Other steering problem on the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta
2 crashes 1 injury 3 of the 16 reports for this failure mention a crash, a fire, an injury or a death. Those are the owner's words on the complaint form, not a verified finding, and one report can mention more than one.
When other steering problem gets reported
Owners of the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta report other steering problem at a median of 45,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles, from 9 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 11th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 125,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 115,749 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
44% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11,620 miles | 21,000 miles | 44,000 miles | 100,000 miles | 127,369 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
Of these reports, 2 a crash and 1 an injury are mentioned. Owners write their own complaints and the agency does not verify them, so read this as what the reports say happened rather than as a confirmed count.
Putting it right typically runs $350–$2,400 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 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2020, at a median of 500 miles, and latest on the 2007 at 155,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 24; the 2011 has 16. 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 know this sounds ridiculous but I've driven on many road trips and this has never happened until this vehicle, and it's painful. But here it is: leather-wrapped steering wheel causes calluses at a highly unusual rate on longer drives. (I have been able to drive for 12 hours on multiple occasions without issue. After driving only three and a half hours steadily, my hands hurt all over.) it's important to note that the leather isn't causing this - the stitching on the inside is far too raised up on the inside part around the entire 'wheel' of the steering wheel. It is also right behind the left and right 'handles' where you can hold the wheel, so anywhere you hold it, you basically are adversely affected. I believe this is a safety issue because if it's not comfortable at all to hold the steering wheel, drivers may be inclined to hold the wheel more loosely or hold the wheel even less/let go when they believe it is "safe" ... Which may lead to crashes, injury, or death, due to developing pain in the hands/fingers because of the way this steering wheel has been designed. *tt
I purchased the jetta used from carmax in nashville, tn in 2014. It began having safety issues on march 2014. Randomly, my car will just stop while driving down the road, or after accelerating from a stopped position when moving on from a stop sign or stop light. I can be driving anywhere from 15 MPH to 50 MPH, and all systems shut down. The battery light goes on, the steering locks, and the brakes lock. I always panic, put the car in neutral and have luckily managed to veer off to the side of a road and stop, shut the car off, and turn it back on again. Eurofix tried to manage the problem by replacing the crank sensor and cam shaft. But he problem came back, much worse. The second problem is now I cannot unlock my drivers side door with my magnetic key or by sticking the actual key in the lock. I see that another recall has been announced for the 2011 jetta that is not pulling up via my VIN number, but I believe it might be my car's issue: online, ate that in march 29, 2011 (published by NHTSA) in which an issue with "an electrical wiring and fuse layout where the converter box is protected by the same fuse used by the signal…
My vehicle will cut off at random times while driving and steering locks up, also my alarm will make the sound to disarm the vehicle when driving I have to pull over shut down car and disarm it and start again. While at a stop light the vehicles RPM will raise and go down raise and go down until car just shuts off. I was pulling into my parking stall and car shut off and locked up I had to hit the brake and re start the car to pull in safely or it would have ran into the carport. On this date the car shut itself off in motion 2 times and it cut off with brake on at a light 3 times
Also reported on the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta
Fuel pump failure
Other electrical problem
Other engine problem
Other fuel system problem
Other powertrain problem
No-start or intermittent start failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 16 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 other steering problem happen on the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta?
Across 9 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 45,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 20,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other steering problem on the 2011 Volkswagen Jetta?
16 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 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