Other electrical problem on the 2009 Volkswagen Tiguan
3 fires 1 injury 4 of the 13 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 2009 Volkswagen Tiguan report other electrical problem at a median of 50,000 miles. A quarter of the reports come in before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 miles, from 12 reports that carried an odometer reading.
A part like this is normally expected to survive 85,000 miles. It is the 5th most-reported problem on this model year.
The mileage distribution
The reported range runs from 30,000 miles at the tenth percentile to 110,000 miles at the ninetieth, a spread of 81,200 miles across the middle 80% of reports.
A spread this wide points at use rather than design. Towing, climate, service history and city mileage all move a failure like this, so the median is a weak guide to any individual car.
25% of the dated reports were filed under 36,000 miles.
The whole distribution
| 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30,000 miles | 36,000 miles | 47,500 miles | 66,500 miles | 111,200 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, 3 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 16 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2019, at a median of 1,800 miles, and latest on the 2026 at 235,000 miles.
By volume the 2018 carries the most reports, with 28; the 2009 has 13. 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.
I own a 2009 vw tiguan. The car burst into flames this morning after the check engine light went on while my pregnant wife was driving the car this morning. The car has been maintained by vw and had roughly 22,000 miles on it. I bought the car from evanston autobarn vw in 2010 and serviced it at fletcher jones vw of chicago. I filed an insurance claim this morning and contacted both vw dealerships and your 24 hour help line. Vw has been zero help to us. Everyone said to call my insurance company. This is not an insurance issue. There was no collision. This car simply burst into flames while being driven. Chicago police department and fire department was involved and the report # is ht535806. *kb
Tl* the contact owns a 2009 volkswagen tiguan. While traveling 5 MPH, the contact noticed that the vehicle would not properly accelerate and begun to surge forward. The vehicle was shut off by the contact and would not restart. Prior to the surging, the contact noticed that the check engine light was illuminated on the instrument panel. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the engine was replaced, however the contact was not informed what caused the engine failure. Two months after the repair, the contact was examining the vehicle and noticed that the main fuse box was melted. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where the fuse box was repaired. The current mileage was 50,000 and the failure mileage was 30,000. The VIN was not available. K
Apparently, the top portion of my fuse box melted when the temperatures in chicago reached 100 degrees. The effected area controls the lighting on the right side of the car, and may also impact the power steering and traction control. Although the car is just out of warranty, this is a dangerous situation if the fuse box is not designed to withstand normal hot temperatures given that the entire car is impacted by the fuse box, loss of electronic controls in a car with computer technology that controls all of the functions of the car is a dangerous situation. Thanks. *tr...updated 09-18-13 *bf
Also reported on the 2009 Volkswagen Tiguan
Timing chain, belt or tensioner failure
Other engine problem
Oil leak
Headlight failure or clouding
Sunroof failure or glass breakage
Other powertrain problem
How far this goes
Complaints are voluntary, so 13 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 2009 Volkswagen Tiguan?
Across 12 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 50,000 miles. A quarter were filed before 35,000 miles and a quarter after 65,000 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 2009 Volkswagen Tiguan?
13 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 1.0 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