2023 VOLKSWAGEN TAOS Engine Problems

Head gasket failure, car loses combustion, u safe to drive. Engine light has been on for 5 months so far. Dealer has not been able to fix it.

The vehicle begins to feel like it is skipping while driving. The EPC light comes on, the dashboard beeps and indicates lane assist is unavailable, check engine sign illuminates. The vehicle will drive for a short time but then jerks and just stops. This has happened at least 3 times. Dealer has already replaced the fuel pump, electrical wiring and some switch that wasn't readying properly. After the fuel pump was replaced, the tank was filled, continue to track down miles and gallons. When the vehicle got to 135 travel miles left and one notch above the gas tank, it jerked and stopped immediately at an unsafe spot on the road. The sensor was not properly reading the gas and the tank was empty! This last incident was the same evening after an inspection and 60K service. This vehicle is unsafe and VW should be making this right. Warranty has expired and now they want to charge me for the same issue. This has been going on for months and I believe the vehicle is unsafe and is putting me in danger of having or creating a bad accident.

2023 Taos SE shuts off completely at red lights/when I’m stopped more than 60 seconds. It prompts me to shift into park, put the key to steering column and restart, then shift back into drive and go. Dealer scanned it on two separate occasions and has no explanation. Couldn’t reproduce. Very dangerous as increases risk of crashes and rear ended when a car needs to be restarted mid roadway. The 2022 model had a recall for this exact stalling issue and they claimed to have fixed it but doesn’t appear so. Last occurred to me 9/6/2025 around 7:13pm.

2023 VW Taos leased in June 2023 - needed to replace brakes 2 years (June 2025) into owning the car. Inspection would not pass without them. This is an excessively quick wear that cost me over $600 for a leased vehicle that should be just basic ownership during 3 year lease. August 2025 - Brought in for an oil change and a coolant yellow light on dashboard. Our local mechanic would not touch the coolant issue as he said it seems to be related to a head gasket leak. The 2022 model had many issues with this problem, however no issues are reported on the 2023 Taos. I have had to find another vehicle to drive and wait 5 days to get it into our local VW dealership, who told us it was OK to drive without even looking at the vehicle. No thank you! We called VW and if in fact this is a head gasket, it would be covered under warranty. These are each pretty serious safety concerns and needs to be reported for future owners of this vehicle. Not interested in another VW after these incidents. We are a first time leaser of them - thank goodness it wasn't a purchase.

The contact owns a 2023 Volkswagen Taos. The contact stated while driving 45 MPH, the vehicle failed to accelerate as intended while depressing the accelerator pedal. The ETC (Electronic Throttle Control) warning light illuminated. In addition, the engine revved independently. The vehicle was taken to the dealer where it was diagnosed that the cam shaft timing had failed. The timing belt and cam magnet were replaced. The contact stated that on a separate occasion, while driving 45 MPH, the vehicle failed to accelerate as intended while depressing the accelerator pedal and the engine revved independently. The ETC warning light illuminated. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer and was diagnosed that the cam shaft sensor had failed. The vehicle was repaired. The contact stated that recently the vehicle failed to accelerate as intended while depressing the accelerator pedal. The vehicle was taken back to the dealer to be diagnosed and the contact was informed that the air hose had failed. The vehicle was repaired. The contact stated that several unknown warning lights were illuminated intermittently. The manufacturer was not made aware of the failure. The failure mileage was approximately 11,000.

Mileage: 11,000

unknown head gasket, went out at 22,000 miles Low coolant light High engine temperatures Overheating Empty coolant reservoir Smell of coolant Coolant residue on the engine block Most of the head gasket failures also occurred at relatively low miles.

Car only has 16,000 miles on it. Started smelling antifreeze when the car was started. Took to dealer- faulty, failing head gasket. Bad since manufactured. Also, brakes had sounded loud since purchased. Told this was just the type of brakes. Upon inspection of the vehicle for the head gasket it was noted that the rear brake pads need replaced!! Again, this car only has 16,000 miles on it. From research it appears the head gasket and rear brakes are an issue for the 2023 Taos. Dealer/shop has had the car for 6 days and I was told if I needed a loaner it would now cost me $ out of pocket....for a manufactured failure.

