I have a 2002 Jetta 1.8T. So not long after I moved, I notice the E-brake light blinking and beeping temporarily. It seems to occur on hills. It always goes away after a 10-15 seconds. My first thought is that it’s complaining that my e-brake is still on while driving, but I’m definitely releasing it.

I didn’t used to live where there are so many steep hiils and drove on relatively flat ground almost all the time.

Is this a safety feature? A warning of some sort? I can’t find anything in the manual or online… The ABS light is not affected, just the parking/e-braking light.

My daytime running lights are functioning properly.

Thanks.

Shortly I will post my entire list of service experiences with my 2002 Jetta. Until then I post this for thought.

We are in modern times, with modern manufacturing. How come a car that originally stickered for over $24,000 is a complete piece of crap? I have owned this car from 42,000 miles to its now 68,000 miles, It has been religiously maintained by VW and in between regular maintenance has been back to VW for numerous items-mostly under warranty. How can a manufacturer expect customers to be happy after paying $800 for scheduled service then then have their car be towed back to dealer twice within weeks.

How can a 2002 VW reliability be on par with a ‘76 Alfa or ‘83 MG? How can a ‘76 Plymouth Valiant with over a hundred thousand miles be more reliable than a 2002 VW with just over 40K?

and finally..

HOW CAN A COMPANY BRAG ABOUT SAFETY IF THEIR CARS WILL RANDOMLY STRAND YOU ON HIGHWAY MILES AWAY FROM HOME EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE RELIGIOUSLY OBEYED EVERY SINGLE SERVICE INSTRUCTION AND MORE? WHAT F****ING CENTURY IS THIS! (…anyone want to buy a car I have 2 months left of warrany)

Hi Passat Owners,

Sorry if this is long-winded for a BB, but here it is… I’m told the ABS Brake Module failure is a known problem for certain years, which happens to include mine, 1999. Nearly a year ago my ABS Brake Light went on and the dealership charged me $200 to tell me that it’d cost around $1,800 to replace my ABS Brake Module and pump.

A quick search of ebay turned up techs who remanufacture/recondition these modules for $179. With some directions and some hard work, I figured out how to remove it - I’m now a pro! - and sent it in. When it came back, I reinstalled it and all was good. Saved close to $1,600!!

Then recently, the light comes on again. I didn’t initially think to take the remanufacturer up on on their warranty. Instead, was a bad consumer and let a mechanic fleece me for a new alternator and battery which of course didn’t fix the problem. (Per the mechanic we needed to eliminate those as potential causes. Thanks, buddy!!)

Finally came to my senses and sent the module back in. They had it for nearly two weeks and when I got it back and reinstalled it, the ABS Brake Light remained.

Was told that I need to pull and clear codes. Since neither the Generic (OBD) scanner nor the AST Scanner were capable of communicating with the ABS Brake Module I took it to a mechanic with the VAG-COM scanner system. (It’s a 3rd party diagnostic software tool designed specifically for VW and other german made cars.) Anyhow, VAG-COM wouldn’t communicate with my ABS Brake Module either.

Conclusion: Either I’ve reinstalled the module incorrectly or, it’s simply dead and the remanufacturer/reconditioner sent me back a useless module and failed to honor their warranty. (I’m gonna get back to them about that.)

I guess I’m just sharing as I don’t think there’s much more I can do short of rechecking the connections and if that doesn’t work, replacing the module. I suppose I’d go to a junkyard and see if I can find one there as it doesn’t seem to make sense to put in $2,000 in a car not worth more than $6,000.

HOWEVER, if anyone out there does have any ideas or experience with this issue, I’m all ears!!

If anyone needs advice about how best to remove their module for reconditioning I can help with that.

P.S. An Emission Leak code did come up which a mechanic said would require quite a bit of work as the whole system needs to be checked for even the smallest cracks. Could take hours. Anyone have experience with that? THANKS!!

I recently went in for my 10k mile oil change, which as most of you know is merely my 2nd oil change. Ironically the day of my oil change I started to notice my clutch behaving strange. By strange I mean I couldn’t down shift, without grinding, and I could shift normally without a serious effort to get it into gear.

When I got my oil change the service guy asked if there was any issues and I told him my clutch was behaving weird, but he never wrote that down on the service report.

After a whole week of waiting they finally tell me its a mysterious problem they have never seen before. Several days later I am told it was the clutch and the flywheel and that I was to blame for it because I drive my vehical hard. So of course this isn’t covered under warrenty (go figure!)

But this is only the beginning.

Then they start to tell my mother than I am keeping secrets from her and have been lying to her about my driving habits. So who do they think they are now? Dr. Phil?!

The total damage is around 3,000 dollars but after much argument bc my entire family owns vw’s they settled for half of the original payment. And they said they did this out of the “”kindness of their hearts”"

B.S!

To me this seems like they know there is something wrong with the car, but won’t admit it.

The servicemen have been complete jerks to me and my family and have judged me for being 21 and think I am some person who is hot rodding around.

My family knows a lot about cars and personally I know its physically impossible to burn out a clutch let alone a flywheel after 10k miles! This car is still brand new!

We are still fighting the payment and have filed a case with VWoA. So we will see what unfolds in the future.

The general rumor is that VWoA is moving from Auburn Hills to the “” DC area”".
Perhaps the reason that VWoA has not announced the location that they are moving to is that they are not moving but withdrawing from the North American market?
In any case, VWoA could save themselves a lot of money if they moved their operations to an offshore phone bank. When you called VWoA to complain about your VW you would be sent through a series of connections until you reached the message: “” VWoA will not cover that under warranty”". The outcome would be the same and they would save a ton of salary by not paying “”customer service”" reps.