Categories
Safety Issues Volkswagen

Volkswagen Australia announces voluntary recall

Volkswagen

As expected Volkswagen has this morning announced an official recall. The announcement only covers vehicles fitted with a 7-speed DSG transmission (DQ200) built from June 2008 to September 2011. Notices will go out to affected owners from next month. There is no word yet on an official recall for diesel powered models that may be affected by injector issues. Here is Volkswagen’s statement in full:

Volkswagen Group Australia Announces Voluntary Recall

Volkswagen Group Australia today announced a voluntary recall for 25,928 vehicles fitted with 7-speed DSG gearbox (DQ200).

Vehicles affected include Golf, Jetta, Polo, Passat and Caddy and were produced between June 2008 and September 2011.

In isolated cases, an electronic malfunction in the control unit inside the gearbox mechatronics may result in a power interruption. Other important vehicle systems, such as steering and braking, along with other relevant systems, will continue to be fully functional. If, in rare cases, the car loses power while driving, the driver can remain in control to safely manoeuvre the car to a stop.

Volkswagen vehicles currently being produced and sold are not affected by this issue. Australian customers can have trust, peace of mind and confidence when purchasing a new Volkswagen vehicle.

Volkswagen Group Australia will replace the gearbox mechatronic unit on all potentially affected vehicles at no cost to the customer. At the same time, we will also update customers’ vehicles with the latest software version.

Starting from July, owners of the affected vehicles will be contacted directly by Volkswagen Group Australia about the voluntary recall.

The invitation letters to schedule appointments for inspection and replacement of affected parts will be sent out in batches to the owners according to car model, production date and the supply of the necessary parts. Owners can continue to drive their vehicles as usual before the replacement.

In Volkswagen owners are invited to call the Customer Service Centre hotline on 1800 504 076 for this and all other technical inquiries Customer satisfaction is Volkswagen’s highest priority.

UPDATE: The ACCC has published a notice regarding the Volkswagen recall (see below). Interestingly they state vehicles built between 2009–2012 are affected, which is different to Volkswagen’s own date range above.

UPDATE #2: The recalls.gov.au website has been corrected to indicate cars affected were built in 2008–2011. Other edits were made to the text relating to the defects and hazards. You can compare both notices below.

 

As originally published on recalls.gov.au:

Volkswagen—Polo, Golf, Golf Wagon, Golf Cabriolet, Jetta, Passat, and Caddy Vehicles

PRA number: 2013/13626

Date published: 12th June 2013

Product information

Product description
Polo, Golf, Golf Wagon, Golf Cabriolet, Jetta, Passat, and Caddy vehicles
All models manufactured between 2009-2012

Identifying features
35C1

What are the defects?
On vehicles within a certain production period with the 7 speed direct shift gearbox (DSG), electrolysis in the gearbox control unit can lead to a short circuit and blow the gearbox fuse. If the fuse blows, the clutch will open and there will be total loss of power to the wheels.

What are the hazards?
If the defect occurs there will be a sudden and total loss of power to the wheels, which in some circumstances may pose a hazard to the vehicle occupants and other road users.

Where the product was sold
Nationally

Traders who sold this product
Volkswagen authorised dealers

Supplier
Volkswagen Group Australia

What should consumers do?

A letter is being sent to affected owners of the vehicles. For further information, customers can contact their local Volkswagen Authorised Service Centre or contact Volkswagen Customer care on 1800 607 822.

 

Updated notice published on recalls.gov.au:

Volkswagen—Polo, Golf, Golf Wagon, Golf Cabriolet, Jetta, Passat, and Caddy Vehicles

PRA number: 2013/13626

Date published: 12th June 2013

Product information

Product description
Polo, Golf, Golf Wagon, Golf Cabriolet, Jetta, Passat, and Caddy vehicles
All models manufactured between 2008-2011

Identifying features
35C1

What are the defects?
Volkswagen has issued a voluntary recall on vehicles within a certain production period with the 7 speed direct shift gearbox (DSG), electrolysis in the gearbox control unit can lead to a short circuit and blow the gearbox fuse. In the majority of cases the fault occurs when the engine is started with the vehicle stationary, in isolated cases the fault can also occur while driving. If the fuse blows, while the car is in motion, the clutch will open and freewheel resulting in a loss of power to the wheels.

What are the hazards?
If the car is in motion when the defect occurs there will be a loss of power to the wheels, resulting in the car coasting. In some circumstances this may pose a hazard to the vehicle occupants and other road users.

Where the product was sold
Nationally

Traders who sold this product
Volkswagen authorised dealers

Supplier
Volkswagen Group Australia

What should consumers do?

A letter is being sent to affected owners of the vehicles. For further information, customers can contact their local Volkswagen Authorised Service Centre or contact Volkswagen Customer care on 1800 607 822.

19 replies on “Volkswagen Australia announces voluntary recall”

Well my 2010-11 Polo just broke down on me (again) on Sunday night and is currently at some VW service centre who told me they don’t know when they’ll be able to look at it. So, for not the first time, I’m without the car that I brought brand new just over 2 years ago. I’m not surprised to see my car falling in that range affected for the recall, and also not surprised to find out both the VW General Enquiries and Customer Care Centre phones were busy when I tried calling just then.

@Craig:

That’s a good question and I don’t have the relevant figures to hand but they did sell 54,835 vehicles in 2012 and 44,740 in 2011.

Dodgy stats based on linear regression of those two data points gives me 135K (08-11) cars or 19.2% of them. How many dealers are there, 30? If VW spent one day per car your looking at 3 and a bit years to see them all. how are they going to priortise cars for recall, I see resale plumeting for those cars which haven’t been recall checked.

it’s a quite day at work. don’t trust my math. buy an Alfa, i did.

Love your last line there Craig – did you buy an Alfa so you could be *certain* you would have problems instead of only a ~20% chance with VW.

It would be interesting to know whether it affects only the VW brand and not other branded cars like Audi, Skoda or Seat which share platforms with VW.

if you listen really carefully, you can hear the resale value being flushed away,

tip to VW, you might be big, but dont dick your customers 😀

The faulty gearboxes might be of some value to Toyota, if they can be rigged to “fail” at exactly the same moment as the throttle jams wide open.

No StuG – just as the reputation of all Toyota cars for reliability was trashed by the big accelerator recall, the reputation of all VWs will take a hit from this. The logic goes that it would be foolish to assume the incompetence is exclusive to the DSG.

Not sure what other VW owner’s experience has been with this sudden loss of power issue but I don’t think the limp home/brown pants moment I experienced in my Polo GTI had anything to do with a fuse blowing in the DSG box. According to the VW mechanic, it was due to dodgy software thinking there was a number 4 cylinder knock issue (or something like that) and was supposedly fixed with a software update/reflash??

I’m just so glad I sold my GTI when I did. I took enough of a bath on its resale value as it was (by far the worst resale drop of any of the cars I’ve owned – 8 all up) and that was before all this hullabaloo blew up. It would probably be next to worthless now.

my 118tsi has had two recalls which have been handled during normal services. to be honest I have not had any problems with my vehicle it is in fact the best motor vehicle I have owned or driven and after more than 50 years on the roads having driven every type of vehicle you can imagine then you should take note as all recalls have been done without any lack of proffesionalism on vw part.

[…] software update without mechatronics. 35c1 is what I stated in my first post. Have a look here: AUSmotive.com » Volkswagen Australia announces voluntary recall Reply With […]

Comments are closed.