Recall Register

2008 Volkswagen Passat: recalls and complaints

NHTSA lists 4 recall campaigns for the 2008 Volkswagen Passat. The newest campaign is 18V148000. NHTSA received the report on 6 Mar 2018. The NHTSA record gives the component Air Bags / Frontal / Driver Side / Inflator Module. NHTSA has 168 complaints on file for this model year.

The NHTSA recall file shows no do-not-drive advisory and no park-outside advisory on these campaigns.

This page cannot show if a recall applies to one vehicle. The NHTSA VIN lookup shows the unrepaired recalls of one vehicle.

Remedy of the newest campaign, 18V148000, in the NHTSA record

Volkswagen will notify owners, and dealers will replace the driver's frontal air bag inflator with an alternative inflator, free of charge. The recall began March 16, 2018. Owners may contact Volkswagen customer service at 1-800-893-5298. Volkswagen's number for this recall is 69Q9. Note: This recall partially supersedes recall 16V-078.
NHTSA VIN lookup

Complaint information entered into NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation vehicle owner's complaint database is used with other data sources to identify safety issues that warrant investigation and to determine if a safety-related defect trend exists.

NHTSA publishes these words. Source: NHTSA Datasets and APIs, section Complaints, read on . Complaint file through . Recall file through .

Since the last update

No tracked figure of this page changed in a data update. What the log tracks

All updates to the register

Recall campaigns

4 campaigns, newest first. 1,310,700 units in total.

  • 18V148000Air Bags / Frontal / Driver Side / Inflator Module
  • 17V509000Fuel System, Gasoline / Delivery / Fuel Pump
  • 16V078000Air Bags / Frontal / Driver Side / Inflator Module
  • 08V235000Engine and Engine Cooling

  1. 18V148000Received . 363,713 units.

    Air Bags / Frontal / Driver Side / Inflator Module

    Defect, in the NHTSA record
    Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain 2009-2014 Volkswagen CC, 2010-2014 Golf, 2010-2014 Eos, 2007-2010 Passat Sedan and Wagon, and 2012-2014 Passat vehicles. Upon deployment of the driver's frontal air bag, excessive internal pressure may cause the inflator to explode.
    Consequence, in the NHTSA record
    In the event of a crash necessitating deployment of the driver's frontal air bag, the inflator could explode with metal fragments striking the vehicle occupants potentially resulting in serious injury or death.
    Remedy, in the NHTSA record
    Volkswagen will notify owners, and dealers will replace the driver's frontal air bag inflator with an alternative inflator, free of charge. The recall began March 16, 2018. Owners may contact Volkswagen customer service at 1-800-893-5298. Volkswagen's number for this recall is 69Q9. Note: This recall partially supersedes recall 16V-078.

    Report filed by Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.. Manufacturer campaign number 69Q9. Owner notification date in the NHTSA record: .

  2. 17V509000Received . 280,915 units.

    Fuel System, Gasoline / Delivery / Fuel Pump

    Defect, in the NHTSA record
    Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain 2009-2016 Volkswagen CC, 2006-2010 Passat and Passat Wagon vehicles. Interruption of electrical power to the fuel pump control module may cause the fuel pump to fail.
    Consequence, in the NHTSA record
    If the fuel pump fails, the engine will stall, increasing the risk of a crash.
    Remedy, in the NHTSA record
    Volkswagen will notify owners, and dealers will replace the fuel pump control module, free of charge. The recall began June 26, 2018. Owners may contact Volkswagen customer service at 1-800-893-5298. Volkswagen's number for this recall is 20AE.

    Report filed by Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.. Manufacturer campaign number 20AE. Owner notification date in the NHTSA record: .

  3. 16V078000Received . 659,493 units.

    Air Bags / Frontal / Driver Side / Inflator Module

    Defect, in the NHTSA record
    Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain model year 2010-2014 Golf, 2007-2010 Passat sedans and wagon, 2012-2014 Passat sedan and Eos, 2009-2014 CC, 2009-2012 Audi Q5, 2010-2012 S5 Cabriolet and 2010-2012 Audi A5 Cabriolet vehicles. Upon deployment of the driver's frontal air bag, excessive internal pressure may cause the inflator to rupture.
    Consequence, in the NHTSA record
    In the event of a crash necessitating deployment of the driver's frontal air bag, the inflator could rupture with metal fragments striking the vehicle occupants potentially resulting in serious injury or death.
    Remedy, in the NHTSA record
    Volkswagen will notify owners, and dealers will replace the driver's frontal air bag inflators, free of charge. Volkswagen issued an interim notification to owners on April 12, 2016, and will send a second notification when parts are available. Volkswagen will notify owners again once parts are available. Volkswagen owners may contact Volkswagen customer service at 1-800-893-5298. Audi owners may contact Audi customer service at 1-800-253-2834.

