The 2009 Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen has 1 NHTSA recall campaign affecting an estimated 135,683 vehicles. Recall repairs are always free at any authorized dealer. Owners have filed 27 complaints with NHTSA, most often about the service brakes. Last updated July 5, 2026.
Recall campaigns
ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL (ESC)16V9130002016-12-20135,683 affected
Defect
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain model year 2009-2010 Volkswagen Jetta A5 Sedan, 2009 Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen, Eos, GTI, Rabbit and Audi A3 vehicles, and 2010 Volkswagen Golf A6 vehicles. The Antilock Brake System (ABS) control unit may fail during ABS or Electronic Stability…
Consequence
A loss of vehicle control can increase the risk of a crash.
Remedy
Volkswagen will notify owners, and dealers will update the ABS control module software to improve the module's self-testing abilities. Any module that fails the new diagnostic test will be replaced. These repairs will be made free of charge. The recall began February 2017. Owners may contact Volkswagen customer…
Complaints by component
SERVICE BRAKES
9
ELECTRONIC STABILITY CONTROL (ESC)
5
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM
4
UNKNOWN OR OTHER
4
FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM
1
POWER TRAIN
1
SEAT BELTS
1
STEERING
1
STRUCTURE:BODY
1
Total complaints27
What owners report
Verbatim reports filed with NHTSA, lightly edited for readability and with personal
information removed.
“While driving the vehicle, suddenly and without warning it downshifted, went into limp mode and became stuck in second gear. Fortunately, I was driving on a secondary road with little traffic. Had I been on a major road or highway, its likely I would have been rear ended resulting in injury/death.…”
“Random unwanted braking action during driving and dangerous steering force to the right side.I had to use both hands and force to keep car on the road on the interstate. No fault codes found vw dealership could not find any problem.they replaced the abs modem to a cost of $2669 but the problem…”
“Random unwanted braking action during driving and dangerous steering force to the right side.I had to use both hands and force to keep car on the road on the interstate. No fault codes found vw dealership could not find any problem.they replaced the abs modem to a cost of $2669 but the problem…”
“The car had an ignition problem. I could not turn the car off using the key. For many years it is had a problem of not always being able to easily start the car with the key. But time time I could not turn the car off without pulling a fuse. Obvious safety issues if a car won't turn off and…”
“I purchased a 2009 vw jetta gli 4 door car and less than 1 day later the epc, abs lights came on and many of the gauges were not working properly (speedometer, fuel, etc.) the sensors were fixed and the used dealership that sold me the car has had it off and on, in and out of the shop fixing those…”
“Key gets stuck in ignition when turning off the engine.”
“Abs, esc indicator lights came on driving at highway speed, and with brake indicator flashing and audible sound. Diagnosed at capistrano vw as failure of abs control module. Repair declined due to $2,500 cost, but the circumstances indicate this should be covered in safety recall 45f2, nhtsa…”
“Abs, esc indicator lights came on driving at highway speed, and with brake indicator flashing and audible sound. Diagnosed at capistrano vw as failure of abs control module. Repair declined due to $2,500 cost, but the circumstances indicate this should be covered in safety recall 45f2, nhtsa…”
Recall, complaint, and investigation records from official NHTSA datasets (FLAT_RCL,
FLAT_CMPL, FLAT_INV), synced weekly. Counts reflect NHTSA records for the 2009 Volkswagen Jetta Sportwagen as of
July 5, 2026. Complaint narratives are consumer-submitted and unverified. This page
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