2004 Volkswagen Passat problems
NHTSA has received 348 complaints about the 2004 Volkswagen Passat, and 21% of them involve engine. After that come fuel system (18%) and seats (10%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 348 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Engine 21% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 12 and 31
- Injuries and deaths
- 27 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 68,000 miles 273 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 45 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 26 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 48 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 41 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 47 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 30 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 12 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 8 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 9 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 3 |
| 200k+ miles | 4 |
What the data shows
Among the 273 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 68,000 miles. For engine specifically, the median reported mileage is about 80,000 miles (60 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 12 complaints mention a crash; 31 complaints mention a fire; 27 injuries reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2004 ranks 12th most-complained-about out of 31 model years of the Volkswagen Passat with enough data (207 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 3 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
Turned on seat heater to 1 while waiting for car to warm up. Noticed a burning smell and felt a hot burning sensation on my buttocks. Turned off seat heater and got out of the car. There was a 5/8' hole burnt through the seat with some smoke still coming out of it. The seat heater had been on less than 1 minute. Will contact dealer later today to resolve the issue. Cw.
Wife was driving 2004 VW passat sedan with heated seats turned on. She felt a sharp burning in the side of her leg that slowly intensified. As she looked down at her leg she saw flames coming out from a dime sized hole. The seat was damaged and her leg was burned.
My seat warmer on my 2004 volkswagen passat 1.8 turbo was turned to a setting of "2". After just two minutes I smelled something burning and felt a burning sensation on my leg. I looked down and the seat warmer had burnt a two inch whole through my cloth seats, and burnt my jeans as well. It also left a small burn on my leg, like someone had bumped me with a cigarette.
I had been driving my car for fewer than 15 minutes with the seat heating element on. I noticed an acute burning heat near my upper left leg, and shortly thereafter noticed a hot/burning/melting smell. I immediately turned off the driver's side seat and pulled into a parking spot. After being turned off for 10 minutes, the burning smell was still hanging in the car and my seat was still extremely hot to the touch.
Leaking at vent/top of gas tank. Exactly the same description of that past heat sheild/vent gas leaking recall from about 10 years ago