    Report filed by Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.. Owner notification date in the NHTSA record: .

  4. 08V235000Received . 6,579 units.

    Engine and Engine Cooling

    Defect, in the NHTSA record
    Volkswagen is recalling 4,079 my 2008 passat and 2,500 my 2009 tiguan passenger vehicles equipped with 2.0t fsi ulev II engines. These vehicles have an engine control module (ecm) containing software that may not properly control engine idle with the air conditioning turned on. In rare cases, the ecm may unexpectedly increase engine RPM.
    Consequence, in the NHTSA record
    An engine surge caused by an unexpected increase in engine RPM may surprise the vehicle operator and can result in a crash without warning.
    Remedy, in the NHTSA record
    Dealers will inspect and update the ecm software free of charge. The recall began on may 30, 2008. Owners may contact volkswagen at 1-800-893-5298.

    Report filed by VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC. Manufacturer campaign number 24M9/R7. Owner notification date in the NHTSA record: .

The campaign number opens the NHTSA record. Each quotation is the text of the NHTSA recall file.

Recall campaign: One recall in the NHTSA recall file, with one campaign number. A campaign can name many makes, models and model years.

Units: The number of vehicles or products that a recall can include. The manufacturer or the firm reports the number to the agency.

Complaints by component

168 complaints, 240 component mentions.

A complaint can name more than one component. Each component that a complaint names is one component mention. The figure per 1,000 component mentions shows how many of each 1,000 mentions name the component.

  • 2008 Volkswagen Passat
  • All 2008 vehicles
2008 Volkswagen Passat: complaints by component, per 1,000 component mentions
Component2008 PassatAll 2008 vehiclesPassat, all yearsMentions
Fuel/Propulsion System183.335.544.744
Engine179.2676143
Air Bags137.5156.2158.433
Electrical System87.5140.6118.621
Fuel System, Gasoline79.219.94419
Power Train54.273.547.613
Unknown or Other54.241.838.113
Steering5083.555.612
Engine and Engine Cooling41.725.291.110
Visibility20.815.732.95

The table shows the 10 components with the most mentions, of 23.

Complaints that report a crash
3
Complaints that report a fire
6
Injuries in the complaints
2
Deaths in the complaints
0
Date of the newest complaint
4 Jul 2025

These figures are the entries of the persons who sent the complaints.

Complaint: A report about a possible safety problem that a person sends to NHTSA. This site shows the number of complaints and not their text.

Complaints about the 2008 Volkswagen Passat, by the year NHTSA received them. The largest year is 2018, with 38 complaints.

Investigations

The NHTSA investigation file has no investigation that names this model year.

Investigation: A study of a possible safety defect by the NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation. An investigation with no closing date in the NHTSA file is open.

Other model years

The number under each year is the number of recall campaigns.

  1. 19881
  2. 19891
  3. 19902
  4. 19911
  5. 19921
  6. 19933
  7. 19941
  8. 19951
  9. 19961
  10. 19970
  11. 19984
  12. 19995
  13. 20003
  14. 20013
  15. 20023
  16. 20036
  17. 20043
  18. 20053
  19. 20067
  20. 20077
  21. 20084
  22. 20094
  23. 20104
  24. 20110
  25. 201211
  26. 20139
  27. 201410
  28. 20157
  29. 20165
  30. 20177
  31. 20184
  32. 20191
  33. 20203
  34. 20211
  35. 20220

A year without a link has fewer than 2 campaigns and fewer than 25 complaints. It has no page.

Official channels

Cite this page

Recall Register. 2008 Volkswagen Passat: recalls and complaints. https://recallregister.com/vehicle/volkswagen/passat/2008/. Source: NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation, recall, complaint and investigation files. Data through .

Sources

Source
NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation
Licence
US government work, public domain
Recall file through
30 Sep 2026
Complaint file through
30 Sep 2026
First complaint in the file
1 Jan 1995
Manufacturer in the recall file
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.

The NHTSA record is the authority. A complaint count is the number of different complaint numbers for the make, the model and the model year. How the register is made. Report an error.

Questions

How many units are in the recall campaigns for the 2008 Volkswagen Passat?
1,310,700 units in 4 campaigns. A campaign can name other models and model years, and its units include them.
How many recall campaigns does the Volkswagen Passat have for all model years?
NHTSA lists 54 recall campaigns for the Volkswagen Passat, model years 1988 to 2022. 4 of them name the 2008 model year.
Which component do the complaints about the 2008 Volkswagen Passat name most often?
Fuel/Propulsion System: 44 of 240 component mentions, or 183.3 per 1,000. For all 2008 vehicles the figure is 35.5 per 1,000.
Is an NHTSA investigation of the 2008 Volkswagen Passat open?
The NHTSA investigation file has no investigation that names this model year.