2025 Volkswagen Tiguan Recall: Body Control Module (BCM) May Reset Unexpectedly/FMVSS 101, 102

In January 2025 a Volkswagen test vehicle switched its own ignition off while it was being driven. The body control module had reset, and when that module restarts the car behaves as if the driver turned the key: the engine stalls, the exterior lights drop, the warning lamps go dark, and the rearview camera feed disappears.

The first Tiguan in the recall population was built on March 24, 2025, roughly two months after that test. NHTSA campaign 26V587, filed September 10, 2026, covers 49,958 2025 Tiguans built through August 30, 2025. Volkswagen's number for the recall is 57KL, and the company puts the share carrying the condition at 100 percent.

The fix is a software flash at the dealer. Volkswagen is not delivering it over the air.

The Issue

The body control module is the computer that runs the parts of the car that have nothing to do with making it move: lighting, locks, wipers, the telltales in the instrument cluster and, on this Tiguan, the ignition state that a reset can switch off. Continental of Regensburg, Germany, supplies the unit. The recalled cars left the factory with software versions 0324 or 0325 on part numbers 5WA.937.084.AE, AF and AG.

Volkswagen's filing puts the cause in the FCCU Manager, a fault control unit inside the module that decides what the BCM does when it catches an internal error. It was not set up correctly. The company's analysis between March and June 2025 found that certain error-correcting-code errors, the class of memory fault a controller is built to catch and repair on its own, could instead push the error-handling routine into a full reset of the module.

While the module restarts, the ignition may switch off, which stalls the engine, and the functions the module controls go with it: certain driver controls, the telltales, the exterior lighting and the rearview camera. Volkswagen lists four Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards the car falls out of compliance with in that moment: 101 for controls and displays, 102 for shift sequence and starter interlock, 108 for lamps and 111 for rear visibility.

There is no diagnostic trouble code for the event. A Tiguan that has reset once and been restarted leaves no specific trouble code a dealer can pull, which is why Volkswagen needed Continental's help to sort field claims in other markets. The remedy is software version 0326, and cars built from calendar week 36 of 2025, the first week of September, received it in production.

Affected Models

Vehicle	Model year	Production dates	US units
Volkswagen Tiguan	2025	Mar 24, 2025 - Aug 30, 2025	49,958

The 2025 Tiguan is the third-generation model, the redesign Volkswagen introduced as all-new for 2025. Volkswagen draws no line by trim or drivetrain; the population was set by production records and by which BCM software each car was built with. A 2025 Tiguan built after the week-36 changeover is outside the recall, as is every second-generation Tiguan from 2018 through 2024.

Canada has 10,435 of the same cars under Transport Canada recall 2026-434, per Volkswagen's dealer bulletin. Those are separate from the NHTSA count.

Chronology and Investigation

Volkswagen's chronology opens with the January 2025 test-vehicle stall, and the cause analysis ran internally and with Continental. Between March and June 2025 that work tied the reset to the ECC errors and to the coding of the error handler.

Volkswagen's Product Safety Committee took up the topic in September and October 2025. According to the filing, the number of factors that have to line up to trigger the reset left the committee unsure whether any further cases would occur, and it chose continued field monitoring over action. The committee met after August 30, the last affected build date, so every affected car had already been built.

From October 2025 through April 2026 a handful of potential cases surfaced in other markets. None came from the United States. Without a trouble code, each claim had to be analyzed with the supplier to decide whether it matched. April through August 2026 went to discussions between Volkswagen's North American Region and Volkswagen AG about whether cases could be expected here.

On September 2, 2026, the Volkswagen Brand Product Safety Committee reviewed the topic and decided on a noncompliance recall "out of an abundance of caution," in the filing's words, because failures "could not be ruled out." The Part 573 report reached NHTSA eight days later.

Reported Incidents

Volkswagen reports no crashes, fires, injuries or deaths connected to the defect, and no warranty claims. The only event the filing describes in detail is the January 2025 test vehicle. The potential cases from other markets carry no count, and the company does not say how many of them were confirmed as the same failure.

