Coil recall announced

[Sean Ford]

I don't remember seeing this here, so I'll just cut'n'paste what I found from:
http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/030204/1256000719_1.html

Dow Jones Business News
Volkswagen to Recall 850,000 Vehicles From 2001-2003
Tuesday February 4, 12:56 pm ET


NEW YORK -- Volkswagen AG will recall nearly 850,000 vehicles world-wide,
including about 530,000 in the U.S., to replace the ignition coils in all 2001,
2002 and early 2003 models equipped with certain engines because they have
experienced a higher-than-normal failure rate.

The engines in question are 1.8-liter, the Passat W8, all Volkswagens with
2.8-liter VR6s and the Audi three-liter V6. Audi is Volkswagen's luxury brand.

In a statement Tuesday, Volkswagen said the ignition coils, which provide
electricity to the engine's spark plugs, in the above engines have a higher-
than-normal failure rate and result in the check-engine light/malfunction-
indicator lamp blinking. As such, the vehicle's performance may become rough
and/or the engine will lose some power. The engine and its electronic controls
are designed to keep the vehicle running, the auto maker said, but some
deterioration in performance can be expected.

Volkswagen will initially focus on vehicles whose ignition coils have failed,
and will move on to those vehicles that haven't yet had a failure "in the
coming months." The company added suppliers are working around the clock to
make new coils, and a U.S. spokesman said Volkswagen expects to have enough of
a supply by early March to replace all coils.

The spokesman added the auto maker doesn't immediately have an estimate on how
much the recall will cost. But while analysts agree recall costs generally
aren't significant since most auto makers make provisions for them, the damage
to a brand's images are more serious and long-lasting.

In Germany, a spokesman there said the recall is unrelated to a story in
Sunday's New York Times, which highlighted the coil failures and Volkswagen's
former policy of only replacing failed coils.

"It's true that in the past, our policy was to replace just those ignition
coils that were defective, but we decided last week to change this," said
spokesman Hans-Gerd Bode.

-Kevin Kingsbury; Dow Jones Newswires; 609-520-4367

(Kara Wetzel and Christiaan Hetzner of Dow Jones Newswires contributed to this
article.)





=====
Sean Ford
1999 A6q tiptronic | 1992 100CS 5-spd
http://community.webshots.com/user/seanmford

__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com