Accelerating Transmission Shifting When accelerating from a full stop, using same force of pressure on foot to accelerate the vehicles behaves differently every time. Vehicle will rev and have a 1-3 second delay to move the wheels/tires, or have no delay. There is no common variable to know how the vehicle will accelerate from stop to stop. Have tried to narrow down anything unique to identify when this happens but it is sporadic and unknowing how the vehicle will behave. Specifically, have noted if the occurrences are unique to: Slope or incline, humid weather versus dry, fuel type (have always used same), cold temperatures versus warmer or cool, or any unique non-ordinary operating conditions. Safety risk- anytime vehicle is supposed to accelerate. Daily safety risks- We enter a roundabout and attempt to accelerate, and vehicle hesitates for 3 seconds causing us to not enter or risk hitting vehicle oncoming. Vehicle behind attempts ot accelerate as well usually resulting in. honking at us- daily. Left hand turn. Apply pressure to accelerator, and cannot make turn or get hit by oncoming vehicle. Parking lot. Accelerate over speedbump, vehicle lags/rev's, and then rapid acceleration causes vehicle to jolt almost hitting people/animals. Window will go up when switch is in position to lower and vice versa. Issue from day one. Our dog was in vehicle. Window down about 4 inches. At intersection. Went to accelerate which hesitated while holding switch to lower window, and window went up with our dogs nose still between car interior and exterior. Focus was on driving if we could make through intersection and could only imagine if we had a child with their hand out. The above is noted when vehicle has been in for service. Vehicle is currently at dealer and we will not accept vehicle until Volkswagen identifies issues. Known issues with this year and model AWD model.

3 times in the past year including today, the car has completely turned off while in drive at a red light or stop sign. It is not the auto start/stop, it simply completely shuts off the car and when I take my foot off the break the car says “shift gear into park and manually restart car” this has almost caused an accident every time and is a safety issue. I reported to dealer, they’ve heard of this before but can’t replicate or find issue. It is not safe for the cars engine to shut off while in drive and have to stop in the middle of road and shift gears and manually restart car. Major safety issue

Hazard warning light came on for low coolant on 1/18/2025. Almost empty of coolant. Bought VW coolant and filled. Brought in to dealer I bought the car from, told it was the head gasket leaking (after $170 charge). Quoted me an estimate of almost $4000. Told me it was not under warranty- my car has a little over 56,000. Warranty ends at 50,000. Dealer told me this is a known issue.

12,000 mile VW Taos coolent light went off. Faulty Engine coolant gasket failed. Took it into the dealership they also needed to replace the back brakes! Entertainment/radio screen randomly goes off as well. This is the second time it's been taken in because of an issue. Will not bee keeping this car.

While driving Dec 10, 2024 my VW Taos failed to accelerate after slowing at an intersection. If this happens when I’m turning, on coming traffic has to slow down unexpectedly. The EPC light and check engine light came on. Car would not go above 15-20 mph. Called dealer and cautiously drove car to dealer. The mechanic said a popped fuse was reason the lights came on and car wouldn’t accelerate. They replaced 10A fuse and said codes/lights corrected. Now on 12/23/24 same exact issue has occurred. This is a huge safety concern. Taos 2022 models had a safety recall for a fuel delivery module that was causing that exact same issues and EPC and check engine light to come on. I am waiting for the dealer to call me back now to discuss how serious this really is and to get them to acknowledge they didn’t truly diagnose the vehicle the first time (given the 2022 Taos safety recall). Please investigate, I believe the 2023 models have the exact same problem. Not being able to accelerate is dangerous in multiple scenarios.

