Other electrical problem on the 2002 Volkswagen Passat
2 crashes 12 fires 1 death 15 of the 109 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 2002 Volkswagen Passat report other electrical problem at a median of 15,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 7,500 miles and a quarter after 25,000 miles, from 61 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 2nd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 5,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 62,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 57,050 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
Reports bunched into a band this tight usually mean the component has a life of its own: it goes at roughly the same mileage regardless of who owns it.
82% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4,950 miles | 7,548 miles | 15,000 miles | 25,500 miles | 62,000 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
Of these reports, 2 a crash, 12 a fire and 1 a fatality 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 21 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2022, at a median of 100 miles, and latest on the 1997 at 140,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 is the worst of them, which makes this a problem of this specific year rather than of the model as a whole.
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.
Coil packs defective in 2002 volkswagen passat - dealer said this is a known problem by volkswagen. But vw refused to replace all coil packs except the one that failed, exposing drivers to further failures (quite possibly in a dangerous situation)
My cars check engine light came on, and the car lost power and ran very roughly. I managed to make it to an off ramp before stopping the car. I called the vw road side assistance and they sent a tow truck to take the car to the dealer. I had my wife, my son, my sister in law, and my dog, so finding a way home was not easy. I was lucky that when this happened I was still within my "home" area, and was able to find a friend with a large enough car. After the dealer opened the next day, they told me it was a coil pack that had gone bad and the part will take a week or two to get. I have a rental that is paid for by the dealer, but it is not the same type of car I bought, a station wagon. I did some research to see what a coil pack is, and found many owners with the same problem, and the problem happens more than once. I am verry concerned that this will happen again and I won't be near a friend who can rescue me and my family.
2002 vw passant. I am told that all late 2001 and all 2002 models with 4 cylinder engines where supplied with defective ingition coils. This has resulted in my car breaking down three times. It either spontanisly (sp) loses power or loses all power and the car shakes. This is potentially deadly in high traffic situations. Vw north america is aware of the problem, but refuses to replace all 4 coils. They will only replace them as they fail. This means that for thousands of owners, they each have four chances to be involved in a wreck when the engine fails.
Also reported on the 2002 Volkswagen Passat
Misfire or rough idle
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
ABS module or sensor failure
Master cylinder or brake booster failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 109 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 2002 Volkswagen Passat?
Across 61 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 15,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 7,500 miles and a quarter after 25,000 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 2002 Volkswagen Passat?
109 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 3.7 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