Other fuel system problem on the 2001 Volkswagen Passat
1 fire 1 of the 15 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 fuel system problem gets reported
Owners of the 2001 Volkswagen Passat report other fuel system problem at a median of 75,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 100,000 miles, from 11 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 90,000 miles. It is the 11th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 35,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 130,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 95,356 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
9% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 36,000 miles | 45,000 miles | 76,000 miles | 98,675 miles | 131,356 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, 1 a fire is 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 $300–$2,200 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 18 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 1998, at a median of 15,000 miles, and latest on the 2008 at 110,000 miles.
By volume the 2013 carries the most reports, with 35; the 2001 has 15. 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.
Multiple problems with the 2001 vw passat. Problems began at 16000 miles and have continued up to the current date and mileage of 33000 miles. Car has been seen in vw service department 11 times since november 2001. Lawsuit has been filed against vw america.
The hard line mounted on the fire wall that guides the three fuel lines broke or failed. Plastic fuel line which cracks or is defective located at the site where the lines are clamped by a plastic housing. Gasoline sprays onto the engine block.
Tl*the contact owns a 2001 volkswagen passat. While driving approximately 55 MPH, the "stop vehicle do not drive", and oil pressure warning indicators illuminated on the instrument panel. The indicators remained illuminated until the engine was turned off. The vehicle was towed to an authorized dealer and they repaired the engine. The previous repair required the vehicle to remain at the dealer for one month. On three separate occasions, the vehicle was taken to an authorized dealer for identical failures, but there were no resolutions. In addition, during rainy weather conditions, five inches of water leaked onto the front passenger side floor panel. There was electrical failure due to the water leakage that caused gear component damage. Recently, the contact received a recall notice that consists of installation of a drainage filter and fuel system component repair. The vehicle has not been repaired for these malfunctions. The NHTSA campaign id number was unknown. The failure mileage was 36,000 and current mileage was 85,000.
Also reported on the 2001 Volkswagen Passat
Other engine problem
Other electrical problem
Other body or interior problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
ABS module or sensor failure
Control arm, ball joint or bushing failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 15 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 fuel system problem happen on the 2001 Volkswagen Passat?
Across 11 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 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 fuel system problem on the 2001 Volkswagen Passat?
15 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.5 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