A faulty fuel line has forced VW to prevent its dealers from delivering new Jettas and Golfs until repairs can be made.
Volkswagen has temporarily told its dealers to stop selling several of its diesel-powered compact cars built for the 2009 through 2012 model years ahead of what it calls an "upcoming voluntary safety recall."
The diesel-fueled VWs in question include 2009-2012 Jetta and Jetta SportWagen models as well as 2010-2012 Golfs equipped with the company's 2.0-liter TDI four-cylinder engine.
At fault is a fuel injection system that VW says could send pulses that interfere with the "natural frequency of the injector line #2 in specific load and RPM conditions." As a result, VW says that fuel lines could be placed under undue stress that could sever them. VW blames the issue in part on fuel tubes delivered by a certain supplier between 2008 and 2010 that had scratch marks on them caused by a production process.
Dealers were issued a release on Monday that states a "mandatory stop sale order" of the 8,161 TDIs it says are in dealership inventories in the United States.
VW says that a limited number of replacement parts are currently available and that dealers should carefully choose which cars are repaired until more parts for customer and unsold inventory vehicles are made available.
The automaker told dealers that it is not aware of any fires, crashes or injuries related to the issue.
A would-be Jetta TDI buyer posted the dealership memo on TDIClub.com late yesterday.