Cruise control failure on the 2004 Volkswagen Jetta
Only 4 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.
When cruise control failure gets reported
There are 4 reports of cruise control failure on the 2004 Volkswagen Jetta, 4 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 72,000 miles. It is the 22nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 75,000 miles | — | — |
Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.
What a percentile can and cannot tell you here
These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.
What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.
Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.
What happens, and what it costs
Putting it right typically runs $200–$1,400 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 17 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2011, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2005 at 155,000 miles.
By volume the 2006 carries the most reports, with 11; the 2004 has 4. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.
If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.
Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens
What owners wrote
Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.
I was driving my 2004 vw jetta diesel tdi 5-speed home from work. It has 78,000 miles on it. The majority of which are highway/interstate miles due to my work being a long distance from home. I was in 4th gear doing about 45 MPH with the cruise control on and was almost home. I heard a "bang" from under the car and lost power. Fluid was leaking from under the car, and I could no logger shift gears. I had it towed to a repair shop. They originally said a part of the clutch had broken off and punctured the transmission case. After additional review they determined it was a piece of the "dual mass flywheel" that had broken off and done the damage. I was forced to pay approximately $2,500.00 in parts and labor for a new clutch, flywheel, rebuilt tranny, etc... To get my car repaired. After researching this problem more I found that this problem with vw's dual mass flywheel is a pretty common problem. See this link for one source... Http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=137014&highlight=g60+clutch if the dual mass flywheel had exploded upward toward the interior of the car rather than downward there likely would have been injuries…
2004 jetta tdi 4 door sedan, it's a turbo diesel. The stalk have to goes to high beam in order for the cruise control to work. This is a defective part, it have been with this car for many years but we do not have time to fix this and it's cost lost of money to replace. When click on the turn signal the cruise control when off, it's very dangerous on the freeway. I believe this parts of the car should be recalled, it's dangerous. Thank you for listening. *tr
2004 jetta tdi 4 door sedan, it's a turbo diesel. The stalk have to goes to high beam in order for the cruise control to work. This is a defective part, it have been with this car for many years but we do not have time to fix this and it's cost lost of money to replace. When click on the turn signal the cruise control when off, it's very dangerous on the freeway. I believe this parts of the car should be recalled, it's dangerous. Thank you for listening. *tr
Also reported on the 2004 Volkswagen Jetta
Other body or interior problem
Other powertrain problem
Fuel pump failure
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
DPF, EGR or DEF system failure
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 4 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.
Complaints are voluntary, so 4 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.
Questions this page answers
At what mileage does cruise control failure happen on the 2004 Volkswagen Jetta?
Across 4 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is cruise control failure on the 2004 Volkswagen Jetta?
4 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.3 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.
What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars
Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed