Fuel leak or fuel odor on the 2000 Volkswagen Passat
Only 7 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 fuel leak or fuel odor gets reported
There are 8 reports of fuel leak or fuel odor on the 2000 Volkswagen Passat, 7 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 90,000 miles. It is the 19th most-reported problem on this model year.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | 68,000 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 $300–$2,500 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.
This mode is classified as critical, which means a failure can leave the car unable to stop, steer, or stay out of the way of traffic. It is weighted accordingly in the risk score.
The same failure on other years
The same failure is reported on 11 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2013, at a median of 55,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 175,000 miles.
By volume the 2003 carries the most reports, with 19; the 2000 has 8. 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.
Our volkswagen dealer (martens volkswagen) was initially contacted for service when an engine light came on my 2000 passat gls wagon that said "emissions workshop". They said they couldn't take a look at the car for about two weeks because it wasn't a serious problem and we should just keep driving it. After a few more days of driving the car, we smelled gasoline fumes coming from the engine compartment (while driving, not while starting). We then insisted that martens look at the problem immediately. The mechanic said that all four fuel injectors were leaking fuel through the side of the injectors into the engine compartment and needed replacing. He claimed that something in the gasoline was melting the seals. The car has only 33,421 miles on it. It has had regular service at volkswagen dealers and was only filled up with 93 octane gasoline bought in the us as required by volkswagen. In addition we have never used any fuel additives. I believe that these fuel injectors are defective and there may be many other people who are also being told to continue to drive with the engine light on who may in fact have gasoline leaking into…
While backing up out of a parking spot in july of 2004, I began to smell gas very strongly in the cabin of my 2000 v6 passat and immediately stopped and got out to see what was causing the smell. For unknown reasons, the car was randomly and visibly leaking gasoline onto the ground just in front of the fuel filter on the passenger side. It leaked gasoline in puddles and the engine began running 'lean' almost immediately, with significant valve clatter. Due to the serious safety risk posed by the profuse gasoline leak, I immediately turned off the car and had it towed to a reputable vw dealer in a nearby town. Upon inspection at the dealer, the fuel line had clearly split on the top side just in front of the fuel filter....for no apparent reason. I submitted a complaint and a reimbursement request to volkswagen of america re. This issue, due to the significant safety risk and repair cost created by the fuel leak. Unfortunately, vw ultimately refused to stand by their product citing the age and mileage of the car. At the time, the car was 3 years old and had just over 55k miles. I paid over $700 to have the line replaced, plus…
2000 vw passat 1.8t had fuel leak. The car had a fuel leak in the garage which could have caused afire. This is a serious problem. I did some reading and thought it would be covered by a recall. However, the vw dealer charles maund volkswagan indicated that it was not covered by any recall. *tr
Also reported on the 2000 Volkswagen Passat
ABS module or sensor failure
Other engine problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
Other electrical problem
How far this goes
This page is kept out of search results because 8 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 8 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 fuel leak or fuel odor happen on the 2000 Volkswagen Passat?
Across 7 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 70,000 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 fuel leak or fuel odor on the 2000 Volkswagen Passat?
8 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