[VWMG]

We have a 2018 Atlas SEL, bought it back in July. In the last month or so it has died 3 times, about 2 weeks apart each time. Twice in the morning and once right after driving it and trying to start it about 5 minutes after turning it off. When you push the start button, the warning will come on that the front sensors are deactivated, then you press the button again and it will say 12v battery low. Charge by driving. Which you can't do, because it won't start. We have taken it to the dealer twice, but they can't find anything. They said to keep the keys 20ft away from the car at night, which we have done, and it still died.
Is anybody else having starting issues??

 

[Simeon]

This is the first I'm hearing of starting issues and I can't believe that the dealer can't find a solution. Obviously there is a draw on the battery when the vehicle is parked/shut off. If their suggestion is to simply keep your keys away from the car, you might want to consider taking it elsewhere to be diagnosed.

 

[VWMG]

Fixed

Well got the Atlas back last week from the dealer. We let them have it for about a week and drive it around a little. It finally died on them and left them stranded at Pizza Hut. Came down to a bad cell plate in the battery. So they ordered a new battery which took 5 days to ship from Texas. No biggie they let us drive around a new Tiguan till it was fixed. Hopefully it was just bad battery, and this is the last time I have to complain about it. the battery doesn't look special, so I find it kind of weird that it needs a battery from Texas. I would hate to find out how much it actually costs.

 

[gsealey]

Wife was stranded at the gas station in new Atlas

My Atlas is in the shop right now getting fixed. They have found bad cells in the battery. They are giving us a loaner car until they can find a battery. Seems to be a lot of issue similar to this on the internet.

Hopefully the new battery fixes the issue. I'm having doubts. Had it 8 months. I'm suspecting the battery is under rated and the car is burning out the cells with the auto start/stop system.

 

[Simeon]

At least a battery replacement is a simple swap, and seems to be addressing the issue. Don't know why they seem to be difficult for dealers to source..must be a cost thing. Definitely seems like they didn't put a powerful enough battery in the Atlas, and it may be worthwhile looking into aftermarket high performance options.

 

[miles99]

My Atlas is in the shop right now getting fixed. They have found bad cells in the battery. They are giving us a loaner car until they can find a battery. Seems to be a lot of issue similar to this on the internet.

Hopefully the new battery fixes the issue. I'm having doubts. Had it 8 months. I'm suspecting the battery is under rated and the car is burning out the cells with the auto start/stop system.

Our SEL had a dead battery too today after only 8 months. Got this car for my wife to make sure she has a safe car for our newborn. I'm actually pretty pissed. Before we had a Treg 2 and this car -2008 model- was way more sophisticated than this low quality piece of crap. The Treg warned you about a low battery and turned off unnecessary electric consumers. The Atlas sucks juice out of an undersized battery with its stupid start/stop automatic until it dies without warning.
Car goes to the dealer tomorrow and I expect that they don't have the battery. Like they don't have the parts for the recalls VW sent out months ago.

This is definitely the last Volkswagen in my family ever.

 

[conranj]

Our SEL had a dead battery too today after only 8 months. Got this car for my wife to make sure she has a safe car for our newborn. I'm actually pretty pissed. Before we had a Treg 2 and this car -2008 model- was way more sophisticated than this low quality piece of crap. The Treg warned you about a low battery and turned off unnecessary electric consumers. The Atlas sucks juice out of an undersized battery with its stupid start/stop automatic until it dies without warning.
Car goes to the dealer tomorrow and I expect that they don't have the battery. Like they don't have the parts for the recalls VW sent out months ago.

This is definitely the last Volkswagen in my family ever.

We've been fortunate enough to not have the battery die, but this last Sunday the malfunction light came on and said "Error: Stop/Start". When I delivered it to the dealership they said they had just had another SEL delivered that morning with the same issue...

 

[conranj]

We've been fortunate enough to not have the battery die, but this last Sunday the malfunction light came on and said "Error: Stop/Start". When I delivered it to the dealership they said they had just had another SEL delivered that morning with the same issue...

We just got ours back today. The issue was the battery. They said it hadn't died yet, but wasn't producing like it was supposed to. My service advisor said they put a "bigger, more powerful" battery in it, but she didn't really elaborate more than that. Either way, I'm glad to have it back.

 

[WestB87]

Are you guys making sure the vehicle is in the "completely off" state before you exit? The auto/start stop has nearly tripped myself or my wife up before because it'll shut the engine down when we park. However, we always make sure to check if the instrument cluster is lit before we exit. If it is, we'll give a tap to the start/stop button (foot off the brake pedal) to be completely sure.

 

[sgpeq]

My 2018 Atlas died at an intersection while I was waiting for the light. VW was so unhelpful and unapologetic. The problem was that the stop/start feature was too hard on the battery. I received a new battery but they could no tell me it won't happen again.

 

[KarstGeo]

Battery problems seem to a somewhat common issue, new battery will sort it, no drama. Likely had a bad batch of them.

