Other electrical problem on the 2013 Volkswagen Jetta
3 crashes 1 fire 1 injury 5 of the 90 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 electrical problem gets reported
Owners of the 2013 Volkswagen Jetta report other electrical problem at a median of 52,500 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 65 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 1st most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 102,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 97,204 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.
26% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4,700 miles | 35,780 miles | 53,500 miles | 85,000 miles | 101,904 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, 3 a crash, 1 a fire 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 $250–$2,000 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 25 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2022, at a median of 5,000 miles, and latest on the 2023 at 115,000 miles.
By volume the 2011 carries the most reports, with 120; the 2013 has 90. 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.
My vehicle when entering traffic has a delay of 1-2 seconds when trying to accelerate from a stop. When I am trying to get on/off a highway and that delay happens, the traffic has to slow to keep from hitting me as by the time it happens then surges, it is too late to stop. My speed needle was so inaccurate and bounced so much I got a speeding ticket. It was 14 MPH off. They replaced the cluster, but now both the tachometer and speedometer bounce enough to not be sure your speed. Electronic fan stayed on for the entire 90 minutes I was in a coffee shop after driving only 5 miles and had been running AC. Ac when not on full fan will have periods of hot and humid like the system temporarily shuts down, and of course, the car hops and surges at slow speeds in addition as you are decelerating with the foot off the accelerator, it will jerk you down as it shifts down. *tr
While I was driving, the car shut itself off. There were three separate incidents. The dealership kept the car for two weeks and re-programmed the computer after conferring with vw. *tr
I went through some water (not much) andthen when I came to a stop light I stopped the car. After less than a minute of being stopped the car stalled and the battery light came on. The battery is new and I just purchased this car in december 2013 and it is a year model 2013. I have never had any issues until now. I went to turn a corner and the light came back on, car stalled, and steering became very tight. I am not sure what this issue is, but the car is only about a year old (if even that). Very frustrating. *tr
Also reported on the 2013 Volkswagen Jetta
Other powertrain problem
Other engine problem
Ignition switch, key fob or immobilizer failure
Fuel pump failure
Other steering problem
Oil leak
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 90 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 electrical problem happen on the 2013 Volkswagen Jetta?
Across 65 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 52,500 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other electrical problem on the 2013 Volkswagen Jetta?
90 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 2.0 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