....all this after lemon law. May be best passenger car out there...when they work properly. God that blue was pretty and i got more comments on passat than i ever do on G35 -imagine that.

quan69

Are daytime running lamps considered wear-and-tear items? Meaning that they're not covered after 12 months?

caw103

i must be missing something you wrote but why would you keep taking it back to the same incompetent dealership? better yet why have a dealership perform non-warranty service instead of an independent (less expensive) mechanic?

caw103

the bulbs are but not the actual projectors

outrun

Bulbs are covered under the 4/50 warranty. I just had a fog light replaced under warranty at 20k miles.

-Craig

tc3375

I have a 03 1.8T passat that is great, but my Monsoon system as well has some hiss to it and a buzz in the rear driver side tweeter, anyone else with this problem? Also, how hard would it be to add 2 10 inch subs with an amp without compromising warranty?

garvinl

What the heck is wrong with this car? The fuel gauge reads full after 100 plus miles of driving. Then before my eyes, the fuel gauge jumps up and down reading empty to half full. Asked the dealer about this and they say they have never heard of this problem. They also say since the "problem" is not happening in front of their eyes, they can't resolve it. I've read other similar posts regarding this problem and VW's similar responses. What can I do to get this fixed?

gacman99

Do you have 4motion? I remember hearing that some of those cars had problems with their fuel gauges due to the shape of the fuel tanks (something like a saddle). If you don't have awd it should be the gauge or the sender unit and not that difficult to fix.

outrun

There is a recall on the fuel sending unit.

Here's the line from alldata.com:

Bulletins for 2001 Volkswagen Passat GLS L4-1781cc 1.8L Turbo (AUG)

RECALLUR SEP 01 Campaign - Fuel Level Sending Unit Replacement

Go to a dealership, tell them about the recall, and have them fix it for free. They can't tell you they're not going to replace it because they can't see it - the recall is a mandatory fix.

This also applies to V6 GLS models.

-Craig

garvinl

What the heck is wrong with this car? The fuel gauge reads full after 100 plus miles of driving. Then before my eyes, the fuel gauge jumps up and down reading empty to half full. Asked the dealer about this and they say they have never heard of this problem. They also say since the "problem" is not happening in front of their eyes, they can't resolve it. I've read other similar posts regarding this problem and VW's similar responses. What can I do to get this fixed?

jlmoran

tc, I have the exact same issue with my audio system on my '03 V6 GLX! I only notice the hiss when listening to the radio, which is apparently a function of having the antenna mounted at a 45-degree angle. It's great for aerodynamics, but it sucks for pulling in radio stations. There's never any hiss or any other distortion when listening to CD's (unless the original recording was analog, in which case the source hiss comes through).

But I also have that buzz in the rear driver side tweeter. I can reliably produce it as well -- just fire up Joe Satriani or any of my hard techno CD's. The radio seems to bring it out as well, mainly when the DJ's are chatting away in the morning. Other CD's I've played don't necessarily cause the buzz -- it depends on the type of music.

My personal guess is that the speaker blew out. I find that odd when I've never pushed the system past half max volume, and typically I'm around 1/4 - 1/3 max. That shouldn't be anywhere near enough to blow out a tweeter.

In any event, I plan on having it replaced under warranty as it's clearly a defective speaker.

As for the subwoofer question, check out this product from JL Audio -- http://www.jlaudio.com/stealthbox/passatB5.html. It's a subwoofer designed to fit in the storage "pocket" in your trunk. It can be wired directly to the amp used for the Monsoon system, and when mounted it's flush with the trunk wall. It looks just like a part of the trunk! I'm planning on purchasing one as soon as funds become available, since the techno stuff I listen to has some pretty deep bass and is pushing the mid cones from the Monsoon system pretty hard.

I really don't think you'll need two subs -- my brother-in-law has an Audi A6, which comes with a trunk-mounted sub as part of the standard Bose system, and it's plenty. This "StealthBoxt" subwoofer from JL Audio should be just fine all by itself. JL Audio also sells custom amps if you feel you need a replacement for the stock one.

tc3375

Jlmoran,

I thought that each speaker in the monsoon system had it's own amp? Could I add one JL audio amp to run the stealthbox? Thanks for the tip, I checked out the website. I crank mine up all the time, but the tweeter has that annoying noise mostly when I am listening to talk radio. I thought maybe it was just AM, but it does it on FM also. Problem is, it isn't that consistent so I can plan to take it to VW to have it checked out. Do you think they could figure it out even if it isn't doing it when I take it in?

jlmoran

See if you have a CD that consistently produces the buzzing noise. I have a few in my techno collection that work wonders for bringing it out. As long as you have something that can demonstrate the flaw and you're within warranty, then you should be OK.

