The latest news of this kind comes from the U.S., where Volkswagen Passat vehicles are being investigated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for fires in the engine compartment, as Bloomberg writes. The fires’ most likely cause is an ignition-coil failure.
The investigation involves Passat vehicles belonging to the 2002 and 2003 model years, for which the authorities have received 10 reports of fires as well as six complaints of coil failures that didn’t lead to a fire. A total of 200,000 Passat cars are included in the NHTSA investigation.
It seems that the check-engine or other dashboard lights were on before the fires started, with some of the faulty ignition coils being replaced multiple times on some of the vehicles.
“Volkswagen takes all of these reports very seriously,” Kerry Christopher, an U.S.-based spokesman for Volkswagen, was quoted as saying by the aforementioned source. “We intend to work with NHTSA and fully investigate these complaints.”
This kind of investigation can be one of the first steps in a recall process. In other words, if the authorities determine that the problem can affect a certain number of cars, a recall is initiated.
The owners of the affected vehicles are notified to bring their cars in. The cost of the fixing process is supported by the company that produced the affected vehicles.
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