Clock spring broke, no recall!

My clock spring just broke on my late model 2013 that I never received a recall notice for- made a appointment to get it fixed where they also said that my car is not effected by the clock spring recall and that I will be liable for the full cost of repair ***! If I continue to drive it with the airbag light on what are the chances that the airbag wont deploy if I get nailed in a head on that is very common on the highway we live on? I opted to get the car fixed rather than buyback but this type of BS will not be tolerated in a new car.

I would contact VWoA customer service about this. Ditto for the dealership. How many clocksprings have been replaced outside the production range of the "recall"?
It's always possible, if enough failures occur, that VWoA would expand the range of vehicles to be recalled.

our 13SE WO/nav was covered and repaired last year

^^^recalls are VIN specific, the model year doesn't have anything to do with it. Sorry!

jrm, I assume you leaned hard on your dealer service adviser. If not, do so, and don't let up. This is a KNOWN issue, and I'd be pressing them for proof that your failed part was NOT defective. It's probably too late, but since you paid for the replacement, you're entitled to ask for the broken/defective part. I'm not sure how you'd be able to prove "defect", though. Good luck!

haven't taken it in yet, probably wont out of princeable. just driving it with the airbag light on and no controls on the wheel

Now I understand. In your original post, your reference to "...opted to get it fixed..." was in reference to the emissions update, not your clockspring.

I still recommend you push the dealer to do this under warranty, as it is a known defective part, and is a safety-related issue. It all depends on your relationship with the dealer, and their willingness to help. Did they actually run the VIN?

This recall, in my opinion, is yet another "nail in the coffin" against VAG, and is why I'm selling mine back. There are just too many fragile parts in the NMS design...again, in my opinion! I've had a great relationship with my dealership, but after a failed engine harness, driver's seat memory module, heater core, defective fuel tank vent (fuel tank replacement) and AdBlue system replacement, ALL performed under warranty, I'm just not happy about the future for this car. (haven't had a clockspring issue, but just received the latest "recall" notice: electrical connector under the car...)

Sorry for the thread drift.

tdiatlast said:

... This recall, in my opinion, is yet another "nail in the coffin" against VAG, and is why I'm selling mine back. There are just too many fragile parts in the NMS design...again, in my opinion! I've had a great relationship with my dealership, but after a failed engine harness, driver's seat memory module, heater core, defective fuel tank vent (fuel tank replacement) and AdBlue system replacement, ALL performed under warranty, I'm just not happy about the future for this car. (haven't had a clockspring issue, but just received the latest "recall" notice: electrical connector under the car...)

Sorry for the thread drift.

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Tdiatlast, you got a monday morning assembled car! I'm sorry for your grief, VAG should be too.

Are you sure it is broken? I had a recall that was performed on my '12 that involved putting a "dust cover" on the clockspring due to dirt getting in there and causing a malfunction. Maybe it is just dirty. To answer your other question, if the clockspring in not making good contact, causing the light to come on, it is unlikely that the airbag would work in an accident.

We've got a '13 Passat, build date in May, and we got the recall notice and it was performed at the dealer, no issues. Strange.

VIN dependent recalls can appear "strange", for sure.

wife said wheel made noise when being turned for a day, then all controls on the wheel stopped and airbag light came on. She did puke on the when a few years back when the car was new while she was pregnant. I was pretty mean to her back then- I recall saying " for F**** sake you couldn't roll down the window?"

Sorry, jrm...I don't think wife puke damage is covered under ANY warranty!!!!

I have a 2013 Passat and have had two clock spring failures 20,000 miles apart. The second clockspring failure was outside of warranty, but I contacted VW Customer Care and they ended up covering the repair.

If the SRS light is on and there is a fault for the steering wheel ignitor in the SRS computer it's very likely it wouldn't deploy in a crash.

