Other electrical problem on the 2004 Volkswagen Passat
6 fires 1 injury 7 of the 12 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 2004 Volkswagen Passat report other electrical problem at a median of 75,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 8th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 25,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 85,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 57,620 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A window that narrow is the signature of a part that fails on its own schedule rather than on how the car is driven — which is usually a design or supplier problem rather than wear and tear.
25% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25,400 miles | 48,920 miles | 72,525 miles | 80,500 miles | 83,020 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, 6 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 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 carries the most reports, with 109; the 2004 has 12. 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.
The 2004 volkswagen passat 1.8 t car engine caught on fire today while driving the driver barely saved his life from the flames. The car would certainly burn completely if luckily there was no fire extinguisher available at the nearby stores. Although the incident was in istanbul, turkey I happened to learn from the internet that NHTSA was conducting an investigations on the same problem for 19 volkswagen passats. Volkswagen dealer in turkey told me that an engineer from volkswagen germany will come to turkey to perform an inspection on the car. Nobody touched the car yet. Since the incident was today ant the car was still at the volkswagen authorized dealer service. I thought this information might be usefull for your investigation, and would like to learn your suggestions that you may want to share with me. Please write to my e-mail adress in case you need detailed information or would like to get the photoes of the engine caught on fire. Thanks. *ak
I have a 2004 vw passat 4motion 1.8 turbo. I have just recently (within the last month) replaced the #2 coil. Now today either another coil is gone or the same one. I haven't gotten it to my mechanic yet to determine which one is bad. But after talking to him he related to me that he has replaced several # 2 coils this year on this make of vehicle.. So I am just guessing that this is the problem this time around. My vehicle has 52,000 miles on it. It wasn't the #2 coil it was the #1 coil. I am getting really disgusted with this car as far as reliability is concerned. I am planning on a trip to florida in the fall and am wondering if I should take a case of coils with me. I was at the dealers the first time this happened & asked about recalls on this item. They said they didn't have any.. I thought it a bit odd because my mechanic told me he has had several come through this year with bad coils. *tr
I own a volkswagen passat 2004 model. On november the 11th 2008 after working the night shift at mbusi in vance, alabama, I got in my car to go home. I turned on the heated seat just as I have done for the past 4 years only this time I got more heat than I wanted. My heated seat caught fire and burned my leg. In attempt to extinguish the fire, I wrenched my back by stomping out the fire with my foot. I did not have anything close to me to use with my hands so they would not get burned. I could not believe how fast my car filled with worst smelling smoke I have ever smelt. The seat was on fire before I even left the parking lot. If I would have waited two minutes to turn on my seat, I would have been on interstate 20/59 driving at 70 MPH and I can only imagine what would have happened. This is one of the worst experiences of my life. Volkswagen has offered to replace the cover on the car, replace my pants and pay my medical bills, but what about the seat I will continue to sit on, and my confidence that this will not happen again. I am horrified to think about the potential for recurrence and I cannot overcome my ordeal I am…
Also reported on the 2004 Volkswagen Passat
Other engine problem
Other body or interior problem
Control module (ECM/PCM/BCM) failure
Other powertrain problem
Fuel tank, filler or EVAP failure
Other fuel system problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 12 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 2004 Volkswagen Passat?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 50,000 miles and a quarter after 80,000 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 2004 Volkswagen Passat?
12 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