Published
July 31, 2026
This settlement covers certain 2018–2022 Volkswagen Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport SUVs with the 3.6 Liter engine, over an alleged main engine water pump defect that can leak coolant. If you already paid for that repair, you can claim 80% of what you spent; if you still own or lease the vehicle, the water pump warranty is now extended to 8.5 years or 85,000 miles.
Current Status
Claims are open. A Claim Form for reimbursement must be mailed to the Claim Administrator and postmarked no later than October 5, 2026; the notice gives a date only, with no official timezone, and there is no online filing option described in the Class Notice. The deadline to exclude yourself from the settlement or to file an objection was August 5, 2026. The court granted preliminary approval, and a final approval hearing before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton is scheduled for September 10, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. in Newark, New Jersey — that hearing had not yet occurred as of July 31, 2026, so final approval has not been granted and no payment date has been announced. The going-forward warranty extension is already in effect: it took effect on July 6, 2026, whether or not you file anything.
Status
Claims Open
Claim Deadline
October 5, 2026
Mail-in claim form · must be postmarked by this date
Estimated Payout
80% of your repair bill
One water pump repair per vehicle · up to two coolant-related head gasket repairs · non-dealer invoices capped at $820 (pump) and $3,325 (head gasket)
Proof Required
Yes
Repair invoice or record plus proof of what you paid — no receipts, no reimbursement
What Changed Recently?
The parties reached a class settlement of a case filed in February 2025, and the court preliminarily approved it. Notice went out to the class beginning July 6, 2026 — the date the settlement calls the Notice Date — which is also the date the warranty extension took effect and the cutoff for which past repairs qualify for reimbursement. That opened a 90-day claim window that closes with the October 5, 2026 postmark deadline.The underlying complaint alleges that the main engine water pump in the covered vehicles — defined in the settlement as the main engine, mechanically driven water pump together with the water pump gasket — can fail prematurely, which can cause a coolant leak that requires repair or replacement. Volkswagen Group of America denies the claims. It maintains that the Settlement Class Vehicles are not defective, that they function properly and were properly designed, manufactured, marketed and sold, and that no applicable warranty was breached and no statute violated. The court has not decided in favor of either party; the case was resolved by agreement rather than by a ruling on the merits.
Who Qualifies?
The Settlement Class is all persons and entities who purchased or leased a Settlement Class Vehicle in the United States or Puerto Rico. Settlement Class Vehicles are certain model year 2018–2022 Volkswagen Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport vehicles equipped with a 3.6 Liter engine that were imported and distributed by Volkswagen Group of America.The word "certain" is doing real work there. Not every 2018–2022 Atlas or Atlas Cross Sport with a 3.6 Liter engine is covered. The class is defined by a specific list of Vehicle Identification Numbers attached to the Settlement Agreement, and the only way to confirm a given vehicle is to enter its VIN in the VIN Lookup Portal on the official settlement website. Both current and former owners and lessees are in the class, so selling the vehicle does not by itself end your right to claim a reimbursement for a repair you already paid for.
The settlement excludes judges who have presided over the case and their spouses; Volkswagen employees, officers, directors, agents and representatives and their family members; affiliates, parents and subsidiaries of the defendants; used car dealers; anyone who bought a class vehicle for commercial resale; anyone who bought a class vehicle with a salvage title, along with insurers that acquired one as a total loss; insurers of a class vehicle; issuers of extended vehicle warranties and service contracts; anyone who previously settled and released these claims; and anyone who filed a timely and proper request for exclusion.
How Much Can You Get?
There is no common settlement fund and no fixed per-person payment. The settlement provides two benefits, and a class member can receive both.Warranty extension. Effective July 6, 2026, Volkswagen Group of America extended the New Vehicle Limited Warranty on Settlement Class Vehicles to cover 80% of the cost of repair or replacement — parts and labor — of a failed main engine water pump, when the work is done by an authorized Volkswagen dealer, for up to 8.5 years or 85,000 miles from the vehicle's In-Service Date, whichever comes first. The In-Service Date is the date the vehicle was first delivered to its original purchaser or lessee, or first placed in service as a demonstrator or company car. The extension carries the same terms and conditions as the original New Vehicle Limited Warranty, transfers to later owners for whatever time and mileage remain, and does not cover failures caused by abuse, misuse, alteration or modification, a collision, vandalism, another outside impact, or failure to use the coolant Volkswagen recommends. Work not performed by an authorized Volkswagen dealer is not warranted.
Reimbursement for past repairs. If you paid out of pocket — and were not otherwise reimbursed — for a main engine water pump repair or replacement before July 6, 2026 and within 8.5 years or 85,000 miles of the In-Service Date, you can claim 80% of the paid invoice amount for parts and labor. That is limited to one such repair or replacement per Settlement Class Vehicle. The same 80% rate applies to up to two head gasket repairs or replacements paid for in that same window, but only where the repair invoice states that the head gasket work was performed because the vehicle had a coolant leak or a low coolant level.
