VW is recalling millions of vehicles due to steering problems

VW is recalling hundreds of thousands of vehicles because of a faulty screw. Since there are initially not enough spare parts in stock, the car manufacturer has to make do with a temporary solution - which leads to additional work. There are also recalls at Audi and Seat.

Drivers of a VW model may have to prepare for two visits to the workshop in connection with a million-fold recall. The recall concerns corrosion on a steering fastening screw.

At the start of the campaign, the specified screw may not be available in sufficient quantities. Therefore, another screw may be used as a replacement, according to an internal workshop message regarding the supply of spare parts. However, the recall is not considered complete; the vehicles in question would have to be ordered again as soon as the correct screw is available.

A VW spokesman called this a “sensible approach”. To explain: Workshops do not have to let cars affected by corrosion leave the yard without repair, even if the correct screw is not in stock. It is not yet known how many vehicles in total are affected by the recall. According to the spokesman, there are 895,000 VW brand cars in Germany and around 2.1 million worldwide.

According to data from the Federal Motor Transport Authority, a total of at least 950,000 cars nationwide are affected by the recall from VW and its subsidiaries Audi and Seat. These include the VW models Tiguan, Touran, Golf Variant, Golf Sportsvan and Caddy with the production period September 2013 to July 2024. Repairing the vehicle takes up to an hour.

Recalls also from Audi and Seat

According to earlier information, internal quality checks revealed "that a steering problem may occur in certain vehicles from various Volkswagen brand series." Under certain environmental influences and after many years of operation under the influence of road salt, corrosion can occur on a steering fastening screw: "If this corrosion progresses, in individual cases the steering fastening and thus its function can be impaired."

There is also a recall for the Seat models Ateca and Tarraco in the production period from April 2016 to September 2024, the number of which was initially not known. The problem can also occur on the Audi Q3 model if it was manufactured between October 2017 and May 2024. According to the Federal Motor Transport Authority, almost 700,000 vehicles worldwide are potentially affected, of which a good 58,500 are in Germany. An Audi spokesman said: "So far there have been no cases of personal injury or further material damage in this context."