2023 Volkswagen Jetta Engine Problems

Car was started on afternoon of XXX and the Low Coolant alert sound and dashboard light came on. Opened hood and car was completely out of coolant. Took to Royal Automotive, Vestavia Hills, AL on Wednesday XXX to be fixed. Dealer assessment was “PERFORMED COOLING SYSTEM LEAK TEST. THE VEHICLE PASSED TEST. CHECK FOR VISUAL LEAKS. FOUND NO LEAKS, BUT FOUND SEEPAGE AT THE HEAD GASKET. VOLKSWAGEN SAID THIS WAS NORMAL PER 00-26-01 - DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FLUID LEAKAGE AND SEEPAGE. TOP OFF COOLING SYSTEM.” The car was purchased new by me in October 2022 and my warranty expires in October 2022. It has just over 17,100 miles on it. Further, Volkswagen published a Technical Service Bulletin 15-23-01 - Head Gasket Leakage on XXX documenting known problems with head gaskets for my car’s engine. Despite dealership stating the head gaskets is leaking, Volkswagen stated to the dealership it doesn’t warrant repair. I believe Volkswagen should repair at their expense the defect of their vehicle. The dealership acknowledged the head gasket is clearly “seeping” coolant. Coolant shouldn’t be leaking at all from a closed loop system. This is causing a potential safety issue for my [XXX] daughter who drives the car, as when the head gasket fully fails as documented by Volkswagen, the car could be in traffic and put my daughter’s life and other peoples lives in jeopardy from a blown engine or an overheated engine. It’s unacceptable that Volkswagen’s direction is for us to carry around a gallon of coolant and constantly check the coolant levels because they don’t want to fix their known defect. I called Volkswagen customer care and complained. They refused to assist, stating they stand by the dealership’s assessment. I reminded them that the dealership was doing what Volkswagen directed, but that didn’t change their decision. I asked for escalation, was told it was escalated twice and that their decision is not changing. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6

NHTSA ID

11751628

Incident

Jul 13, 2026

About 6 months after I bought my car the check engine light came on, took to vw still under Warranty. And they said it was just a harness on sale about 4 months later, it came back on and they kept my car for a week. And when I got my car back about 2 to 3 weeks later, it came back on again, and they cound't figure it out and said its something wrong with the emmission and now it's back on so I don't know what's wrong with it, I took it to a different shop and they said they couldn't read the codes and I have to take it to Volkswagen dealership. Car is new and fail emmission.

NHTSA ID

11734976

Incident

Apr 28, 2026

My 2023 vehicle has needed coolant topped off every 5-10K miles. This appears to be a very common occurrence for several owners however dealerships are just telling folks to top off as it's due to evaporation (it's a closed system and shouldn't evaporate). It is due to a faulty head gasket that VW even later redesigned. If you review reddit and numerous forums about the 1.5T produced before July 2023 it is a known issue that caused VW to redesign the headgasket. The powertrain warranty on new vehicle purchases is very short (50K miles) so they avoid replacing and tell folks to just "top off" until the warranty expires.

NHTSA ID

11683124

Incident

Aug 25, 2025

While driving home from work (I travel with the railroad weekly) on Thursday, [XXX], I had my vehicle set on cruise control going west on [XXX] in TN. Out of nowhere, my engine overheated and I lost my coolant. Upon pulling over, I observed no trail of coolant and nothing leaking under my vehicle. I refilled the coolant and made it home. The next morning, my coolant tank was empty again. I took it to my local VW dealership and was informed that the head gasket needed to be replaced. Upon research, I found that on August 17th, 2023, VW put out a Technical Service Bulletin stating that the "Original engine production head gasket design can lead to coolant leaks." This Bulletin did list the engine for my vehicle purchased that year. I was told that "Our manager name is Tim. He informed me that TSB is sent out when they are seeing these issues occur. It is a tech tip to help the technician diagnosis the vehicle. Your vehicle is out of warranty therefore it wouldn't be cover." The engine issue is well known with VW, with a statement that the issue is known. The Bulletin also advised "Improve head gasket design and coating as of Engine Number DNKA 234 458 July 27th 2023." So there is a fix to this issue and BW refuses to fix the issue at hand and is attempting to charge just under $3,500 for the repair. INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ID

11659290

Incident

May 1, 2025

Coolant reservoir keeps getting empty every 1000 miles. Similar issue as reported under [XXX] nhtsaId=11613107 INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

NHTSA ID

11648350

Incident

Mar 14, 2025

The contact owns a 2023 Volkswagen Jetta. The contact stated while operating the vehicle, the check engine warning light remained illuminated. Upon inspection, it was discovered that the engine coolant reservoir was empty. The contact added coolant to the coolant reservoir, but one week later the failure reoccurred. The vehicle was taken to the local dealer who diagnosed the vehicle and determined that engine coolant had leaked into the head gasket and that the head gasket and sealant needed to be replaced. The vehicle was not yet repaired. The manufacturer was notified of the failure, but no assistance was offered. The failure mileage was 43,000.

