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Sedans Volkswagen Phaeton Volkswagen Phaeton
1681 messages, Last post on Mar 16, 2010 at 7:30 PM
You are in the Volkswagen Phaeton Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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ok, some warnings here: we all have seen icons showing our tire pressure monitoring system is at "fault" or a defective wheel on board icon will pop up--and your place of service will tell you they just had to "reset" the fault. or that the spare tire is flat--no problem. Well, it is a HUGE problem. AUDI's and VW's (and I am on my 4th) have major electrical issues--this is one. Your icons with the pressure will eventually (usually right after your certification or insurance runs out) indicate a total monitoring system fault to the tune of a minimum of $1,000. (without labor) My phaeton has 40,250 miles (04) was insured to its 8th cylinder and so far I have spent over $6,000 on repairs in the past year. That even includes a new windshield which had a defective seal letting water gush in during rains ($1200)--VW will not stand behind anything short of a major fire (had that too). My advice--NEVER, EVER drive or buy a Phaeton without insurance,,,,and a good attorney. And yes, th eonly re-sale value of consequence is finding someone who REALLY wants a phaeton; otherwise, we are talking about $14-17,000 for a car initially costing $60K+. Beware of those icons--they are NOT meaningless!! Beware of the car's certification-IT IS MEANINGLESS, and be mindful of which VW dealer services your car; they can either be your best advocate or your worst enemy. I have had both. 
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Replying to: psychoannie (Aug 06, 2009 4:49 pm) ... to the point, we bought our pre-owned 2004 Phaeton W12 from a certified VW dealer in FL, it was the dealership's owner's personal care, I did a lot of research and figured this was the best way to go. I had my first electronic/electrical problem within 1.5 hours of leaving the dealership on my way back to Houston. Since then it has been constant. The Phaeton had a 5 yr / 50k warranty through 4 April 2009, I was having so many electronic problems that we held back driving it to make the mileage last as long as the 5 year warranty. It is now 7 August 2009, 4 months after the warranty expired. The car has 51,142 miles on it and is basically undriveable unless I take her in to the dealer monthly to have the system "reset". IF it is not driven daily, then the computer system starts turning "systems" off. At the present time, it will actually turn itself off while I am driving down the road, unbelieveably dangerous. Most of the time it simply turns itself off at a stoplight, it "waits" 3 - 4 minutes then decides to let us proceed on. We have driven it less than 1,200 miles since March 2009, about 210 miles per month, that is NOTHING in Houston, Texas. We bought our 2004 Phaeton in Dec 2006, it had 17,400 miles on it. My partial list of problems with our 2004 Phaeton W12 is below, ALL maintenance and / or repairs have been done at a Certified VW dealer: - trunk will not open with remote, 'repaired and/or replaced' components - 4 times - system fault reset, at least 4 times - turns itself off, 3 times, not including present situation, which makes 4 times. - alarm does not work, including now ... third time. - transmission fluid pan drips, has been 'repaired' twice, is leaking again now for third time - rear engine seal leaks, has been 'repaired' twice, is leaking again now for the third time - rear battery has been replaced twice, will not hold charge now, needs to be replaced again now ... third time - the car MUST be driven at a minimum every other day, for at least 20 miles, otherwise it starts turning off electronic systems in the car - 'flat tire' light is consistently coming on, the valve antennas have been replaced once. I got it to go off now, by over inflating the tires. Our Phaeton has been IN the VW shop for at least 3.5 months of the 32 months that we have owned her, two of the times were for a month each time. Because VW sold so few here in the USA, they do not have technicians (mechanics) who are capable of working on the Phaeton, especially now that they have not been sold here for several years. When it decides that it wants to go, it is a GREAT car, we love it, but most of the time it doesn't want to go, she is a lot like a cat, when she wants to be stroked, GREAT, when she doesn't want to be stroked ..... LOOK OUT! I am currently speaking with an attorney who specializes in vehicle lemon law, anybody else want to join us and put together a lawsuit to get some satisfaction?
