What 194 owners told NHTSA about the 2017 Volkswagen Golf R

Thermostat Sensor Failure causing check engine light P00B7. Vehicle not reading the correct engine temp causing cooling fans to run at 100% and drivability concern. Dealer diagnosed the repair as replacement of the Thermostat/Thermostat Housing quoted at $1,635. The vehicle has not been inspected by any other party other than dealership. Check Engine line appeared, thermostat not reading proper temp, and cooling fans running at 100% speed. This is a well documented problem with my vehicle: https://www.reddit.com/r/GolfGTI/comments/drna5m/mk775_thermostat_housing_issue_and_coolant_loss/

NHTSA ODI 11561868

The fuel suction pump in my 2017 volkswagen golf r failed causing strong gas odors to emit whenever the car is running, loss of power, inability to put more than a small amount of fuel in, and gas leaking into the evap and charcoal canister causing them to fail. This creates a huge risk for ignition and fuel dumping onto the road which, only because I stopped driving it, has not happened to me. A check engine light has still yet to appear even after part failure. I believe you can see how big of a safety risk this causes to not only the vehicle's occupants, but those around it as well. I have already taken it to the volkswagen dealer and they themselves confirmed that yes the fuel suction pump has failed and that all those parts and the fuel tank itself need replaced totaling around 3,500 to 4,000 dollars. I have not gotten anything replaced. They refuse to cover it under the warranty extension titled VWP22-12 even though my car is obviously not 15 years old and it only has around 37,000 miles. They claim they revised the part for 2017 so that it doesn't fail anymore, but if that were the case then why is that warranty extension all the way up to 2020 models. I have looked through other complaints filed on this site and see you've already been contacted several times about my exact issue on 2017 models. I am urging you to please make this a recall. Volkswagen clearly knows this is a widespread issue evidenced by the fact the it affects such a large amount of models and years and by not making a recall you are allowing them to screw people over.

NHTSA ODI 11560614

Large amount of fuel dumped onto road from right rear side of car at stop light. Police stopped me and asked me get a tow and no longer drive. 1st garage said it might be faulty fuel pump, and only VW dealer can replace. towed to VW where they replaced the whole fuel assembly.

NHTSA ODI 11558501

Fuel evaporation canister started leaking raw fuel after a strong gas odor was present before hand. The fuel suction pump failed and pressure built up in my gas tank. I was at risk because the presence of raw fuel near ignition sources can cause a fire. Verified at Volkswagen dealership. No warning signs by car when issue first started. Only sign of problem before raw fuel leaking was poor car performance, car stalled and I could not put more than a gallon of gas in the fuel tank.

NHTSA ODI 11552952

While driving the vehicle I noticed hesitation and lose of power on the interstate. No MIL or check engine light illuminated on the dash. I was able to get the vehicle back to the house, but noticed a strong fuel smell coming from the car. I walked around the vehicle looking for a visible sign of a fuel leak and saw a puddle by the rear passenger tire. After further investigation I discovered that the fuel was coming from the air filter on my charcoal/evap canister. I did some research and see that VW has an extended warranty out for this issue but it is not currently a recall, Fuel Tank Suction Jet Pump Limited Warranty Extension (VWP-22-2). The safety issue is that while driving and stationary you have raw fuel and vapors on the exterior of the vehicle by an exhaust muffler and the inner fender liner absorbs some of the fuel in its fabric, so with the right circumstances could cause a vehicle fire. Thankfully this did not happen to my vehicle but the potential for it to happen is present. I took my vehicle to my local dealer and they diagnosed this issue but because my vehicle has a salvage title they will not cover the cost for the repairs, even though the reason that my vehicle has a salvaged/total title has nothing to do with the fuel/emission/evap system, so I will be doing the repairs myself. The parts that needs to he repaired are the same parts listed in the previous recall of the earlier model of the VW GTI (Safety Recall Code 20Y6)

NHTSA ODI 11548647

Vehicle would not take in fuel from the gas pump. Fuel would leak from the rear, passenger side of the vehicle. Dealer replaced Fuel Tank, ACF Valve and Evaporative Emission Canister to fix the problem.

NHTSA ODI 11547266

Vehicle EPC light comes on dash. OBD code is "P00AF00 - Turbocharger Boost Control "A" Module". This error causes sudden loss of power and loss of driver assistance (forward collision assist, blind spot assist, cruise control, etc.). Vehicle is available for inspection upon request. Upon checking turbo charger, the wastegate actuator arm is seized up, keeping the wastegate from functioning properly, failing to maintain boost pressure and entering limp mode causing sudden loss of power and acceleration. This has happened while on the roadway, attempting to merge into highway traffic, change lanes & pass other vehicles. This caused the vehicle behind me to close the distance very rapidly almost resulting in multiple rear end collisions. The vehicle has not been inspected by others, yet. The only warning that came on was when it first did it. I had a sudden loss of power, a warning beep from the dash and the EPC light illuminated. It fixed itself after a few moments then occured again. It is now stuck with this error and will not operate accordingly.

