VW Atlas SUV Family Recalled Over Airbag Woes, Unexpected Braking
Nearly 225,000 Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport SUVs may be dogged by various electrical issues stemming from a wiring harness problem.
Volkswagen is recalling its 2019-2023 Atlas SUV, as well as its 2020-2023 Atlas Cross Sport derivative, over an electrical issue that may trigger delayed airbag deployment or unintended low-speed braking. The recall affects 222,892 examples of the popular midsize SUV family. VW does not yet have a fix for the problem.
According to documents related to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recall filing published on Wednesday, VW says the issue stems from a faulty door wiring harness sourced from a specific unnamed supplier. In that filing, the German automaker notes that "excessive micro movement leading to fretting corrosion of the door wiring harness terminal contacts" can result in the delayed deployment of the vehicle's front driver or passenger side airbags "in a special side crash situation." This suboptimal airbag timing could lead to an increased likelihood of injury to vehicle passengers.
Those documents also say that affected SUVs with damaged harnesses may also develop other maladies, including inadvertent parking-brake engagement at low speeds ("below approx. 1.8 mph," says the filing), windows that may roll down by themselves or an airbag warning light in the Atlas' gauge cluster.
Not all 2019-2023 Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport models are affected by the potential problem.
The recall announcement comes in the wake of a report from The Associated Press on Tuesday detailing 47 owner complaints to NHTSA about unexpected braking events, warning lights, alarm beeps and windows rolling down unexpectedly. Some owner incident reports to the federal safety agency claim that unexpected phantom braking incidents have occurred at much higher speeds than what VW's documentation for this recall suggests -- speeds of 25 to 70 mph. A VW spokesperson reached by Roadshow for comment said that "any higher-speed braking complaints are unrelated to this recall," noting that "the recall only involves the supplementary parking brake." (In modern vehicles, electronic parking brakes are typically only capable of low-speed deployment.)
VW's spokesperson also said that the company is unaware of any accidents or injuries related to this wiring harness issue.
In the filing, VW says a fix is currently under development, but that won't stop the automaker from notifying affected customers with mailers that are expected to be sent out on May 10. A followup mailer will alert customers once a fix has been developed.
Concerned Atlas owners may contact VW customer service at 1-800-893-5298 and reference recall 97GF. Alternatively, owners may reach out to NHTSA directly at 1-888-327-4236 or seek further information at NHTSA.gov.
