Other electrical problem on the 2015 Volkswagen Passat
1 crash 1 fire 2 of the 21 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 2015 Volkswagen Passat report other electrical problem at a median of 60,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 4th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 10,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 95,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 84,499 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.
17% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8,261 miles | 44,750 miles | 60,500 miles | 75,150 miles | 92,760 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 crash and 1 a fire 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 2015 has 21. 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.
Rodents are eating wiring in car due to soy plastics. This could result in car becoming nonoperational while driving, which could result in injury or death. The united states code for motor vehicle safety (title 49, chapter 301) defines motor vehicle safety as "the performance of a motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment in a way that protects the public against unreasonable risk of accidents occurring because of the design, construction, or performance of a motor vehicle, and against unreasonable risk of death or injury in an accident, and includes nonoperational safety of a motor vehicle." a defect includes "any defect in performance, construction, a component, or material of a motor vehicle or motor vehicle equipment." generally, a safety defect is defined as a problem that exists in a motor vehicle or item of motor vehicle equipment that: poses an risk to motor vehicle safety and may exist in a group of vehicles of the same design or manufacture may exist in a group of items of equipment of the same type and manufacture. Please stop automakers from using plant based wiring immediately. Automakers are making millions of…
Air bag error message and light illuminates. The steering wheel makes a cracking sound while turning in either direction. Also the buttons on the steering wheel do not work to include the horn.
Tl* the contact owns a 2015 volkswagen passat. While driving 65 MPH on different occasions, the engine turned off while the vehicle was still engaged in drive. Also, the engine power control, battery, and check engine warning indicators illuminated. The vehicle was towed to the contact's residence. The vehicle was not taken to a dealer or independent mechanic for diagnostic testing or repairs. The VIN was not included in NHTSA campaign number: 17v509000 (fuel system, gasoline). The manufacturer was made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was 81,600.
Also reported on the 2015 Volkswagen Passat
Airbag warning light or occupant sensor fault
Steering column or shaft failure
Other engine problem
Other brake problem
Airbag inflator rupture
Parking brake failure
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 21 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 2015 Volkswagen Passat?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 60,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 45,000 miles and a quarter after 75,000 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 2015 Volkswagen Passat?
21 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.7 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