NHTSA ODI 11546483

While on a road trip we noticed that the car was missing slightly on steep hills, and we attributed it to needing new spark plugs. When we filled with gas later, we noticed it clicking off as full sooner than it should have. The next day we could not get more than a gallon in it, and gas pooled in the neck of the tank and started oozing out around the rear bumper and on to the ground. It was clearly unsafe to drive in that condition. We took it to a nearby mechanic where we were visiting and he diagnosed it as a failed EVAP that he couldn't replace because it's integrated into the tank, and he didn't do that kind of major work on VWs. Found another mechanic and he disassembled the fuel system to discover that the baffles in the gas tank had collapsed, the charcoal filter was destroyed, the fuel pump and simmy valve were broken. All will have to be replaced at a cost of about $4500. (No documentation yet--still in the shop, and I haven't yet been able to get through to VW.) No check engine or warning lights ever came on, and the damage was sudden and instantaneous, with no cause (never been in a wreck in this car, always use factory-recommended fluids and fuel). No mechanical problems until this, and it seems there are many reports of Golfs 2016-2018 having this same problem at 5 years, so it's clearly a defect. This needs to be a recall! Thanks.

NHTSA ODI 11542548

My VW on two occasions experienced coolant / water pump system failures (May 2022 and August 2023), the second of which required full water pump replacement. These are identical to the class action lawsuit outlined on https://waterpumpsettlement.com/ (civil court case Civ. No.: 2:21-cv-11251-MCA-MF), though I am receiving difficulties with the settlement claim for unknown reasons. My vehicles water pump is identical to those outlined in the case, as the pump model numbers and OEM origin are identical. These two incidents posed a severe risk/hazard to both the vehicle and myself due to leakage and loss of coolant putting the car at risk of catatrosphic engine failure. It is becoming apparent that these should amount to a recall as the growing number of incidents keeps increasing.

NHTSA ODI 11537264

Rear passenger seat buckle does not latch and thus at least one seat belt cannot be used. Buckle failed on its own. No accident or other incident was done to the buckle.

NHTSA ODI 11536956

Tried to put gas in tank and the pump at the gas station kept shutting off. Pulled over to refuel at another gas station and had gas leaking out of the side of my car, above tire on rear passenger side and next to exhaust. Inside of the car filled with strong odor of gasoline. Extremely dangerous having fuel pouring out of the side of the car while vehicle was moving. Volkswagen issued a recall for this issue on the 2015 and 2016 vw gti models due to the suction pump getting stuck inside the gas tank and they need to do the same for the 2017 models. Having to pay out of pocket to fix this issue and its going to cost over $3,500.00. Local dealership saying I need to replace the entire gas tank to fix the issue. Vehicle has roughly 72,000 miles on it. No warning lamps or messages from the vehicle while driving.

NHTSA ODI 11537018

Driving I noticed the power getting cut intermittently. This happened for a couple days. When I parked the car there was a smell of fuel. Looked at the rear of the car and there was a massive puddle of fuel on the ground at the rear passenger side. Left car outside house for safety reasons. Incredibly dangerous. No warning lights, just a very strong smell of fuel. Scheduled to take vehicle to dealer as there is a recall on the suction pump for the fuel system for models 15-16. It appears this is an issue in other models as well.

NHTSA ODI 11535411

One day after a fuel fill-up, during hot weather, upon returning home my wife noticed the smell of gasoline when exiting my vehicle. Then she saw a steady stream of fuel pouring onto the ground just behind the passenger-side rear tire. She immediately got back in the car and drove it back out of my garage, onto our gravel driveway. The fuel continued running out of the wheel well, from a location approximately below the fuel filler door, for several minutes. After I opened the fuel filler cap there was a hissing sound, then the fuel leak appeared to stop. I called my local VW repair shop, who advised us to get the car towed to them, and NOT to drive it. The next morning it was towed to that shop. It took them a couple of days to get to our car, and they diagnosed that fuel had filled the charcoal canister, and presented us with a repair estimate of approximately $5,000. That included replacing the charcoal canister, the entire fuel tank, and several other related parts. After doing some research online, I believe this incident resulted from failure of the fuel tank suction pump, which was the subject of VW recall 20Y6, dated 12/21/2016. Apparently the same fuel suction pump continued to be used in the 2017 model year Golf. My online research revealed that this problem continues to occur with VW Golfs of model year 2017 and even later.

