Several years ago, Volkswagen and Audi issued a recall on 110,042 vehicles over the fuel system in Golfs and A3s from the 2015-2016 model years. Now, federal regulators are looking into whether the issue may have continued impacting vehicles until 2020.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened a Recall Query into 447,497 vehicles, as a result of continuing customer complaints, as well as a number of Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation (TREAD) field reports.
In all, the regulator reports that it has received 79 complaints from customers alleging that they have experienced leaking fuel, spit back or shut off during refueling, and the odor of gasoline in 2015-2020 Audi A3 and VW Golf models.
Vehicles Included in Probe
Read: VW Recalls 110,000 Golfs & Audis For Fuel Leaks
These are similar to the symptoms that were supposed to have been addressed in the earlier recall. That issue stemmed from a damaged suction jet pump inside the fuel tank that was supposed to purge fuel from the evaporative emissions system. If it breaks, it could allow fuel to flow directly into the EVAP system and, over time, that could cause fuel to leak from the charcoal canister filter element.
Leaking fuel is never good news, but customers allege that the fuel is leaking near exhaust system components, which could be hot. Hot surfaces and leaking fuel are an especially bad combination, so there’s a fear that the risk of fire may be increased in these vehicles.
It seems that VW was aware that a problem may have persisted past its initial recall because, in October 2022, it issued warranty extensions for the fuel tank suction jet pump in 2015-2020 Golfs and A3s (as well model year 2019-2020 Jetta GLIs). As part of that action, customers could have their gas tanks replaced completely.
However, that only applies to vehicles that have already experienced a failure, and does nothing to prevent a leak from happening in the first place. As a result, NHTSA is opening a Recall Query to examine the effectiveness of the initial recall repair, and “fully assess the potential safety-related problems.”