Vehicle displayed instances of overheating but was told by dealership it wasn't a big issue and the vehicle was safe to drive. I took the vehicle to the dealership for scheduled maintenance and when I returned to pick up the vehicle I was told that coolant was leaking into the oil and the head gasket was defective. The service desk representative stated the head gasket is a known issue in the 2022-23 models. The engine will need to be taken out of the vehicle, taken apart, and a new gasket installed. I was also told this issue would most likely happen again due to the design of the gasket. Parts are on order and the dealership has the vehicle as it's not safe to drive prior to repairs being made.

Haven’t owned the vehicle for 2 years and I’ve already had to have brake lines replaced, windshield and now the head gasket has crapped out. Which apparently is a huge issue with this vehicle. It’s really the worst buy I’ve ever made. Trade in value, at just 2 years old, is only 19,000…when I paid 30….it’s really awful. Now I have to wait for, God only knows how long, because the parts are on back order, to have it fixed! Volkswagen has ruined me for ever loving their name.

On August 4th, 2024 Volkswagen Taos coolant reservoir at 17,348 miles was nearly empty. Went to closest dealership, which could not set appointment to look at until October 21. Every couple hundred of miles, I have had to refill the coolant level. The VW Taos was finally able to be diagnosed with a head gasket failure on October 21, 2024 with 22,359 miles. The parts and fix are a couple of months out, with no current ETA. Was given back vehicle to drive in the meantime. This is a major safety issue, as the gasket could completely fail at any time. This is also causing premature wear on the engine, as coolant will be leaking into the oil. The manufacture, Volkswagen, was contacted and unable to offer any assistance and told to keep driving in the meantime, since the dealer gave me back the vehicle.

a low coolant light went on . Brought car in and head gasket and rear brake pads need to be replaced. the car has 16000 miles on it. This is unacceptable. !!!!!!!!!!!! I would like to know if the car will be replaced with the same faulty brake pads and the same faulty head gasket. These are know issues so why hasn't VW fixed both these parts and why would I want to same ones in my car that are known to be faulty.

On 9/5/2024 I brought the vehicle into the dealer for the 30000 mile service. Upon inspection the dealer found the rear brake pads were badly worn and needed replacement and that they were not under warranty and that I would be responsible for the cost. In February 2024 Volkswagen sent me a notice that they were extending the warranty on the rear pads to 24000 mi / 2 years from 12000 mi / 1year but did not indicate why. I referenced this notice to the dealer and stated I thought the pads should be covered as even though I had 30000 miles on the vehicle it was only 18 months old and that the large discrepancy between the front and rear brake pads 10 mm vs 2 mm showed that the rear pads were subpar. That has gone nowhere. I have been trying to negotiate some kind of middle ground on this but with no resolution a this point. I realize the Web is not always a reliable source of information but I have found incidents similar to mine which also include two other issues that my vehicle has : Head gasket failure causing coolant leaks - this was found on my vehicle with repairs scheduled as soon as the parts come in. And severe hesitation during acceleration which was identified as a turbo issue which was corrected by an “ adaptation “ of the turbo which I should monitor ongoing which leads me to believe this could be a continuing issue. These two repairs were under warranty. Both of these issues pose concerning safety and performance issues. And a previous problem with the display screen that shows the backup camera, which was corrected after repeated visits . All these issues on the vehicle less than 2 years old cause me great concern about it being a safe car ongoing. I hope you find this information useful. Thank you

I was attempting to turn left across on coming traffic, plenty of room safety wise. The engine lagged and would not speed up. Pedal almost the the floor and I was going maybe 5 mph, the car was barley rolling and had the two cars coming not been paying attention I would have been tboned. Once through the intersection the vehicle aggressively sped up. Took the vehicle into the dealership they had it 28 days, confirmed they felt the engine lag and ran diagnostics and couldn’t find anything wrong but whatever they did fixed it for about 3 weeks and now the engine is lagging again.

