sallgeud

I'll have a much longer post going into detail as to the actual problem, once diagnosed, and some of the issues in the prior 2 weeks leading up to this moment. In the meantime, I thought I'd share the experience we had when turning on our etron to head out to an appointment this morning.

Nearly every control system related to driving went off. It started yesterday with a malfunctioning light error, and today became this. Failed TPMS, Failed AWD. Failed Safety Systems: lane keep assist, cross traffic warning, etc.

The car will go into Drive / Reverse and move. I won't be driving it, for obvious reasons, and have it on the way to the dealer.

Tronification

Could be as simple as a low voltage condition from the 12V battery or otherwise just some broken module wreaking havoc on the comm bus. In modern cars, given their stone-age computer systems, it's typical to see such flurry of errors when the 12V battery drops below a certain threshold or when one module goes bad. Teslas are somewhat immune to that, given that they have a proper computer running most everything, but even those exhibit some of the same issues when traditional peripheral systems go AWOL or the 12V supply drops.

It's possible that it's nothing too drastic, just take it to the dealer!

sallgeud

Possibly. Yet not less than a week ago, dealer & Audi tried to blame me for the malfunction.

macwm

+1. I had this happen 3 months after delivery and it turned out to be a bad seat belt sensor warning module! Tron, you are correct. I know it looks terrifying, but the car is just fine.

Tronification

Hehe, in a previous life, the TPMS module on my first Q7 died and it caused the car to act as if it were inhabited by some poltergeist, with lights coming on or going out on their own, windows going up and down by themselves, power steering cutting in and out. Quite hilarious once I got over how dangerous and pathetic that was.

sallgeud

Between the way they've reacted to my "Would you drive a car that randomly disabled safety features?" and the bull**** the service department people are trying to create to avoid fixing a related problem... This might be the very last Audi I ever buy. No good answers from them, lately. Maybe someone else treats me like ****, too... but no reason to continue to reward them with the responses I'm getting.

You shouldn't have to be a loyal customer to get top-notch service.

e-tronDriver

That dealer experience is unfortunate. I'd try another dealer if you have one nearby.

Tronification

I must say, one thing about Audi is that they fiercely defend their everything-goes-through-the-dealer model, which renders Audi's own Customer Care service entirely useless (I'm pretty sure that so does everyone else). I can see the reasoning behind that choice, but it is nonetheless unfortunate.

That being said, on the other side (Tesla), where the grass that was supposed to be greener, you always deal with the manufacturer. That sounds great, until you realize that they have far less incentive to help you vs. a dealer. When you need service, they already have your money and will gladly bull**** you to kingdom come. They make dealers look like amateurs. If you plan to bail in that direction ... you've been warned!

Every decent car out there, other than Tesla has a similar low-voltage electrical architecture and uses the same components (it's not like Audi makes windows regulators, electronic controllers and such). They will all exhibit this type of problem when electrical gremins appear. Also, every dealer out there have seen this kind of issue a gazillion times but most of them likely have plenty of service advisors that understand nothing about the way these cars work and are more than willing to display their ignorance in an antagonistic way.

Before you give up on the brand, try another dealer. Also keep in mind that merely switching brands may very well land you in exactly the same spot, at another dealership, owned and run by the same people, with the same attitude toward customers.

WildBTK

I have had to deal with corporate customer service from several different automakers over the past few years: Subaru, Kia, Hyundai, Lexus and FCA. I have had a some interaction with Audi, but don't plan to have much more regardless of my support experience with this eTron. I have learned over that time that all corporate customer service groups/departments are absolutely toothless to do anything beyond listen to and log your complaint in a database. They will attempt to act as a liason between you and the dealership to setup repair appointments, but they have no actual power to effect any repairs or force a dealership to do anything. The reason is because dealerships are independent franchises. The most Audi could do is threaten to pull their franchise agreement and, well, that's just not going to happen unless there's something illegal going on at the dealership.

Your best bet is to hit a corporation where it hurts the most: their pocketbook. By this I mean try getting repairs done at other dealerships, get your repair attempts made under lemon law, potentially consult a lawyer and make a claim if possible under your state's lemon law or the federal Mag-Moss law.

HiveMind82

Any chance you have anything new to report? I am having the same problem with my E Tron and the dealer has no idea what to do nor can they get any errors in the log.