Volkswagen Atlas, Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport, Volkswagen Passat, model year 2021. Filed by Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. and reported to NHTSA on 15 October 2021. 30 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain 2021 Atlas, Atlas Cross Sport, and Passat vehicles. The front wheel bearing bolts may have been incorrectly tightened.
Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.
Volkswagen's own number for this recall: 40R7. That is the number on the owner letter and on the dealer paperwork. 21V812 is the number NHTSA gave the same campaign, and the number this page is filed under. They are one recall, written two ways.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 21V812 cover?
- Volkswagen Atlas, Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport, Volkswagen Passat, model year 2021.
- What is wrong with them?
- Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain 2021 Atlas, Atlas Cross Sport, and Passat vehicles. The front wheel bearing bolts may have been incorrectly tightened.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- The bolts may loosen and cause a loss of control, increasing the risk of a crash.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. Dealers will inspect the tightness of the wheel bearing bolts and replace the bolts, as necessary, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed November 2, 2021. Owners may contact Volkswagen customer service at 1-800-893-5298. Volkswagen's number for this recall is 40R7.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on. Volkswagen calls this recall 40R7, which is the number on the owner letter and the dealer paperwork.
Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.
What the authority says can happen if this is not fixed: “The bolts may loosen and cause a loss of control, increasing the risk of a crash.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 21V812 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. |
| System at fault | Wheels:Lugs/Nuts/Bolts/Studs |
| Reported to NHTSA | 15 October 2021 |
| Model years | 2021-2021 |
| Vehicles named | VOLKSWAGEN ATLAS, VOLKSWAGEN ATLAS CROSS SPORT, VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT |
What the notice says today
The consequence
The bolts may loosen and cause a loss of control, increasing the risk of a crash.
The remedy
Dealers will inspect the tightness of the wheel bearing bolts and replace the bolts, as necessary, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed November 2, 2021. Owners may contact Volkswagen customer service at 1-800-893-5298. Volkswagen's number for this recall is 40R7.
What it said before
This campaign is in the register but not yet in the dated wording archive, so we cannot yet say whether its text has moved. It enters the archive on the next pass.
This is one of 191 notices in the record whose component field names wheels. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 30 days.
Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.
The models named here, across their whole recall history
- Volkswagen Atlas recalls: 46 US campaigns
- Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport recalls: 30 US campaigns
- Volkswagen Passat recalls: 28 US campaigns
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 21V812, wording as read on 16 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/21v812/
The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.
The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.
Other Volkswagen notices we hold
- 26V473: 2024-2026 Atlas Cross Sport and Atlas
- 26V321: 2024 Tiguan
- 26V258: 2025-2026 Taos
- 26V185: 2025 Jetta and Taos
- 26V138: 2025-2026 Jetta
- 26V030: 2023-2025 ID
- 26V028: 2023-2024 ID
- 25V854: 2025 Tiguan
All 272 Volkswagen campaigns we hold · Every manufacturer in the record
The fingerprint of this notice
We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 21V812 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
68c3a180 - Consequence
b563c7c7 - Remedy
77868fd4
We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.
The wording we hold for 21V812 · how the whole register is watched
This notice names one vehicle among several registers that have written about it. Every notice this site holds for the Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport, in all seven, is kept on that vehicle's own page, with the newest in each.
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Owners of these cars
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