You're right about each speaker having its own amp -- I just found that out today when I was checking out the Monsoon Audio site. The speakers also have dedicated cross-overs for the high, mid-range, and low bands. I'd imagine you would, in fact, need to add a dedicated sub-woofer amp to go with the ones provided for the existing speakers. I'm guessing you can re-route the existing cross-overs so that the low-frequency band gets routed to the sub instead of the mid-cones, and then the mid-cones can dedicate themselves to the mid-bass frequencies.

But then, I'm hardly an audio expert (in fact, I'm a rank novice when it comes to car audio). I'd let an figure that out (preferably someone with experience installing those StealthBox sub-woofers in B5-platform Passats).

bronsonb

Someone recently asked about long-term reliability of Passats. We have a 1999 Passat V6 GLS with 66,000 miles. Although we have not had many non-maintenance repairs performed, the past three months have been pretty rough. First, we replaced the front right and left axles because the boots failed. The CV joints *are* covered by the 10 year, 100,000 mile warranty, but the boots are not. My mechanic suggested replacing the axles because the expense was not that much more in the long run, and even if we did replace the boots, the CV joints might still fail (and might not THEN be covered under warranty since VW could say that the problem cropped up with the boot failed).

Then, after replacing the axles, we had a problem with rough idling while the car was in drive but stopped. Turns out the motor mounts and the transmission mount had failed and needed to be replaced. We have had that done, but the car is still idling rough. The mechanic has done (For free) a complete fuel injection system cleaning and a throttle body cleaning, and that seems to have helped.

Overall, we are VERY happy with this car. In 4.5 years of ownership, this is the only time we've had to spend lots of money on it for non-maintenance type items. The car still gets great gas mileage (over 30 on highway), rides smoothly, and STILL turns heads. I've had two guys at the office ask me to let them know if we wanted to sell it because they wanted to buy it. However, my plan is to keep the car for 10 years at least. Now, if I have some other major failures in the next few months, I might reconsider, but right now, I am considering the repairs to be money well spent. I don't have a car note, so a bit of dough to maintain the car isn't such a bad thing.

Hope this information helps.

markcincinnati

bronsonb

MarkCincinnati-
According to my owner's manual, the timing belt does not need to be replaced until 90,000 miles. So it looks like I have 24K miles to go before THAT needs to be done. I do believe the timing belt needs to be replaced sooner for the 1.8T (might be 40,000 or 60,000 miles).

I believe also that most mechanics recommend you replace the water pump at the same time and do some other service because the labor charges are, overall, less than doing those individually. I'll be seeing my mechanic this weekend, so I'll ask him again. He's a former VW mechanic who works for BMW but owns two VWs himself. He is also connected to a few VW service and parts guys, so he gets me the low down on VW service when I need it, plus, his rates are 50% - 70% less than VW.

Off topic, but are you from Cincinnati? That's my home town! Born there in '66. Lived on Clifton Avenue for a number of years and still have relatives all over Cincy. Miss Grater's ice cream, Skyline coneys, UDF....etc. Hope you're enjoying it all! Take care.

fish8

hey!! I noticed you live in Smyrna. I work near Perimeter Mall. Where do you take your VW to get serviced? Will this guy service other VW's? I am about to get my 20K service done on my Jetta and the dealers want too much $$ for the service. I found a place on Peachtree Industrial call German Motor Works. They are charging less than the dealers, but I wouldn't mind looking around further. What dealers have you dealt with?

altair4

You probably already know that VW engines are interference engines, i.e., if the timing belt breaks, the pistons will impact the now-not-moving valves. If I were in you place, I would make sure of the following:
1) what's my warranty say about the timing belt breaking prematurely?
2) Have you had all of the timing belt checks completed and documented in the past? Can you access those documents?

If you're comfortable that VW will replace/rebuild your valves/heads under warranty, then I'd go to the 90K.

If your a second owner and/or you can't provide VW with the documentation mentioned above, I'd give real thought to having the timing belt (and other exposed components - wter pump) done earlier.

The damage to the valves is pretty much catastrophic and expense. So I'd want to make sure that someone else is going to foot the bill or avoid the potential completely. YMMV.

markcincinnati

outrun

The 1.8T time belt change is scheduled at 105,000 miles. It's scheduled to be checked at 40k and 80k.

105k is way too long in my opinion. I'm going to get mine done at 80k (many moons away for me).

-Craig