The vehicle has 8000 miles on it and was sold to me knowing it had a well known head gasket problem. The vehicle has acceleration and overheating problems when it runs out of coolant which is leaking. The problem has been confirmed by suburban Vw in Farmington hills Michigan and it has been in service there since [XXX]. I reported the problem 8 months after purchase but they were unable to take it in due to many different reasons including lack of spare parts, not enough staff and no rental cars. I have had to top the coolant up on 5 occasions and have had leaks and stains on my garage floor which I reported INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)

EPC (engine light) light came on two separate times while car stopped accelerating and was shaking a lot with smells of chemicals from vents all at once. Inside electrical issues as well. Car bought new First incident was the first week and a few months later and a year later

Vehicle will take off like a rocket when accelerating from a stop. I had to restart the vehicle because it had no acceleration before issue started. Took to the dealer was told that this is normal. I was then advised to put the vehicle in sport mode and it should stop. Vehicle has only 3300 miles on it and this is a new issue that just started. Took it to a local shop and it showed a p2422 so we took it to the dealer and that’s when they stated no codes found and no issues found. We have multiple videos of the rocket take off.

Coolant leak and head gasket problem after only 20,000 miles. Common issue others have reported.

I bought this vehicle in April of 2023, brand new with 300 miles on it. The dealership then sold to a different dealership in June of 2023. In November/December of 2023, a light on my dash came on saying that my antifreeze was low. I opened up the hood and there was absolutely NO antifreeze in it. I called my dealership, they couldn't get me in until January 2024. So I filled it up with antifreeze and made it to my appointment in early January. The dealership told me that my previous dealership hadn't filled up my antifreeze all the way and that I had just burned that much since April. They topped it off and "checked all the lines". Then in April of 2024, the antifreeze light came on AGAIN. Not even 4 months later. I go check and AGAIN my antifreeze is completely EMPTY. NOT EVEN 4 MONTHS LATER! So I call the dealership and tell them what's going on. They get me in and then call me to tell me my head-gasket is blown. On my brand new car?!?!? So the dealership has now had my dealership since May 5th, 2024. It is now June 5th, 2024 and they are still waiting on parts. The car as of May 5th, 2024 had 12,000 miles on it. There were no signs of my antifreeze leaking, I park it in the garage everyday, nothing on the floor of the garage. The only thing that made me aware was the light coming on and screaming at me that I had no antifreeze.

My brakes went bad in under 5,000 miles they replaced the rear and now the front brakes are making noise. I have had to go into the dealer twice to get my coolant replaced. It needs it again and I feel we should not have to keep going into the shop when there is a known head gasket issue.

Red central warning light and coolant/temp light came on when leaving home. Blown head gasket at 10,150 miles. Car had no coolant, had to be towed. Dealer agress it's the head gasket. No ETA on parts at this time.

Two months ago I noticed an issue with my 2023 VW Taos. VW topped off the fluids and told me to stop back in if it happened again. Three weeks later I was 200 miles from home and it happened again. I stopped in another VW dealer and they topped off the fluids and said if it happened again to bring it in. Today, December 15, 2023 I take my vehicle to the VW dealer with ~22,000 miles and the service advisor and mechanic come over to me and said "we are not allowing you to leave in your car today". I asked why and they said the head gasket is gone and the engine needs to be taken apart. They said corporate requires pictures of this because it is a known problem with this engine between 20K and 30K miles the engine head gasket cracks, coolant light enables, and the engine can blow. They gave me a loaner and said plan to be in the car for a few months as we have a back order on parts, corporate needs to review this, and it will take time as we must remove the engine to repair the gaskets that are in between the upper and lower sections. I come home and log into a VW Taos forum online to find 6,000 people reporting this same issue in the US and Canada. This has not been recalled, but it is obvious from the forum that models between 2019 and 2023 with this specific engine type has this issue and it is well known to VW but they're not recalling it. I don't want a car after the engine has come out and gone back in. They need to take my car back and keep it! How can this be allowed in America?

Engine cooling system has lost coolant. Very concerned because it is not leaking or evaporating - has entered the engine.