Two caps apply if the work was not done by an authorized Volkswagen dealer. In that case the invoice amount the 80% is calculated from is limited to $820.00 for a main engine water pump repair or replacement and $3,325.00 for a head gasket repair or replacement. As an estimate, that puts the ceiling on a non-dealer water pump claim at roughly $656, and on each non-dealer head gasket claim at roughly $2,660. A repair performed by an authorized dealer is not subject to those invoice caps, so an 80% reimbursement there tracks the actual amount paid.
Reimbursements are reduced by any goodwill payment or other concession from a Volkswagen dealer, and by anything paid by another source — including insurers and providers of extended warranties or service contracts. If the repair was free, or you were already reimbursed in full, there is nothing left to claim. Repairs caused by abuse, misuse, alteration or modification, a collision, vandalism, another outside impact, or use of the wrong coolant do not qualify.
What Proof or Notice ID Is Required?
Proof is required, and it is documentary rather than a simple code. Every reimbursement claim needs a completed, signed and dated Claim Form plus supporting records:- An original or legible copy of the repair invoice or record showing your name, the make, model and VIN of the vehicle, the name and address of the authorized Volkswagen dealer or non-dealer service center that did the work, the date of repair, the vehicle's mileage at that time, a description of the work performed with the parts repaired or replaced, a breakdown of parts and labor costs, and the amount charged.
- Proof that you paid for the repair, including the amount paid.
- If you are not the person or entity the class notice was mailed to, proof that you owned or leased the vehicle at the time of the repair.
- For a head gasket claim, an invoice that states the head gasket work was performed because of a coolant leak or low coolant level.
- If the repair happened inside the original New Vehicle Limited Warranty period and was performed by someone other than an authorized Volkswagen dealer, documentation that you first asked a dealer to do the repair and the dealer declined or could not do it free of charge — or, if you cannot produce that, a signed and dated declaration under penalty of perjury saying you made that attempt. A form declaration is available on the official settlement website.
The printed Claim Form also has Unique ID and PIN fields to be filled in by class members who received a postcard notice. Those identify a known class member, but the claim stands or falls on the repair records and proof of payment — a claim with a code and no invoice cannot be paid, which is why this page treats the documentation, not the code, as the proof requirement.
The warranty extension works differently. It needs no claim form and no paperwork from you: it is already in effect on covered vehicles, and an authorized Volkswagen dealer applies it at the time of a qualifying repair.
What Is the Deadline?
The Claim Form and all supporting documents must be sent by first-class mail and postmarked no later than October 5, 2026. The Class Notice states a date without an official timezone, and it describes mailing as the filing method, so treat this as a postmark deadline rather than an end-of-day online cutoff. The settlement says plainly that a class member who is otherwise eligible but fails to submit the completed Claim Form and supporting documents by the deadline will not receive a reimbursement.The deadlines to request exclusion from the settlement or to file an objection both passed on August 5, 2026.
How Do You Take Action?
Start at the official settlement website, Main Engine Waterpump Settlement.com, and enter your VIN in the VIN Lookup Portal to confirm the vehicle is a Settlement Class Vehicle. If it is, and you paid for a covered repair, download the Claim Form there.Complete the form, sign and date it under penalty of perjury, and mail it with your repair records and proof of payment to the Claim Administrator at the address printed on the Claim Form, postmarked by October 5, 2026. It is worth keeping a copy of everything you send. If the administrator finds your claim incomplete or deficient, it will mail you a letter identifying the problem, and you then have 30 days from the date of that letter to cure it or the claim is denied. If a claim is denied outright, you have 15 days from the denial letter to request an attorney review; that determination is binding and cannot be appealed.
If you still own or lease a covered vehicle and the water pump fails, you do not file anything — take it to an authorized Volkswagen dealer, which applies the warranty extension directly.
What Happens Next?
The next milestone is the final approval hearing set for September 10, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. before Judge Wigenton in Newark. At that hearing the court will decide whether to approve the settlement as fair, reasonable and adequate, and will consider class counsel's request for fees and expenses of up to $790,000 combined and service awards of up to $3,500 each for the class representatives — all of which Volkswagen pays separately, without reducing class benefits. The hearing date can change without further notice to the class, so the official settlement website is the place to confirm it.A hearing being held is not the same as approval being granted. Approved reimbursements are mailed within 150 days of the later of the date the completed claim is received or the Effective Date — the date the settlement becomes final after any appeals are resolved. No payment date had been announced as of July 31, 2026. Checks stay valid for 180 days, and a class member may make one request to reissue an expired uncashed check within 225 days of its original issuance.
