According to foreign media reports, Volkswagen will urgently recall some SUV models and warn the owners. Volkswagen said the recall involves 2024-2025 Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport models, with a total of 177,493 cars. These vehicles may have the potential for loose engine hoods, which will cause engine fire.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said that the engine covers may not be properly installed after repair, causing them to loosen and may contact the engine’s high-temperature components, which poses a risk of fire. Volkswagen dealers will remove the problematic hood for free to eliminate this hidden danger.
“If the hood is not properly installed after the vehicle is repaired, it may loosen and contact the high-temperature surfaces in the engine compartment. Improperly installed hoods may contact high-temperature components, causing the cover material to melt. The molten material may cause the engine compartment to catch fire if it touches extremely high-temperature surfaces, such as exhaust turbochargers.
If this happens, the owner may smell a burning smell from the engine compartment or smell when opening the hood. Owners may also notice the hood deviating from their normal position.”
Volkswagen has received some reports of fire that may be related to this defect. Volkswagen said the first fire that was “probably related to this” occurred in October 2023, but the company failed to determine the specific cause. In the following 13 months, three engine fires have been confirmed to be due to improper installation of the engine cover. The survey results show that considering multiple factors, more engine hoods may still occur in the future, so Volkswagen decided to recall the relevant vehicles.
Volkswagen will notify the owners of the affected vehicles by mail and instruct them to take the vehicle to the dealer for processing. In addition, car owners can also call Volkswagen’s hotline to learn more.
Earlier last month, Volkswagen also recalled 30,000 vehicles in the United States due to a failure in the rearview mirror. The models affected by the recall include the 2022-2024 Tiguan, the 2023 Arteon and the 2024-2025 Audi Q3.