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Maintenance & Repair Maintenance & Repair - Archived Discussions VW Ignition Coil Problems? 
243 messages, Last post on Aug 11, 2003 at 7:24 PM
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that it doesn't count. but that's what happens when you let customers fester and mumble and cuss in public without addressing their concerns, your image breaks out in bloody pustules and you are laughed to death. that's why the Tylenol tampering cases were a watershed in public relations. the CEO got on the news programs, starting with Nightline, within 24 hours and pulled the whole product line until they could tamper-proof it, and offered medical assistance to anybody who had a case. he slapped the table, put his butt on the line, and flatly promised they would not sell until there was no way this could happen again, and would cover every legitimate claim while they reinvented product safety for the whole consumer market. they were off the shelves for something like 14 months. still the gold standard in crisis response, very seldom reached, alas. despite all the topical jokes about "Tylanide" and "Killemall", they were #1 again almost immediately after the coated caplet came back into the market. dollars to doughnuts you have some at home and at work and trust that Tylenol will do its deal the same way, every time, no matter what. probably trust it more than your family members, in fact. they handled the two or three goofuses and their little plots right, and the world noticed. VW has nobody to blame but themselves, and I bet no customer has to pay for a coil for five years on these engines as a result, no matter what happens to them. for reference, it took a little while for Ford to get it in line over some sort of little dustup over the tires on Explorers, but costly Nasser finally got that right with the "customer satisfaction initiative" of recalling every bloody Wilderness AT tire ever used on a Ford-built product. and the explorer remains #1 in its market. folks notice honest make-goods. |
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| Got my letter from VW today. Basically it's just a reiteration of their existing policy: if it breaks, we'll fix it. No mention of pro-actively replacing the defective coils BEFORE they fail. Now, all the news stories mentioned that VW would eventually replace all the coils, but the letter says nothing about that. Frank Maguire did, however, "personally apologize" for my inconvenience. Thanks. | |
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It's "unintended acceleration" all over again only this time it's unintended deceleration and it's a real problem. It was handled very poorly. Anyone who frequents the internet sites with VW/Audi content has been aware of this problem since this fall. Evidentally that doesn't include VAGs technical or customer service mavens. How many times will VAG take one step backward for every two forward in North America? They had real winners in the Passat and the A4 but they have blown it. I say this as a fan of Volkswagen group cars who has owned them on and off since 1965 and always enjoyed good service and good luck with them including my current '98 A4 AvantQ. Heads should roll! |
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This one has some information I hadn't read before. http://www.autonews.com/article.cms?articleId=42523 |
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Volkswagen/Audi in Massive Recall More than 850,000 Volkswagen and Audi vehicles -- about 530,000 sedans and hatchbacks sold in the U.S. alone -- are being recalled for a faulty ignition coil. Volkswagen announced the recall last week, noting that the problem could cause spark plug failure and rough running, which is usually indicated by the vehicle's "Check Engine" light. Most of the cars affected carry the VW corporate 1.8-liter turbo four (which includes the Audi A4 and TT coupe; the VW Golf, GTI, Jetta, New Beetle and Passat), the 2.8-liter VR6 and the 3.0-liter V6 engines, as well as the VW Passat's W8. |
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I am a new Audi A4 1.8T owner (bad luck) and commute over 200 miles a day. Since Audi/VW will only replace coils after the vehicle fails, I am forced to wait until I experience a break-down on my daily commute before this manufacturer will voluntarily replace the defective parts! How come the US Governmental agencies that "regulate cars" have not gotten involved and MANDATED AN INVOLUNTARY RECALL? |
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James, I believe that the US Government hasn't issued a manadatory recall for at least two reasons. First, I have not heard of any owner of a failed coil encounter any physical injury or fatality from the failure. Sure, one can say that the potential exists, but since it hasn't happened for the thousands of failures that have occurred, it's more than likely that it won't. Second, both VW and Audi have made public announcements about the problem along with plans for the replacement of the failed coils and plans for the eventual replacement of all coils regardless of failure. Usually, the Government won't do anything if the company has announced plans for replacement. |
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Looks like VW is going to replace all the coil packs regardless of whether they fail or not. All affected cars, all coil packs. See post #111, also we'll have a link for you in just a bit. So this should wrap up this mess for everyone in the near future. |
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Volkwagen and Audi To Replace All Ignition Coil Parts ON 2001, 2002 AND SOME 2003 MODELS To quote some of the article: "We know that some ignition coils installed in our cars are not up to our high quality standards, and we are determined to do the right thing for our customers. The right thing to do is to fix every single car with these coils by replacing them whether they are broken yet or not. That is exactly what we will do as soon as we have the parts,' said Gerd Klauss, president and CEO, Volkswagen of America, Inc." and "The updated customer service action, replacing all ignition coils whether they fail or not, will be implemented in the coming months." Perhaps this may put some of your concerns to rest. Near the end of the article, you can read details of their Customer Service Action. They've also listed VW and Audi 800 customer service relations numbers for customers that have questions. Revka Hatchbacks & Wagons Host |
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We received the letter couple weeks ago and we started to think that there might be potential problem 'cos my wife drive 40miles a day on busy freeway with obnoxious drivers around. Yesterday, my wife stopped by the dealer here in Arizona. Because she felt there is some lack of power couple days ago in her 2003 1.8T which we bought in Oct last year. The service department tested the car and said the car we fine. And the service manager said so many excuses like "there is not a lot of problem cars out there", "we can't fix the coil unless it breaks", "even it broke, we can only replace the one which failed". With all these excuses he brushed off my wife. On her way back to work, she thought it might be a good idea to get some proof of this checkup. So she went back to the dealer immediately and asked the service manager to get a copy of the test he has done to the coils. Then he said it can be done and took the car to the garage again. This time it takes much longer time for him to test it. 30 mins later, he came out and told my wife that they are going to replace all the coils because the datecode of the coils shows they might be the bad coils. Then we got all 4 coils replaced. |
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