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-   -   2012 Volkswagen Passat Highline - The beast finally comes home! EDIT: Now sold! (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/long-term-ownership-reviews/128042-2012-volkswagen-passat-highline-beast-finally-comes-home-edit-now-sold-7.html)

Dear punitkakri,

There have been some issues with various sensors on the Passats; in this thread the majority of the sensor issues are related to the ABS Sensor. Since the cars have been under the warranty period / extended warranty, they have been replaced by VW at no cost to the Owner.

My warranty expires end November; so will definitely have it replaced for free. Latest update is that the part has been ordered by VW Downtown Mumbai and should take another week to arrive. Meanwhile, I am using the car sparingly.

Latest news is that the ABS Sensor has arrived, have managed to get an appointment for 16th October. Will keep you updated folks :)

It seems that VW Downtown has closed its Lalbaug workshop and their Sewree workshop is overfull with VW cars - long wait for repairs/service.

Hello friends, I have found a very well maintained 2011 DSG Passat highline with 25K on Odo. Extended warranty is still active for another 1 year. Wanted to get your advice if it is worth buying. Price will be in the range of 17L-18L. Comes with all the features and sparingly used. Somewhat worried about the issues mentioned in these forums about sensors and poor VW service generally all over the country. I am in chennai and have access to 3 dealers. Do you all know if VW's new parts distribution center in Bangalore set to operational in Q2-2015, will improve the service standards?
I own an innova and have absolute peace of mind so far.

I am a silent follower of this forum and thanks to you all for sharing your experiences

So here is the update - not a great one :(

I managed to get an appointment on 16th Oct for fixing the ABS Sensor problem after some pushing. Took the car there and was told that the rear right sensor is fixed. Collected the car at around 5 pm and drove home - happy as a lark as everything was working.

I reached home and parked the car in the garage. Went up to change for the gym and started the car. To my utter dismay, as soon as I reversed the car the same lights cropped up.

I contacted the SA and was informed that I have to book an appointment as they do not take cars out of turn as the workshop is overloaded. I now have an appointment booked for 30th October.

I am fairly disappointed but also hopeful that the issue will be sorted out. Seems to be the ABS Sensor problem but will not know which sensor is defective unless the VAS scanning has been done.

I would appreciate any advice from you guys. I have the option to take the extended warranty - should I go ahead and take it ??

When a scan is done, it pin points which wheel ABS sensor is defective. And they have to just swap it with a new ABS sensor. I have scanned, identified fault and swapped faulty ABS sensors myself. It's a fairly simple 10~15 mins job. I don't understand how the light came up so soon after the work was done. If it was done under warranty, only thing I could imagine is that they "could have" tried their luck with some used ABS sensor instead of a new one which is very wrong and unethical and totally unacceptable.. obviously. If the actual fault was that of the ABS sensor itself, it cant be that the new one went kaput so soon. Either the fault could be something else or it could be what I mentioned above.

IMO please do go for the extended warranty. You wouldn't regret it.

Thanks Ayajpjayaraj,

I was at the VW workshop in Pune when they scanned the car the first time the ABS Sensor failed. I had posted what they did on this forum, but unfortunately they did not have a spare new ABS Sensor otherwise they would have changed it in my presence. I cannot vouch that a new ABS Sensor was fitted by VW Downtown as I was not in the workshop.

Sourcing the ABS Sensors is easy, costs about USD 100/- for a pair on eBay. I know it is easy to replace the ABS Sensor, being a marine engineer I can do it easily. Do the faults reset automatically after replacing the sensor ??

Would appreciate your views. Also will go for the extended warranty as recommended by most of you.

Anytime rpunwani! As a practice, usually the first thing I do after carrying out any work which involves swapping electric parts and modules, disconnecting battery, etc. is to do a complete scan and erase any pending DTCs from the memory. So I wouldn't notice if certain faults disappear on its own.

However a couple of times, before completion of work, after a battery disconnect/reconnect, I've noticed that the steering system fault which normally appears gets reset on its own. Like if you turn the steering lock to lock upon starting engine after reconnecting batteries, the steering system alarm resets itself. I guess some measurement/learning function for that particular module might be happening during this time. This is not confined to only steering system fault. But specifically about ABS sensor, I'm sorry, I wouldn't have noticed because of erasing DTCs soon after the work.

I am amazed at how VW is treating a customer who has brought a premium car spending over 25L. The SA has the cheek to say that they will not accept the car even though the car has a fault which was not fully fixed earlier and an appointment is given after 2 weeks. absolutely unacceptable. I would not like to be treated like this even in a 2 wheeler service station let alone a premium customer of an Auto company. This is the only reason why I love Maruti. I just hope they make really good enthusiast car some day.

