Other engine problem on the 2012 Volkswagen Passat
2 fires 2 of the 30 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 engine problem gets reported
Owners of the 2012 Volkswagen Passat report other engine problem at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 37,500 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles, from 28 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 17,500 miles at the tenth percentile to 107,500 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 89,800 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
When the reports scatter this far, the mileage is telling you about how these cars were driven more than about the part itself.
25% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16,800 miles | 36,500 miles | 59,300 miles | 85,625 miles | 106,600 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 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–$4,000 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 20 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2015, at a median of 30,000 miles, and latest on the 1998 at 90,000 miles.
By volume the 2002 carries the most reports, with 91; the 2012 has 30. 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 new passat has problem controlling the car while using reverse on a hill. It appears that vw has tied the accelerator and braking function together in a way that the driver may lose control of the vehicle while in reverse. If the brake is pressed, the accelerator is disengaged thus allowing the engine fall to an idle and not develop any thrust. If the driver is using both feet to control the vehicle, left foot on the brake, right foot on the accelerator while depressing the brake, the engine develops no power even if the accelerator is depressed fully. By releasing the brake while the accelerator is depressed fully, the vehicle will lurch at full throttle in reverse in an out of control condition until the driver realizes what is happening and removes their foot from the accelerator. It was fortunate that no one was behind the car when this happened to me or there might have been an injury or even a fatality. It is clear that the vw engineering staff has never tried parallel parking the passat on a hill in san francisco. Vw engineers should remove the software code that ties the accelerator and brake function together while in…
If I am driving with no acceleration (coasting) and step on the gas to enter traffic there is no power; nothing happens when you push on the gas. This has happened numerous times both in town when trying to enter traffic, as well as on the freeway trying to cut in between cars. This is very dangerous if one does not have lots of room between cars. The volkswagen dealer claims this is only a problem for me because I am not used to driving a car with a digital throttle. *tr
I was driving down the highway going approximately 67 MPH in the middle lane. The battery light flashed once, no other warning other lights flashed and there were no previous warning lights to flash. Suddenly the car hesitated and then my speed dropped to 0 in a matter of seconds. Luckily, the transport trucks behind me were paying attention and actually blocked the traffic until I could get the car in neutral to safely roll onto the shoulder. This is a huge safety issue; I was lucky. What good is it to have a car that you now feel is unsafe to drive! Vw should have to buy this car back. *tr
Also reported on the 2012 Volkswagen Passat
Airbag inflator rupture
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Steering column or shaft failure
Other electrical problem
Other fuel system problem
Fuel pump failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 30 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 engine problem happen on the 2012 Volkswagen Passat?
Across 28 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 37,500 miles and a quarter after 85,000 miles. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.
How common is other engine problem on the 2012 Volkswagen Passat?
30 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.8 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