Coolant leak... inside!!!!!

Heater core inside the car is leaking. If moving the temp selector to medium or cool region doesn't stop the leak, you may have to jumper out the heater core with a hose until its fixed. No heat in the meantime inside the car.

Smelling antifreeze odor without apparent external loss outside was your first hint of trouble and its source.

If there is an overpressure box on the heater core inlet hose, and it failed, that may be the source of the failure of the heater core.

Heater core. Known problem with VWs (esp. Passat and Jetta) since the early

90's, at one time there was a recall on Jettas based on hot coolant coming into passenger footwell area. Amazingly, after over 15 years, even more recent models also experience this failure. Apparently no amount of maintenance will prevent this.

If you are original owner, there is a chance VW may cover parts and labor--they did on my 95 Passat when it failed at 9 years/100K miles a couple of years ago. I have heard that VW is no longer as generous, however.

On Passat, it is not an easy fix-- must pull entire dash, resulting in $800-1200 in labor to replace a $100 part. In the interim, you can jumper the heater hoses at the firewall together with some copper fitting so you can drive the car (but, you won't have heat).

88 Fox wagon here, same problem, they applied a fix at the inlet heater hose with small extra hose connected to the gizmo. They said it prevents overpressurization of heater core. At the same time, it restricts coolant flow, making the heater not very effective at making heat.

I agree with the others that this is a classic symptom of a failed heater core. It is relatively easy to bypass from the firewall but it means you'll lose your interior heat. However, I think people are over generalizing. The heater core problems were relatively common on A2s, and it was recalled. The recall was an NTSB forced safety recall because of the dangers of scalding hot coolant dumped on the driver's (or passanger's) feet. I find it hard to believe that they would be allowed to simply install an identical part without redesigning it. I can't imagine this was related to the original A2 problem, it may be this was just a random failure. The car is

10 years old.

Same thing happened to my wife's 85 Jetta. However, in 1989 VW repaired it out of warranty. Now, after 4 (FOUR), 3 new,VWs that we have owned collectively they would not replace a blown vacuum hose 1,000 miles out of warranty.

To make it worse, on our current 2002 Passat, they tried hard not to replace a CV boot that was seriously cracked, but had not failed, with 500 miles left on the warranty. VW's customer support has gone down the tubes.

My 2002 Passat warranty issues:

1. Monsoon radio failed. 5k mi.
2. Monsoon radio failed. 12 k mi
3. Sunroof leaked. 18 k mi
4. Ignition coils replaced 19k mi
5. Engine overheated at highway speed. Fine at idle. 24k mi First dealer could not find problem (?) 80 miles from home
6. Five miles later, engine overheated. 24k mi Second dealer located and replaced failed water pump. 70 miles from home.
7. Water pump leaked, engine overheated. Third dealer fixed leak by tightening bolts.
8. Loss of coolant Third dealer replaced torn gasket.

9 Bad vacuum hose, 40k miles

1. Cracked and blown out CV boots. 49,500 miles They tried hard not to replace the one that was severly cracked.
2. Failed vacuum hose 51,000 miles NOT COVERED ! no goodwill = NO RETURN BUS> > Hi all:

Go to passatworld.com and do a search on heater core. You'll find several reports of failures on B5 and (now) B5.5 models, some as short as within 3 years after being put into service. The one in my B4 (95) failed at 100K miles. VW covered out of warranty as there had been a recall of 94s and my B4 had a build date of 11-94.Heater core failures in Passats continue today, and at least in this model, have been happening for about 10 years.

As far as VW poorly designing and continuing to use a marginal component, don't forget that their classic "German engineering" also designed an interference engine with a cam belt and tensioner that can fail at 50-60K miles, and then put a 105K replacement recommendation in the manual (1.8T). They also redesigned the transverse 1.8T engine to a longitudinal design and reduced the oil capacity to a scant 3.7 quarts or so (versus almost 5), to the point that the oil overheats and cokes into hard carbon granules that clog the oil pump inlet screen, resulting in oil starvation failures at as low as 50K miles (VW calls this "sludge," which implies the owner did not follow proper maintenance). And don't forget the poor firewall./battery compartment drain design on the B5/B5.5 that easily clogs up with leaves or debris, causing rain to flood the passenger compartment and shorting out the Comfort Control Module (CCM), as it is located in the lowest area of the passenger compartment. Oh, and what about their continued use of the 3.5 mm cloth/rubber vacuum hoses that get brittle and crack after 3 or so years (they did on my 95, and they are still used in my 2003-- VW must have bought hundreds of miles of that hose!).

Can VW continue to use defective/marginal designs and parts after years of repeated failures? You bet they can, just take a look at a recent model and see for yourself.

And every other auto/truck maker has problems too!

I agree, its definitely the heater core. I had the same problem with my 2002 Passat. Everyone complains that VW won't cover this under warranty but I had no problems what-so-ever. I was very worried that I would get stuck with a big bill 1 month after buying the car, but the labor and parts were completely covered under the Certified Pre Owned warranty. Maybe there are bad dealers out there who dont understand the warranty? Or maybe they are not up-to-date on what the warranty covers. A few years ago VWs CPO program was rated very low. But they shaped it up and now it is ranked very high, maybe some dealers out there just haven't caught up.

In my case, I received a diagnosis from my indy shop, who then suggested VW might cover. I first went to the dealer for a diagnosis, then contacted VWOA about their paying for the repair. It was VWOA who agreed to cover.

If the dealer refuses to cover, you should escalate to VWOA. Check your Owner's Manual-- the procedure is in there.