VW Recalls 679K Cars With Faulty Micro Switch That 'May Roll Away' (nydailynews.com) 40
"Volkswagen issued a recall Friday of 679,000 vehicles for risk that they may roll away," reports the New York Daily News:
Models recalled include certain 2011 through 2019 Beetles and Beetle convertibles, GTIs, Golfs, Golf SportWagens and Jettas that have automatic transmissions, manual hand brakes and keyless entry.
"In affected vehicles, a micro switch which indicates the position of the shift lever may fail, allowing the key to be removed from the ignition switch without the shift lever being in the in the "P" Park position," a spokesperson for the German automaker told the Daily News in an email. "If the ignition key is removed without the shift lever being in the "P" Park position, there is a risk the vehicle may roll away, resulting in a crash."
The spokesperson added that the company "is not aware of any crashes, injuries or fatalities related to this recall."
"In affected vehicles, a micro switch which indicates the position of the shift lever may fail, allowing the key to be removed from the ignition switch without the shift lever being in the in the "P" Park position," a spokesperson for the German automaker told the Daily News in an email. "If the ignition key is removed without the shift lever being in the "P" Park position, there is a risk the vehicle may roll away, resulting in a crash."
The spokesperson added that the company "is not aware of any crashes, injuries or fatalities related to this recall."
German cars and electronics. (Score:3, Insightful)
Not a good combination.
Never own a German car out of warranty.
Just to be safe, never buy one. If you must have one - lease it.
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Because microswitch failure can lead to a dangerous condition that can kill people. You may forget to put the car in park, remove the key, and the car may run you over. I believe GM cars had a weird
Re:Meanwhile, American cars... (Score:4, Informative)
"Meanwhile, Tesla electric cars spontaneously combust into a ball of flames, and there is no recall..."
That's not what your linked article says at all. It does not provide any substantiated claims of vehicles combusting without insult. Not even one. There is some FUD in there about claims of vehicles burning without being involved in a collision, but then provides no evidence or examples (since at the time the article was written, the vehicle in Singapore had not yet been investigated.)
If it only happens after an accident, then it's not spontaneous.
Even if that one vehicle did combust spontaneously, it's only one car out of their entire fleet, which gives them a better record than any other automaker. Every major auto manufacturer has had cars that actually do combust without being damaged by anything other than time and poor design. My father briefly had an Oldsmobile Toronado which burned down in our driveway in the middle of the night. Some hilariously expensive Porsches, Lamborghinis and Ferraris have done the same.
So in short, it's the gasoline cars that are proven to self-combust without an accident, but here you are spreading FUD about Tesla. Are you getting paid for your libel, or is this just a hobby? Just hate progress?
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VW recalls their vehicles for a faulty microswitch that allows the user to erroneously remove their keys from the car without properly setting the car in "Park."
Meanwhile, Tesla electric cars spontaneously combust [businessinsider.com] into a ball of flames, and there is no recall...
My current and next car is and will be a Volkswagen.
Large auto companies have the financial foundation to handle significant recalls. Recalls are inevitable if you produce enough cars. I do wonder how Tesla will be financially impacted if they ever have a costly major recall to cover.
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As an owner of two Jettas. holy god in heaven, you aren't kidding.
And I'm the kind of guy who can swap an engine, transmission, timing chain, and so on. Oh wait, I had to. because Jettas are gigantic pieces of shit.
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I race an 88 VW Fox wagon in 24 Hours of Lemons and similar series.
I've got 4 ABA motors in the garage right now, One on a hoist, one disassembled and two on the floor waiting for the one on the hoist to fail.
Once you remove all of the VW wiring and strip the car down to just the very base chassis and suspension it's surprisingly good. I think there's about six unmodified VW parts on the chassis now. They break regularly, but they're cheap and easy to replace for now.
I have friends who race Jettas. It's
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That would have been just after their debacle of selling their cars with 1yr warranties here in North America. Then wondering why their NA auto sales fell through the floor.
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We treat them more like wear items.
The parts that fail are usually under $40. It's more an annoyance rather than then a money pit. Compared to the rest of the racing costs it's not really noticeable.
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The steering column is one of the unmodified parts left on the car, and it is collapsible as required by the rules.
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Take it to an independent shop, and screw the VW dealer. If you live in the US, take it to a local Pep Boys and have them pull the diagnostic codes for you. It's free. In VW's the OBD systems display the exact fault code that causes it to come on. From that point it's as easy as following the flowchart repair that the handheld terminal tells you to start working from(not available on consumer OBD/TOAD scanners). With that model year, I'd lay it at two places going by the TSB's which unlike recalls basi
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This is from experience, I used to be a mechanic full time a couple of decades ago, I still work at my friends shop(mostly electronics) if he needs a hand with a backlog. The standard has always been: Pull code, store code error in hand-held device, clear code, engage in 30min drive or drive simulation conditions where the code comes back up. From there, the non-consumer devices refer to either the onscreen flowchart system, or the paper version. You simply follow down the line and test everything.
A code
I generally blame Bosch (Score:2)
Can't blame them for this problem but Bosch has gone in the toilet completely. In literally all industries in which they participate, quality is now shit. Auto parts, power tools, home appliances, you name it and Bosch will fuck it up. They fail at bonding wires from PCBs to connectors, they fail at selecting components, their hardware is just garbage.
