Other fuel system problem on the 2009 Volkswagen Passat
When other fuel system problem gets reported
Owners of the 2009 Volkswagen Passat report other fuel system problem at a median of 90,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 miles, from 8 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 90,000 miles. It is the 3rd most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 75,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 110,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 32,500 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.
0% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 75,300 miles | 79,370 miles | 91,000 miles | 96,277 miles | 107,800 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–$2,200 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 2009 has 17. 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.
Tl* the contact owns a 2009 volkswagen passat. The contact was driving 10 MPH when the vehicle stalled. The vehicle restarted after the failure. The vehicle was taken to the dealer. The dealer stated that the fuel pressure sensor needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was 79,826 and the current mileage was 79,836.
My vehicle's check engine light came on and stayed on for several days, and the engine started running abnormally, so I took it to a mechanic. The mechanic discovered that the intake manifold needed to be replaced, in addition to other work on the engine and fuel system. I found out that volkswagen had issued an extended warranty for the intake manifold and fuel injectors of my vehicle's engine. However, although my engine was of the exact same type included in the extended warranty, volkswagen claimed I was not eligible for warranty replacement since my vehicle's VIN was not included on the extended warranty list. Considering that my vehicle has been well maintained and is only about 5 years old, I believe that the intake manifold problem is related to the problem that resulted in the warranty extension, and my vehicle should be included in the warranty extension. Updated 02/12/15 *js
The car suddenly has 50% or less power and begins stumbling very badly. Acceleration is so poor that it's quite dangerous in heavy traffic and the ability to pull off the road is severely hampered. The only way I'm able to keep the car moving and running is to use the manual feature of the automatic transmission and keep the RPM's very high. The four coil packs in the car were replaced this spring. Suddenly, the same exact problem is back again 4 months later. Codes were random misifre and multiple misfires at various cylinders. Strange that all four packs go out at the same time....? That's not logical unless is something other than normal wear causing the issue. This problem has occurred twice and both time it begins in the middle of heavy traffic where the situation is very dangerous as the power loss is nearly complete. Both times were under acceleration when the heavy stumbling occurred. I turned the car off and disconnected the battery for 5 min. To hopefully reset the cars epc as the problem is so sudden it almost certainly is electrical. There is no logical explanation for four coil packs all needing to be replaced at the…
Also reported on the 2009 Volkswagen Passat
Fuel pump failure
Other engine problem
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
No-start or intermittent start failure
Misfire or rough idle
Steering rack, gear or tie rod failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 17 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 2009 Volkswagen Passat?
Across 8 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 90,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 80,000 miles and a quarter after 95,000 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 2009 Volkswagen Passat?
17 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.6 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