One narrower point worth knowing before you decide whether the release matters to you: the release covers claims relating to the main engine water pumps and head gaskets of the class vehicles, but it carves out claims for personal injury and for property damage other than damage to the class vehicle related to the water pump or head gasket. Head gasket failures that were not caused by a coolant leak or low coolant level are also exempted from the release.
Sources and Verification
This page is built from the settlement's own primary documents: the court-authorized long-form Notice of Proposed Class Action Settlement, the Main Water Pump Settlement Reimbursement Claim Form, the Class Settlement Agreement dated February 4, 2026 with its exhibits, and the official settlement website's dates and VIN Lookup pages.- Official settlement website — Main Engine Waterpump Settlement.com (VIN Lookup Portal, Claim Form, Class Notice, Settlement Agreement, court documents and important dates)
- Notice of Proposed Class Action Settlement — embedded below
- Class Settlement Agreement and exhibits, filed February 12, 2026 (Doc. 30-3)
- Court docket — Briggs et al v. Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. et al on Justia Dockets
For context on how a very different Volkswagen water pump case played out, OCA also covered the earlier Volkswagen and Audi water pump settlement, which covered 2014–2021 models with 1.8 and 2.0 liter engines and closed to claims in September 2022. That is a separate case with a separate class — a vehicle covered by one is not covered by the other. Readers tracking Volkswagen litigation more broadly may also want the Volkswagen ID.4 battery defect lawsuit, which is at the complaint stage with nothing to claim yet, and the now-closed Audi and Volkswagen turbocharger settlement, which used the same reimbursement-plus-warranty-extension structure as this one.
Questions
My Atlas is a 2018-2022 with the 3.6L engine, but the VIN lookup says it is not covered. Why?
The settlement class is defined by a specific list of Vehicle Identification Numbers attached to the Settlement Agreement, not by model year and engine alone. The notice states plainly that not every 2018–2022 Atlas or Atlas Cross Sport with a 3.6 Liter engine is a Settlement Class Vehicle. The VIN Lookup Portal on the official settlement website is the controlling answer for whether a particular vehicle is in the class.
I sold my Atlas. Can I still get reimbursed for a water pump repair I paid for?
Yes. The Settlement Class covers all persons and entities who purchased or leased a Settlement Class Vehicle in the United States or Puerto Rico, which includes former owners and lessees. The reimbursement benefit is available to current and former owners and lessees who paid out of pocket for a covered repair. The warranty extension, by contrast, follows the vehicle, so it benefits whoever owns or leases it now.
An independent shop replaced my water pump instead of a Volkswagen dealer. Does that still count?
It can, but with two limits. The invoice amount the 80% reimbursement is calculated from is capped at $820.00 for a main engine water pump repair and $3,325.00 for a head gasket repair when the work was not done by an authorized Volkswagen dealer. Separately, if the repair happened while the vehicle was still inside its original New Vehicle Limited Warranty period, the claim must include documentation that a dealer was asked first and declined or could not do the repair free of charge, or a signed declaration to that effect. The going-forward warranty extension covers dealer repairs only.
Why is my reimbursement 80% instead of the full amount I paid?
The parties agreed to an 80% reimbursement rate rather than full reimbursement, and the same 80% figure applies to the going-forward warranty extension for a failed main engine water pump. Volkswagen Group of America denies that the vehicles are defective and denies any warranty breach or statutory violation, and the court has not ruled for either side. A reimbursement is also reduced by any goodwill payment, dealer concession, insurance payment, or extended-warranty or service-contract payment already received for the same repair.
Does the head gasket reimbursement apply to any head gasket repair?
No. A head gasket repair or replacement qualifies only if the repair record states that it was performed because the vehicle had a coolant leak or a low coolant level. Head gasket failures unrelated to a coolant leak or low coolant are also carved out of the release, meaning those claims are not given up under this settlement.
When would a reimbursement check actually arrive?
Under the settlement terms, an approved reimbursement is mailed within 150 days of the later of the date the completed claim with all required proof is received, or the Effective Date, which is the date the settlement becomes final after any appeals are resolved. The final approval hearing is set for September 10, 2026, and no payment date has been announced. Checks remain valid for 180 days, and a class member may request one reissue of an expired uncashed check within 225 days of its original issuance.
Official Settlement Notice
For more class actions keep scrolling below.
Settlement Amount
No common fund
Warranty extension + 80% reimbursement of past repair costs
Case Title
Jessica Briggs, et al. v. Volkswagen Group of America, Inc., et al.
Case Number
2:25-cv-01540-SDW-JBC
Court
U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey
Final Approval Hearing
September 10, 2026 at 11:00 AM
Before Hon. Susan D. Wigenton, Newark, NJ — date may change without further notice
Administrator
Rust Consulting, Inc.
Official Website
Main Engine Waterpump Settlement.com