 

[Hirst173]

We just had a starting issue last weekend. We have a Launch Edition with 4Motion, 16-1/2 months old with 33K miles on it. Parked the car, 5 hours later, it wouldnt start. It turned over fine but wouldnt start. The weird thing is if I let go of the key and it moved from the "start" position to the "on" position, it continued to turn over.

Had it towed to the dealer the next day (Sunday) and it still wouldnt start. Monday morning, the dealer service dept goes to get the Atlas and of course it started right up.

Of course now I'm afraid to drive it someplace and get stranded again.

Anyone else have this happen?

 

[Jennifer Chlebowski]

Atlas died in a live lane

Like I have read on multiple sites, my 1 year old Atlas totally shut down when I was driving it. I was in rush hour traffic, I had a toddler in the car, and VW Road side Assistance never showed up, they actually hung up on me...

I was at a red light and when the light turned green, my car would not drive. All power was lost. Many are downplaying the fact that the battery died, but it was a very unsafe situation as the hazards were not working. I drive a black exec line and no one could see me in the middle of the road. I was quite scared.

VW is currently running diagnostic testing.

This is not the first or only issue I have had with this vehicle. We are completely unsatisfied with this purchase and are looking forward to trading in this leased vehicle the minute our lease is up.

 

[Atlas4motionS]

Atlas S has a hard time starting

So I have a 2018 Atlas S 4motion. I've had the vehicle for 4 months now and it has been to the dealer 3 times. First, with in the first 2,500 miles, the dash started alerting me that an oil change was needed. I found this odd since the owners manual and VW say first maintenance isn't till 10K miles. So i took it in and got it done. Also had them check the undercarriage since I was getting a ton of rattling noise from underneath the car towards the front. They said all was fine. On the way home the noise was still happening. Since, the stop/start system has stopped working. It shows on the dash that it activates but the car keeps running. I've also noticed that the car has a hard time starting. Turn over takes a while. Dealer has replaced the battery but can"t find a solution for the start/stop. Anyone having similar issues.

 

[Crotchrkt]

We've been fortunate enough to not have the battery die, but this last Sunday the malfunction light came on and said "Error: Stop/Start". When I delivered it to the dealership they said they had just had another SEL delivered that morning with the same issue...

What ended up happening? My 2019 atlas sel w/2903 miles has done this 12x now. Today it would not restart and had to be towed to the dealership.

 

[untergeek]

I have only once had a strange battery issue from my Atlas. I jump started another car with it. After that, weird electrical stuff happened. The driver side power seat stopped working. It refused to start one morning with that Low Battery message. I was set to take it in, and after jump starting the Atlas, somehow the electrical reset fixed things. The power seat started working again right before I took it to the shop. I informed them of the odd scenario, and they agreed to take a close look at the electrics.

The result? We can't find anything wrong. Let us know if it returns. And we've put 10K more miles on it since then with no more electrical problems. ?‍♂

 

[MUNROTC]

Moving this to another forum

 

[Jlou1234]

What ended up happening? My 2019 atlas sel w/2903 miles has done this 12x now. Today it would not restart and had to be towed to the dealership.

what happened with your 2019? I just bought a 2021 two and a half weeks ago and it’s been in the shop twice. Last week didn’t start out of the driveway, yesterday shut off and wouldn’t start in a super busy intersection. Last week they found many loose wiring connections. So far sounds like possible fuse connection issue this week. Very disconcerting. 371 miles on it yesterday.

 

[Brian Loveys]

We have a 2018 Atlas SEL, bought it back in July. In the last month or so it has died 3 times, about 2 weeks apart each time. Twice in the morning and once right after driving it and trying to start it about 5 minutes after turning it off. When you push the start button, the warning will come on that front sensors are deactivated, then you press the button again and it will say, 12v battery low. Charge by driving. Which you can't do, because it won't start. We have taken it to the dealer twice, they can't find anything. They said to keep the keys 20ft away from the car at night, which we have done, and it still died. Anybody else having starting issues??

I have a 2018 Atlas and have the exact same problem. I would drive somewhere, run an errand, and when coming back it wouldn't start. Very similar to what you describe above.

 

[Jlou1234]

what happened with your 2019? I just bought a 2021 two and a half weeks ago and it’s been in the shop twice. Last week didn’t start out of the driveway, yesterday shut off and wouldn’t start in a super busy intersection. Last week they found many loose wiring connections. So far sounds like possible fuse connection issue this week. Very disconcerting. 371 miles on it yesterday.

Turns out our Atlas was a lemon. My understanding is that a small percentage of all vehicles are lemons and we likely just got hit with some bad luck. Ultimately VW did the right thing and are processing a full buyback for us. It’s been a slow process but we are very thankful that VW made the decision on their own after I filed an internal claim. Working with them has been very easy and I could only say good things on how they treated me during their review process. We’re sad that our Atlas didn’t work out! Great design and functionality.