I’ve got a good problem for you that has so far stumped 3 different VW dealerships. I have a 2003 VW Passat V6 4-Motion Wagon with 72k miles. It’s been nothing but trouble since the day I bought it new?the worst car, in terms of reliability, I?ve ever owned. One particular nagging and dangerous problem is what I refer to as the EPC issue which started within 2 months of purchasing the car and continues to this day. Here’s how it goes. On hot days, 90 degrees plus, when the car has been sitting in a parking lot beaten by the sun, you start the car up, all seems well but at some point the Engine light and EPC light go on and you lose power. The engine is still running but you’ve lost control of acceleration completely or the power has been reduced significantly. On several occasions this has happened to me on the highway going greater than 65, uphill. You can imagine the hazard I’ve suddenly become when this occurs. One time in fact, I started rolling backwards and had to maneuver the car to the side of the road backwards (with my kids in the car) with people giving me the finger, looking at me like I?m nuts. It was nerve racking to say the least. The 3 VW dealerships I’ve taken the car to have diagnosed the problem as a DTC fault in the throttle switch or the accelerator pedal assembly needs to be replaced but mostly or they can’t find anything wrong. This problem has happened at least 20 times since I’ve owned the car. I’m at a loss and I don’t know what to do. I have no faith in the dealerships. The car is dangerous, paid for and out of warranty. VW corporate, despite several attempts, refuses to provide any assistance in terms of offsetting the very expensive and ongoing repair costs.
Any ideas?
And as I indicated, this is just the most pressing issue with the car in addition the car has had the following issues:
? Radio Replaced twice
? Seat heater burned while my wife was driving
? Seat heater recall, both driver and passenger seat heaters replaced (this is in addition to the above). The dealership did not reattach the driver seat which I learned while coming to an abrupt stop at a light as my chest slammed into the steering wheel.
? Fuel pump died. Upon repair, the dealership did not reattach the gas gauge assembly so we had to go back to have it attached.
? Mass Air Flow replaced
? Secondary pump failed
? Gas gauge not working
? Brake light failure
? An excessive amount of headlight, fog light and taillight failures
? Oil temperature gauge failure
And yes, I?ve kept up with all the required maintenance not missing even a tire rotation.
Thank You
It’s possible that you might have an overheating/bad rpm sensor. The fact that it only happens on hot days and when your getting up to higher speeds would seem to lean towards that. And if it is bad it would cause the EPC light to go on, and then I would assume that it turns off after the car has had time to cool?? Take it back to the dealer with this and see what they have to say.
I’m having the exact same problem with my 2003 VW Passat w/ 70K miles! Was it a bad RPM sensor?