Compounding this problem is the fact that they're letting other companies use their name for even worse crap. They sold off their 12 volt starter and alternat
Meh. (Score:5, Interesting)
Not allowing the key to be removed without the transmission in park is a relatively new feature, anyway. Incredibly minor fault, and I'm surprised it is considered serious enough to make it a recall.
It's certainly not important enough to make a slashdot article on, or even for it to make the news.
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It is a slashdot article because it is a non-US car maker of course, you know, we have to present every little thing is dieselgate 2.0..
but yes, WTF is this doing on Slashdot? oh thats right, this is Slashdot 2.0 - News for anyone we can pull in with hype headlines, Stuff that spins.
Re: Meh. (Score:3)
It's still the responsibility of the driver to operate the vehicle in a safe manner so I don't see that this is a concern except for people that are starting to become senile - and they shouldn't be driving anyway.
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Not allowing the key to be removed without the transmission in park is a relatively new feature, anyway. Incredibly minor fault, and I'm surprised it is considered serious enough to make it a recall.
It's certainly not important enough to make a slashdot article on, or even for it to make the news.
If the discussion was about how people are way to dependent on safety systems to prevent them from doing stupid things, it *would* be worthy of a classic slashdot discussion. Instead we likely have a "new" slashdot discussion about people's opinion of brands and companies, and not about the underlying technology or how people interact with it.
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It's certainly not important enough to make a slashdot article on
I disagree. I think the strange low bar for recalls is definitely worth discussing.
Re: Meh. (Score:2)
I just got a 2010 Audi TT recently, and itâ(TM)ll let you remove the key while itâ(TM)s still in gear. On one occasion I did just that, and it nearly caused a nasty accident (fortunately I hopped back in the car as it started rolling). Iâ(TM)ve learned to be more careful.
I just assumed that the car never had this particular safety feature. Maybe it did have the feature once, but it stopped working.
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In the past, I usually haven't used the handbrake when I parked (the area I live in is pretty flat so most people don't bother). Ever since that incident with the Audi, though, I've gotten into the habit of engaging the handbrake when I park, just as an extra fail-safe.
The safety feature where you can't remove the key unless the car is in park... it's a damn good safety feature. Contrary to some of the posters here, I think it was absolutely worth a recall when it stopped working on these VWs. It's espec
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Not allowing the key to be removed without the transmission in park is a relatively new feature, anyway.
How long has that been a standard feature? I do not remember driving any automatic which did not operate that way.
Auto or manual (Score:2)
Ok so the headline posted that this affected manual transmission cars but then says the key can be removed if the vehicle is not in park...which indicates an Automatic, so which is it!?
I am all for safety , but some people need to re-test for their license! This is why they had to add a no start switch to the clutch, because so many people drive through the back of their garage when starting the car.
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That's on a license thing, it's a lack of expectation thing. Tell me, do you go through a pre-start checklist when you drive you car? I don't. I also use the parking break and leave the car in neutral when I'm done.
I have once manage to lurch the car forward on it's starting motor, but only due to someone else borrowing my car without my knowledge and without adjusting the seat of mirror. In I get, turn the car and *OMG WTF I WILLKILLTHEMOTHERFU*.
Point is people are creatures of habit. Creatures of habit ge
In other news (Score:2)
Cars with manual transmission, since the dawn of times, allow any idiot to remove the key in neutral position and lots of people have run themselves over while opening their garage door.
I tried to read TFA but.. (Score:1)
It must be a really good newspaper if it has to protect itself from evil EU users.
So freekin' what? (Score:3)
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Almost like they called it a parking brake and mandated its inclusion in car designs, and put it use on the driving test for a reason, eh?
Drive a stick shift (Score:2)
This can't happen with a stick shift except under the following, user induced condition: Person parks car, leaves gear shift in a neutral position (i.e. not in a gear) AND fails to engage the parking brake.
Just like you don't hear of someone driving a stick shift "accidentally" stomping on the accelerator pedal rather than the brake and launching themselves out the third story of a parking garage, stick shifts are safer.
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...stick shifts are safer.
Not intrinsically, it's just that manuals require drivers to be more aware of what state the gearbox is in.
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...stick shifts are safer.
Not intrinsically, it's just that manuals require drivers to be more aware of what state the gearbox is in.
Manuals in the form of stick shifts also *allow* the driver to be more aware unlike the electronic manuals which are becoming common with their interface which does not reflect the state of the transmission.
Affected vehicles do NOT have keyless entry (Score:2)
Models recalled include certain 2011 through 2019 Beetles and Beetle convertibles, GTIs, Golfs, Golf SportWagens and Jettas that have automatic transmissions, manual hand brakes and keyless entry. ... If the ignition key is removed without the shift lever being in the "P" Park position...
which doesn't makes sense. VW keyless entry ("Kessy") systems are also keyless start. There's no ignition key to remove.
The true subject vehicles are in the NHTSA Safety Recall Report [nhtsa.gov] which specifies that the vehicles are "without Kessy (keyless entry)".
This does raise a question. If you have Kessy and forget to put it in Park, you just get a warning message when you turn off the ignition. So does that mean that cars with Kessy are less safe?
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She was driving our Golf SportWagon with Keyless ignition. She thought she put the car in park and proceeded to get out of the car. I saw the car to slowly roll forward and 'yelled' for her to stop the car. She quickly noticed and hit the brakes and put it in park properly. No harm, thankfully.
No warning of any kind, either.
The funny thing is that I wouldn't