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2004 V8 60,000 miles. I've had a few quirky problems [tire pressure system] but overall a wonderful vehicle. Wellesley MA Volkswagen has taken care of my car and done a 100% flawless job. I believe having a highly skilled dealership servicing these vehicles is the key to a happy relationship between car & driver. Best of luck to all. Bob Lucido Winthrop, MA |
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Replying to: wab3tx (Aug 07, 2009 7:32 am) After reading your horror story, I feel ashamed to complain about my own used 2004 Phaeton. My car's only problem is with the TPMS, which has been worked on by three different VW dealerships, two of which claimed to have Phaeton-trained technicians, but without success. Clearly there is something basically wrong with the design/manufacture of the car's TPMS (at least of the 2004 model; I don't know if later models have the same problem). And it's extremely unlikely that VW will do anything for owners of the 2004 Phaeton unless forced to; there are too few of us, and we're widely scattered, so we can be ignored. Our first step, I think, is to form a Phaeton Owners Association, so that our voice carries a little more weight with VW. I've addressed a couple of inquiries to VW of America, requesting some support in forming such an association, and have gotten nothing but a run-around -- they offer me a phone number where no one answers the phone, nor answers voice mail, and so on. One thing that would help greatly is to have the sponsorship of a VW dealer; does anyone know of one that might be willing to help us? Does anyone have any ideas on how to bring some pressure to bear on VW of America? Mark Halpern
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Volkswagen Phaeton 04/05/06 Club of Southern California is planning on having a presence at this show in the form of at least four cars. Fees benefit Navy MWR. This is a two day show and we are planning on being there on Saturday, September 26th only. Fees total $40 for one day and you can display your car in a group of other Phaetons. The Festival itself is a huge entertainment. The Club is very informal - no dues - all owners welcome. My Edmund's setting should allow you to E-mail me if interested in participating. Thanks, Joe
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Replying to: wimpy4 (Aug 12, 2009 2:52 pm)  iname.com. Thanks.
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Replying to: bobbusbkr (Aug 03, 2008 11:26 am)
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Replying to: markhalpern (Aug 07, 2009 12:36 pm) See this tread, and I've posted key info below: http://forums.thecarlounge.com/zerothread?id=4224311&postid=59642931 I received my OEM sensor replacement from TireRack and had it installed on the rear passenger tire yesterday at lunch. Going against the directions, I pushed the 'New Spec. Pressures' when the tires were warm immediately after the sensor was replaced. All I did was ask the tire tech to inflate the tire to the lbs. the rear axle had in memory. I didn't even check the other tire pressures. With 2 or 3 resets I was getting system faults. On about the 4th reset, I parked the car at work with the system still in learning mode. I drove to a meeting, parked the car, then started the car to drive back to the office, with the system in learning mode the whole time. Finally, on my way home after work the system chimed and all tires registered 'OK' !!!!! So, after spending a $107 for sensors, stems, and shipping and $17 to have the wheel sensor installed and tire balanced, my system was back to normal. I called the dealership to talk with the tech., but he was out sick, so I talked with the service writer. The minute I started telling the story (nicely), he asked if I could tell the story to the Service Manager. Within seconds the Service Manager was on the line and very apologetic. To make a long story short he said that they would make sure they take care of me in the future. What I'd like to pass on from my particular experience for those of you who still want to maintain the TPMS system on your car: 1. Be patient. 2. If one particular sensor on your car seems to start creating erratic warning messages, make sure you make a note of it if you have to end up replacing that one sensor later. (My car gave a warning at one tire initially, then gave sporadic warnings, and finally just said system fault consistently. Once that a system fault registers on your car there's no way to isolate the faulty sensor easily) 3. Know that one sensor can cause the entire TPMS system to act failed. I read that here on Vortex and it was so true for me. Having a Vag-com did no good for me when 4 out 5 sensors were indicating that they had a transmitting problem. 4. When all seems lost after the TPMS registers a 'System Fault' press the 'New Spec. Pressures' button and keep going through learning new pressures mode to see if you can get some of the system to work so that you can isolate a faulty sensor if that's the problem. 5. A 'System Fault' is a very generic warning. I had a system fault for a faulty sensor and it came back when I was trying to get the new sensor working with the TPMS system. Again, follow #3 and set the system to learn new pressures repeatedly to see if some part of the system is working. 6. Be patient. I feel the above advice works if you have a sensor problem based on my experience. If you have a controller issue, that would probably be easier to diagnose, but I can't talk about that from experience. That would be Michael's arena. If you appear to have a sensor problem, a dealership may be tempted to replace all 5 sensors to rule out having repeat problems with the system. Now that I've learned from this experience, I'm hoping that if additional sensors fail I'll be able to quickly diagnose and replace them. Lastly, as far as I know, my sensor failed due to transmitting problems or some other problem with the sensors themselves and not due to the battery. The sensor should have shown at least 20 months of battery life in it when it failed. I hope this helps folks in diagnosing their TPMS problems. Thanks for all the help Michael and others.
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Replying to: euroauto43 (Aug 28, 2009 2:56 pm) I assume that you are happy with your car because it has been fault free or.. you just know how to fix it! In any case I'd be interested in talking to you about buying it when you get your 06 12cyl. Bill |
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