NHTSA ODI 11534630

Gasoline was leaking profusely out the back of near the right rear tire well. I had it inspected by Camelback VW (Dealer) and they said the fuel tank failed. The car has 55.8k miles on it, bought in December of 2017. Having the fuel leak out was eye opening along with the repair bill of $3967.79 from what I understand, the fuel tank has a molded pump in it, that failed, which caused fuel to leak out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8k48eSbgVg (not my car, but exactly what happened, gurgling and all)

NHTSA ODI 11533709

Breaks are not fuctioning well Engine is not fuctioning well

NHTSA ODI 11531806

I was driving down the highway and had power issues, pulled over once and saw nothing, drove another 15-20 miles, pulled over again, and had fuel pouring out behind the rear passenger wheel, at which point I turned off the car. I had car towed to a VW dealership and they said nothing is wrong with the car, and that there's no diagnosis. Also called VW of America and had a regional representative say they had to trust the dealer that the car is okay, and that we should keep driving the car. However, VW has released an extended warranty notice for the fuel tank suction jet pump on this car, policy VWP-22-12, and released a safety recall (20Y6) for the 2016 GTI for a very similar issue and concern for leaking fuel starting a fire. Despite this, the VW dealership is very unwilling to try and diagnose this fuel issue even with the warranty notice, and VW of America seems okay with this. Both have told me to continue driving the car as is.

NHTSA ODI 11530737

Vehicle is spitting fuel back out when refilling. After driving and the system becomes pressurized it leaks fuel out in significant amounts when attempting to refuel.

NHTSA ODI 11529296

Sunroof spontaneously shattered while driving down the highway. No collision or impact. Sounded like a gunshot. Had to immediately pull over, remove all of the glass in order to drive it at all.

NHTSA ODI 11527665

The thermostat housing leaked all my radiator fluid across the front of the engine block. I have to refill the reservoir every 2-3 days in order to keep the coolant in the engine and to keep it from overheating. Low coolant lights came on at a stop light, to initially alert me of the problem. There's currently a class-action suit against VW for this and it's time to issue a recall.

NHTSA ODI 11527425

There is a significant fuel leak from the EVAP canister, spilling gallons of fuel even with the vehicle turned off.

NHTSA ODI 11526428

Continual unidentified leak in the roof area. I've seen many reports of this same issue for the 2017 Golf Alltrack, specifically on incline.

NHTSA ODI 11525140

MY CAR HAS 16500 MILES AND THE PANAROMIC ROOF DRAINS ARE NOT WORKING PROPERLY AND WATER LEAKED INTO THE BACK OF CAR. I DID NOT KNOW THERE WAS WATER IN THE CAR UNTIL I LOOKED INTO THE SPARE TIRE COMPARTMENT WHICH HAD QUITE A BIT OF WATER IN IT. THEN I SAW THAT THE HEADLINER WAS STAINED IN THE REAR OF THE CAR. THIS IS A HAZZARD BECAUSE THERE ARE WIRES IN THE WELL FOR THE STEREO SYSTEM AND COULD HAVE CAUSED ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS FOR THE VEHICLE. THIS NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED. IT IS NOT UNDER WARRANTY. IT IS GOING IN FOR REPAIR END OF JUNE (EARLIEST APPOINTMENT THAT IS AVAILABLE).

NHTSA ODI 11523521

Found vehicle was leaking gas from the passenger rear wheel well throught the liner. Had it inspected by a coworker for the issue and we deemed it was the charcoal canister at first. I ordered a new one and replaced it but concern persisted. Spoke with a former vw technician who got into contact with current technicians who stated to replace the gas tank. Had it inspected at a different location and they found the new charcoal canister, vent valve and purge valve filled with fuel and that they would need to replace them and rediagnose to find if it is one of the valves or a different issue. Decided to see online if others were having the same issue and found that others with the mark 7 golf gti (17)are having the same issues (that a recall was put out for the 2015-16 gtis). This happening is a hazard due to a possible thermal event. The vehicle is at higher risk to catch fire due to this. My vehicle is readily available to be inspected

NHTSA ODI 11519371

2017 VW GTI, incredibly common issue of the sunroof surround cracking and allowing water to leak into the electrical components and headliner of the vehicle. VW does not care to admit fault on this even though there are hundreds of documented cases about this issue. Less than a year out of warranty and now dealing with potential mold issues or worse, an electrical shortage problem that could cause a fire. Not sure how this can be seen in hundreds of cases from VW owners and they haven’t done anything about it. Major issue.

NHTSA ODI 11516400

The contact owns a 2017 Volkswagen Golf Alltrack. The contact stated that while adjusting the passenger's side rear-view mirror, the mirror glass suddenly detached from the housing, fell on the ground and shattered. The local dealer was not notified of the failure. The vehicle was not diagnosed nor repaired. The manufacturer was contacted, but no assistance was provided. The failure mileage was 92,000.

NHTSA ODI 11513185