Purchased a 2023 VW Taos SE on December 21st, 2022, with 11 miles on it. The first check engine light came on the end of January 2023 and it started having the acceleration lagging issue right before that. Dealer said it was a fuel issue and fixed it. Second check engine light was in March, dealer said to not top off the gas when pumping and fixed it. Third check engine light came on in April and VW Corporate's Service team got involved, claimed it was an emissions issue and fixed it. This entire time, the acceleration lagging issue continued sporadically. To the point you would have to floor the accelerator to get it to move, especially when changing lanes in traffic. Which a 2-3 second delay is dangerous! I had a car behind me honk, because the Taos was not accelerating. No matter what the dealer did to fix it, it did not work. Other issues include playlists not playing in Apple CarPlay, a rattle noise when accelerating, e-brake turning on by itself, air not blowing cold, dashboard and entertainment screens dimming for no reason and the smell of sulphur in the car. I followed Florida's Lemon Law and VW bought back and refunded me for the Taos as it is a bonafide lemon! This was my 6th VW and my last. The issues the Taos has reminds me of VW's timing chain tensioner lawsuit, which affected VW #5.

I purchased the new 2023 TAOS Volkswagen. I am experiencing sudden burst of acceleration when I’m gently accelerating. I have had several near misses of having an accident. I have read several other reports of the same problem on online forums. What is Volkswagen going to do about this? I just paid $35,000 for this new car and I’m afraid I’m gonna have an accident the way it suddenly accelerates. Please contact me so I know if there’s anything I can do to resolve this problem. This car is my only transportation and it scares me to drive it. This should not be happening.

I had just purchased this car- it was my first day driving it. I drove it from the dealer to my home and then out to dinner with no problems. I should note the each time I started the car I turned off the "Stop/Start" feature. On our way home from dinner I was stopped at a red light and all of a sudden the engine shut off and a messaged displayed saying "Please Start Engine Manually". I was shocked, but put my car in park and was able to start it back up. I should note that the radio continued to work and the air continued to blow (even though it was no longer cold). I started driving and was less than 1/4 mile from my turn, but as I was approaching the car stalled again. This time while I was driving! Thankfully I was able to safely glide into the shopping center and park the car. I tried putting it back in park and starting it up again a few times with no luck. I should note that it wasn't like the engine was trying to turn over, there was nothing happening at all. I exited the car for a minute and then got back in to try again and thankfully it started up this time. I live right down the street from the shopping center so I went ahead and drove it home. Someone from the VW dealer picked the car up the next day because I refused to drive it again- my kids are always in the car with me. Since then I've researched this and found many more accounts of similar things happening to other Taos drivers. The dealer has found no error codes and they are trying to tell me it was "Low Battery Voltage", but that just doesn't make any sense considering how things happened. I'm now in contact with VW to see if they can help at all. I cannot drive this car with the possibility of stalling again. I won't put my kids at risk. The car is still at the dealership as I'm waiting to hear back from VW.

Vehicle is 6 months old, 4747 miles, stalled going uphill at 10mph. Upon attempted restart, smoke billowed out of the exhaust and engine compartment. Contacted VW Customer Service and was towed to VW dealership. Turbo failed and caused a laundry list of parts to fail. Parts are out till September.

Brake pads are fading quicker than usual. Also, the coolant. Just checked and added some coolant today. I never filled my other 2 older cars, one with 22k miles and the other one has 25k miles on them. I never had to add a coolant on them. This VW is barely 3k miles and it’s having these issues already.

Within the first 24 hours of picking up this new car warnings for 3000rpm max appeared, engine overheating and potential damage to engine components appears and engine functioning was decreased, exhaust control malfaction message, and electronic engine control message with associated symbol for lane assist warning message. When the electronic engine control message with checklight appeared, acceleration was impaired and it was difficult to speed up on the road. There was the potential for fire and gasoline explosion and risk to drivers and passengers due to possible collision accidents. I have brought the car to the dealership and was turned away the first time due to being told it was low voltage. While drive home the EEC message, electronic engine control malfunction with warning light appeared again and I called and said I was going to drive back to the Volkswagen dealership and this time they took the car. This was a worrisome experience for me. .