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Hatchbacks Volkswagen Beetle Volkswagen Beetle Transmission Problems
92 messages, Last post on Nov 09, 2009 at 12:28 PM
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My 15 year love affair with Volkswagen has officially come to an end. I would like to scream from the roof tops that this company doesn't back their product and does not care if they lose loyal customers. And I will never buy another car from them again. I leased a 2007 VW New Beetle in October of 2006. It is a 5 speed manual transmission. It has 10,000 miles on it to date. Thursday while attempting to drive up North to visit my family for Thanksgiving the clutch started skipping and a horrible smelling white smoke started blowing out of the car. We pulled over to see what was wrong, it finally stopped smoking and the clutch was barely working. I called the local dealership Saturday morning and they say "bring the car right in". We bring it in and then they tell us "well, we don't actually have anybody who can look at it today but we'll see what we can do and call you". They call me at 5:00 p.m. and say "nope, didn't have anybody to look at it, it'll have to wait until Monday". So Monday in the middle of the afternoon they call us and say "we need your authorization for the $900 fee to take the car apart and look at it, it may be a wear and tear item and not covered under warranty". ARE YOU KIDDING ME?????? 10,000 miles???? I have been driving a stick shift since I was 16 years old. I have leased two other New Beetles from Volkswagen and have never ONCE had an issue with the clutch. I KNOW HOW TO DRIVE A MANUAL TRANSMISSION. I'm sorry but if their product is so badly made that the clutch will burn out after 10,000 miles I have no interest in putting my life in the hands of Volkswagen. We called the corporate office to complain. The corporate office didn't call back until the next day and told us we're out of luck, that's policy. Their policy is 12 months or 12,000 miles for wear and tear items. We've had the car for 13 months. They don't care that we've leased 2 other Volkswagens from them and have been a loyal, on-time paying, perfect lease returning customer since 2000. They have never had one single issue with us. And they would not even look at the car to see if it was a possible failure opposed to "wear and tear" unless we first fronted $900. I am DONE with Volkswagen. Their product is NOT well made, they don't back their product and they care about profit and NOT keeping loyal GOOD customers. I am sad to see them go... I look back on my '68 and '69 Bugs, I look back on my 1990 GTI and I look back on my 2 New Beetles with fondness. But I WILL NOT deal with a company who isn't willing to work with GOOD customers.
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| After driving 2004 Beetle more than 20 minutes, the 6-spd auto transmssion starts intermittently shifting badly for both upshifting and downshifting. VW service couldn't repro/resolve issue. Problem doesn't happen when cold or after sitting a while. VW service replaced the trans fluid/filter and problem still happens. Has anybody else experienced this? Any ideas? | |
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Replying to: regnef (Jan 06, 2008 5:52 pm) |
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I have a 2002 turbo Beetle. I am the original owner and I just recently paid it off. It has just over 80,000M on it, and the warranty was only 5 yrs or 50,000. I did not buy an extended warranty. The car has been to the dealer for every single service check. In 12/07, after spending $1600 to have the blown water pump replaced and to fix the collateral damage caused by the blow, I started to have problems with the car shifting. Basically after driving the car on the freeway for some distance, then driving for a few minutes in stop and go city traffic, the car will refuse to go from 2nd to 3rd gear. The engine will scream as the RPM's go into 6000. The only way to get the car to shift into the next gear is to whomp on the gas pedal, drive the RPM's higher, and the car will lurch into the next gear. When it's not refusing to go into gear at all, it is "rough shifting", which is going into slightly higher RPM's than normal for a bit longer than usual, then finally shifting, giving the car a little jerk as it does so. So far I have brought the car to the dealer for this problem 5 times, and it is happening again. The first time I took it in the dealer could not replicate the problem and told me to bring the car back if it happened again as they were not detecting anything wrong with any of the systems. The second time it happened I took the car in and they again could not replicate the problem, but told me the transmission was bad (they said the fluid was completely burned up and there were metal shavings in the trannie), so I paid $4600 to have the trannie replaced. A short time later it happened a third time, so I drove it in just before the New Years holiday, left the car running, found a mechanic that had not gone home early who got in the car and confirmed the problem so at least I had a witness now. This trip cost me $1000 for a new Transmission Control Module, which they said was probably at fault for making the first trannie go bad. Just a short time later it happened again for the fourth time, so back to the dealer, kidnapped another mechanic, confirmed problem, they said the left rear tire had too deep of a tread and was screwing with the Anti Skid Resistance system, which was reading the pressure changes from the tread as wheel spinning and setting off the safety feature that kept the car from shifting. They replaced the rear tire for free (but not really, since they kept the brand new tire they took off). Short time later, happens again for the fifth time. Back to the dealer, kidnap same mechanic from fourth time, he confirms problem still happening, this time they said it was a faulty valve in the transmission, which they fixed for free since the transmission they put in the car has a warranty for 1 year or 12,000M. Now, less than two weeks later it happened again as I got off the freeway heading to work, about 40 miles from where I live and the VW dealer that I bought the car from and has been taking care of the car since I bought it. I called the dealer when I got to work and he says bring it in Monday (this was Wednesday). I asked him why Monday and he states that the mechanic who has been working on this is not in till Monday. Goodie for him. Maybe that's the problem and they need to get a different mechanic, but from the stories I have been reading here and at consumer affairs, it's the car and will probably never be fixed correctly. Anyone got any advice besides driving the car up the dealers rear end?  PS It's really funny seeing the add on this page for the VW Sign Then Drive Event. Yeah, like I would ever buy a VW again. |
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I recently purchased a 2002 Beetle from a private dealer and am unsure about how the transmission works. Do I have to take it to a dealer to have the fluid checked or is it a "self check" transmission?
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Replying to: bluebug22 (Oct 18, 2007 8:32 am) Thanks- Doug |
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Replying to: regnef (Jan 06, 2008 5:52 pm)
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Replying to: efonteno (Mar 14, 2008 10:56 am) 
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this is interesting, I thought I was the only one who experienced having problems with transmissions. I almost throw my Vox to junk, good thing my dad (a mechanic) went home on time and told my to buy the corresponding Volkswagen Beetle parts and a new battery. After spending almost $1000 on overall tuneup of my dad. It went good, I hope I'll never encounter that kind of problem again. It swiped away all my money.
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I recently got an 01 Beetle - 2.0 engine w/ 4 speed auto trans. I've had it for 5 months and maybe put 300 miles on it, most of them to and from my mechanic. My current problem is something that I've seen other posts about but haven't really seen any solutions. About 4 weeks ago the battery died. Interestingly enough, when I went to get a new one and when they pulled up which one for the car a big warning came up on the computer saying NOT to remove old battery because it could render the car undriveable. So what the hell are you supposed to do? You gotta replace the battery.... So of course now it won't shift right. From 2nd to 3rd it races the engine before it engages in gear. I have a really good mechanic and he suspected the computer and tried several things that didn't work. He has a VAG Com but apparently the software to get into that part of the computer is VW propietary. So, we took it to VW and specifically asked them to simply reprogram the computer and of course they said it needs a new tranny for $4000. So my mechanic thought maybe the problem was the valve body inside the tranny. We replaced it and the problem's still there. So now I'm faced with having to replace the damn transmission but it just doesn't seem right. I still believe there's something electronic going on, especially reading some of the other posts. Does anyone have any feedback for me on this problem??? PLEASE PLEASE HELP!!! I'm at the end of my rope and the noose is getting tighter.  Scott |
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