-J

due to our highway being dubbed blood ally for averaging 3 head on wrecks a year and iv been 2nd car behind a head on- Also knowing several people who have been hit head on and killed I took it in today and forked over the $560 bucks to fix it after the wife made a good point that we purchased the larger NMS to be the most fuel efferent car that can protect our family the best after the 2 girls down the road hydro planed into the path of a Toyota truck and got killed.

Clock spring Part 573 Safety Recall Report

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/rcl/2015/RCLRPT-15V483-2945.PDF

Since this thread has been brought back, I wonder how much a clockspring runs. Not a hard piece to replace on the A5, can't believe it is much harder on a NMS.

Help me out? What in hells bells is a clockspring? The clock on the dash???

Yeah, I found that recall back when I had it repaired- still not a "free" recall and charged me $560 - it is the wires that go to the steering wheel controls, they are wound like a old school clock spring and unwind, wind back up as you turn the wheel-

Jetta_Pilot said:

Help me out? What in hells bells is a clockspring? The clock on the dash???

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It's the electrical "slip ring" type connection of the steering wheel that allows all those fancy buttons to work as well as the air bag and your steering wheel to move full lock to lock.

Not sure where the name came from, but i'm sure it's a name that's been around for a while.

The name came because it's not a slip ring design, but a long strip of flat cable wound up in a coil which resembles a clock main spring. There is enough length to the cable and room in the cavity it sits in that it can wind up tighter & looser as the wheel turns.

Yours
Vern

learn something new each day.

From the TSB and hair getting in and messing up the clock spring, some how i figured there were some sort of open contacts, guess i was wrong.

Thank you for the concise explanation. Never knew that and now I do.
Thx

Reviving again. Supposedly now up to 2018 models clock springs are now warrantied for 10 years / 100k miles.

2015 Passat TDI SEL - Clock spring went out at 36k miles.

Shiznoz said:

Reviving again. Supposedly now up to 2018 models clock springs are now warrantied for 10 years / 100k miles.

2015 Passat TDI SEL - Clock spring went out at 36k miles.

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Just verified this through my local dealer. Volkswagen models up to 2018 had their warranties changed to cover the clock springs. Starting in October 2017 the warranty was changed to 10 years and 120k miles. Mine is set to be serviced Monday.

revived it once again, clock spring failed as of yesterday.... hope its the actual clock spring, not the hair that got in there.

tdiatlast said:

VIN dependent recalls can appear "strange", for sure.

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If you check further I think you'll discover that than "VIN dependent" translates into different part #s for the clock spring. The clock spring in my daughter's 2015 Passat Wolfsburg was replace for free TWICE under the same recall. The part for her car is 5K0-953-569-AL (MSRP $422.72). The clock spring in my 2015 Golf Sportwagen TDI SEL is 5Q0-953-569-A (MSRP $222.03). Another potential difference is the nature of the failure and the OBD codes recorded. The recall bulletin seems to indicate the covered failures are those caused by contamination. So even for those model years/VINs not explicitly included the type of clock spring failure may be a factor. VW parts sites list at least 27 distinct clock spring parts with MSRP ranging from $185 to $752 - median MSRP is $423.

Note that while the on-line documentation for the VW model years that are included in the free fix (i.e. recall or extended warranty) do NOT (apparently) include my 2015 Golf Sportwagen TDI, my local dealer did indeed make this fix FOR FREE. So either VW has (quietly) expanded the extent of their warranty or my local dealer has gone above-and-beyond (? -- I didn't ask them, but I've spent enough there over the years to justify a bit of new year largess?). However, it is the case that when I booked the appointment and dropped off my car I did mention (1) that the symptoms were dead-on for a bad clock spring (.. viz. airbag warning light; no horn or on-steering-wheel controls such as cruise ctrl, audible clicking noise when steering) and (2) that I was aware of multiple VW clock spring recalls. At that point the service rep. did check for any recalls or TDBs and didn't find any, but at the end of the day the repair was done at no cost. So, don't look a gift horse in the mouth, eh? Go figure.