Twenty months separate the first stall from the filing. In that span Volkswagen built the full 49,958-car population and found no US case.

What Owners Should Do

The repair has been available since September 17, 2026, the date Volkswagen sent its dealer communication and applied the campaign code to affected VINs. VINs became searchable on NHTSA.gov the same day. Owner letters are scheduled for November 6, 2026 in the NHTSA record; Volkswagen's dealer bulletin and its launch notice put the owner mailing in October 2026.

Owners do not need the letter to book the work. The dealer notice tells service departments to schedule owner repairs immediately and to complete every affected vehicle still in inventory before delivery. Volkswagen customer service is at 1-800-893-5298, and the number to reference is 57KL. The lookup tool at vw.com takes a VIN and lists every open campaign on the car.

No reimbursement plan is attached, because every affected Tiguan is inside its New Vehicle Limited Warranty. Loaner or rental cost cannot be claimed under the recall itself; the bulletin points dealers to Volkswagen's standard loaner program instead.

Symptoms to Watch For When the BCM Resets

Volkswagen left the "warning that can occur" line of its filing blank, and no trouble code flags a module at risk.

The engine stops as if the key were turned off. The report describes the ignition switching off, a different fault from lost fuel or spark, so the stall arrives the way a key-off does.

Exterior lighting drops at the same moment. The lamps run through the body control module. At night the car goes dark while it is still rolling.

The cluster telltales go blank. The warning lamps FMVSS 101 governs are among the functions the module carries, and their loss is one of the four noncompliances Volkswagen cites.

The rearview camera image disappears. A reset during a backing maneuver takes the display FMVSS 111 requires with it.

Certain controls stop responding. Volkswagen says "certain controls" without naming them.

A car that has done any of this once stores no specific code for it, so give the service writer the date and a description. The software update applies to every VIN in the population regardless.

How Long Will the Recall Repair Take?

Volkswagen's owner letter says the update takes about an hour. The dealer bulletin caps the claimable time for the flash itself at 50 time units on the diagnostic protocol, with a separate line for setup and the battery charger. No parts are involved.

The procedure is a Software Version Management flash through the ODIS tester, SVM code 5518. The bulletin requires a battery charger rated at 70 amps or more connected for the whole update, a wired USB link between tester and car rather than Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and a single key in the cabin placed over the reader coil in the cup holder. The test plan cycles the ignition off and on several times during the flash, and the radiator fans may run at high speed while it does. A flash that loses voltage or connection can damage the module, and the bulletin says a control unit damaged by insufficient voltage is not covered.

With nothing to order, the wait is the dealer's schedule, and the owner letter warns that preparation and the daily workshop load may add to the hour.

Bottom Line

Volkswagen's filing calls this a recall decided out of an abundance of caution, and its field record supports the phrasing: one test vehicle, a few potential cases abroad, none in the United States, no warranty claims across 49,958 cars built more than a year before the filing. The failure mode needs several factors to coincide, and in twenty months it has not been shown to do so on a customer's car here.

If it does coincide, the ignition switches itself off while driving with the lights and the warning lamps gone, and there is no advance sign and no specific stored code to catch it early. The repair takes about an hour, costs nothing, and has been available since September 17. Book it now rather than waiting for a letter that Volkswagen's own documents date two different ways.

Find your Volkswagen Tiguan recall information: https://www.vw.com/en/owners-and-services/about-my-vehicle/recalls.html

Noncompliance recall (FMVSS 101, 102, 108, 111) on the third-generation 2025 Tiguan. The body control module software, supplied by Continental, can reset while driving and switch the ignition off. Dealer software flash to version 0326; the repair has been available since September 17, 2026, ahead of the owner letters.

Volkswagen's chronology runs twenty months from a January 2025 test-vehicle stall to the September 2026 filing, with the entire affected population built in between (March 24 to August 30, 2025) and the production fix landing in calendar week 36 of 2025. The company's Product Safety Committee chose field monitoring in fall 2025 and reversed to a recall on September 2, 2026 with zero US cases and zero warranty claims on record.