Wow, so I understand that you have access to a VAS or VCDS ! I do not have any access to it so am totally dependant on VW Service :(

As the car is under warranty, I do not want to take any risks and have VW attend to the faults.

Until this ABS sensor fault appeared, my car worked like a dream. Did two long road trips in the last year and apart from a great ride, I got fantastic fuel average (approx. 16 km/ltr). One one occasion I got 21.6 km/ltr from Pune to Mumbai.

Lets see what happens when I give the car for repairs :)

Though not an engineer myself, always been a fan of tech stuff and my hobbies would always be something tech related. When I started DIYs and mods on my Skoda, I got VCDS from Ross-tech. Makes life much more easier when playing around with VAG cars.

During warranty period, let the guys take care of it. However the attitude of the A.S.S. is totally wrong... very poor. I would not have accepted that reply for an answer if they told me to wait 2 weeks after a shabby work which dint do the purpose.

I know it's really irritating to have fault/warning lamps lit in the instrument cluster which gives you the insecurity that the car is temporarily not fully capable of what it actually can. Don't worry it's not a major issue and your car would be back in top condition soon. Cheers.

Here is the latest update,

Gave my car to VW Downtown in Mumbai for warranty repair and 2nd service. It turned out that the rear left ABS sensor was faulty. Last time the rear right ABS sensor was replaced on 16th Oct. Mr. Alok who is the Manager and the two SA's Anil and Aniket were very helpful and had the car thoroughly checked. The rear left ABS sensor was replaced and I drove the car home without any further yellow lights showing on the dashboard.

Also took the VW extended warranty for 2 years; albeit at a crazy price. Thanks to all of you who recomemended to go for it.

Will keep you updated

So here is another snafu;

Just before giving the car for repairs & 2nd service, I noticed that the rear numberplate left LED bulb fitting had cracked due to some little hit on the bumper. So I asked the workshop to replace the bulb - but to let me know the cost of replacement.

They inform me that the fitting is approx. Rs. 1,000/- and I instruct them to go ahead and replace the fitting. Turns out that they have replaced the fitting but it is not a LED bulb but the normal festoon bulb with yellow light (as found on Polo & Vento). So now I have the rear number plate with a blue LED bulb on the right & a yellow bulb on the left !

Doing a bit of research revealed that the part number of the LED fitting is 1K 894 3012C and that of the festoon bulb is 1K 894 3021.

After chasing them for a few days, I am informed today that the LED fitting is Rs. 2,800/- but since they did not have stock, they fitted the other one and that it should be no problem for me. I gave them a piece of my mind stating that they should leave the choice to me specially when I am willing to pay for it.

I have to wait for 10 - 12 days for the part to come before the VW technician comes to my residence to replace the fitting.

I am sometimes amazed at the competency of the personnel in the workshop. If this happened in any other country, one could have kicked up hell including right to sue, etc.

Well, I can relate to this :p.

It seems the technicians don't think while on the job. They do not bother checking the part for the correct type or quality. I don't understand why do customers need to give them a kick to wake them up, so that they do a proper job the second time around.

My car has been working perfectly (**touch-wood**) since I got it back after all the hassles. I had the battery checked at my petrol pump after being advised to replace it by the Volkswagen workshop. Turns out the battery is fine! So even after being in use for 3 years, it is still healthy. The starting problem mysteriously seems to have gone away as well. I wonder how is this possible.

Reflects very well on the Jugaad that we Indians are famous for.
Jugaad is probably the most common amongst Indian mechanics, and it is so disappointing and annoying when they act like its not a big deal, and we are at fault.

More than the Jugaad, I think they believe that all customers are ignorant and that they can get away with anything and the customer will accept. While this may hold true for a lot of cases, I believe that informed customers can hold their own against them.

The SA kept insisting that as per the vehicle VIN, the part that he fitted is the correct one. It's only when I started quoting part numbers of the light that he fitted and the part number of the LED light he realised that this is one customer who can't be fooled. So he promptly ask me to speak to his boss, the Manager who quickly checked and saw that the part they fitted was not the LED light, but a regular one. Also, because of the price difference someone had to bell the cat to inform me of the price revision :D

I could have had this covered under insurance as I have NCB Protection & Zero Dep. Now I have lost the opportunity to do so as I did not want to get into hassles for a part stated to be costing Rs. 1,000/-

The key issue is why should this happen? Is it because of lack of training or lack of commitment to the customer?