NHTSA ID

11613107

Incident

Sep 1, 2024

Mileage

43,000 mi

The check engine light would come on due to it misfiring on cold starts, dealer seems to have fixed it by replacing the coil packs. Many others also have this issue and haven’t been able to get it fixed. This is a serious issue that seems to be only happening on 2023 and newer model year Jetta GLIs.

NHTSA ID

11609446

Incident

Jul 12, 2023

Vehicle has been misfiring at interstate Rt 95 putting driver at very high risk of a crash. This vehicle has been service for this problem and also for a coolant leak 04 times at dealership. They were unable to find any problem. Right now, this vehicle is at dealership, and they said, engine has a blown head gasket (several vehicles from VW model Taos and Jetta from 2022 and 2023 has the same issue.).

NHTSA ID

11605411

Incident

Jan 18, 2024

This is now the second time this has happened on my brand new 2023 Jetta SE. The vehicle only has 1831 miles on it. The fault happens when the car is being driven after approx. 15 minutes. EPC light, Check Engine Light, and Yellow Warning Light illuminate. Also sounds like a misfire when limping off the road. Codes read at dealer are P0304, P0363, P1D74, and P1D75. All of these codes relate to Cylinder 4 misfire. Car is driven only at highway speeds, since it is a commuter car. This happened on 2/16/2024 and 2/22/2024. I attached PDFs of the Service Invoice from the first instance. I also attached a PDF of a NHTSA file containing a list of VW vehicles that are having the same issue, with the same engine.

NHTSA ID

11573462

Incident

Feb 22, 2024

The contact owns a 2023 Volkswagen Jetta. The contact stated while driving 35 MPH in traffic, the vehicle lost motive power and shut off. The contact was able to steer into a parking space. Several unknown warning lights were illuminated. The vehicle failed to restart. The vehicle was towed to the local dealer, where it was diagnosed that the cam magnet needed to be replaced. The mechanic informed the contact that an expert would be contacted for assistance with repairing the vehicle. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not notified of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 2,000.

NHTSA ID

11566542

Incident

Jan 17, 2024

Mileage

2,000 mi

Accelerator petal does not always result in acceleration from a stopped position. This causes the hill assist to hold and does not allow movement forward, resulting in an engine stall. The vehicle has also set the EPC light while traveling resulting in reduced engine power to the point of not enough power to move forward. Turn the ignition off, then on resets the EPC and limb mode.

NHTSA ID

11532231

Incident

Jul 13, 2023

On April 1, 2023 I leased a 2023 VW Jetta for 39 months. I test drove the car. Upon delivery, it had 12 miles on the car. I drove the car for 150 miles (162 TOTAL miles on car) At 11:30PM on April 6th, it left me stranded in the middle of the road. I called VW 36 month/36,000 roadside assistance for help. They asked if I was in a safe place. I told them No, I am in the middle of the road, in the middle of the night. They proceeded to tell me to call 911 and hung up on me. I then went to push the SOS button in my car, to my disbelief, “this feature is not active in your vehicle.” I called AAA. 3 hour wait. Called multiple towing agencies and was finally picked up after an hour. Tow truck driver arrived. He asked what happened. I explained. He got in the car. The emergency brake was not on, however, he had to manually take a tool to disengage the emergency brake. I had the car towed to the dealership in which I leased the car 5 days prior. It has now been almost 3 weeks and I am being told that I am responsible for a burned out clutch because warranty has been denied by VW because of “outside influences”. I talked with several mechanics and I am simply being told, I am being taken. There is NO WAY a clutch can be burned out in 150 miles. I am reaching out for help anywhere and everywhere I can because this is unacceptable. I am beyond furious and frustrated. I will keep fighting until someone helps me get through to VW about how ridiculous this claim is. PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!

NHTSA ID

11518886

Incident

Apr 6, 2023