MorganMay

Angry, you are a key contributor always working to understand the BSG problem across several models and communicating everyone's finding to the rest of us. Plus, you are dedicated to keeping your Audi "for better or for worse, until death do you part". I feel the same way.

You are entitled to get out on the fringe once in awhile.

The Audi tech on Reddit had a new (to me) and a potentially important remark, in my opinion, about the failure mode. If there is any coolant leakage, or possibly severe condensation of moisture under the right conditions, to the internal electrical parts of the BSG, shorting out electrically could explain a lot. I know the circuitry has a protective coating over it inside the BSG and you would think they subjected the BSG to severe test conditions in development but there is the possibility. I don't recall seeing any disassembled and failed BSGs that showed signs of water entry but then I haven't seen but one or two examples in all posts and elsewhere.

Macfly4

Well, think my 21 RSQ8 (27k miles) might have just bit the BSG failure as well. Took it in for the 30k maintenance with spark plug changing. Took it home that night and as i came to a stop at a light it lit up with a few errors: start stop malfuntion (and the option was greyed out on the MMI) , electrical system malfunction, and sport differential malfunction.
Was able to drive and park. When i started up in the morning same warnings came on. Its at the shop now. Apparently there is an Audi extension warranty for 7years/unlimited mileage. Love the car but kind of annoying.
As an aside, there is a TSB on drivers side woofer speaker grill bolts coming loose resulting in a bad vibration/rattle. They did replace the grill and locktite the bolts. No more rattle.

angrypengu

I'm going to be very careful with my words here and I won't elaborate further both publicly and privately, nor will I divulge my source. Hopefully I have enough credibility on AW to be able to make this comment, but if not, I'm just going to share what I will be doing.

The extended BSG warranty is 7 years and I drive extremely low mileage. If I did drive higher mileage, I would swap out the BSG proactively now given what I know. Because I just found this out while I was going to the dealer, I'm not going to do it this year but I most likely will next year, or at the very least, before my car turns 7.

Sorry I have to be vague here, but it's the most I'm comfortable sharing.

Lego_Maniac

lol

Define higher mileage? My car was 16 months old with 10K when the BSG failed. That is pretty low mileage, and I think the lowest mileage failure so far. I thought the same thing, disable start/stop, low mileage, no worries for some time. I was wrong.

Gbop98

If you plan on doing this proactively, that means it will be on your own dime, correct? And if that's the case, then is your thought process that it would be better to pay out of pocket up front for peace of mind with a revised part, as opposed to having it potentially leave you stranded and then having to pay out of pocket?

Pabla

I had failure after 2 years 31k kms, not super low but also not high mileage.

you don't have to confirm this, but based on what you're saying a new revision of the BSG will be released that will not fail. The updated BSG will arrive sometime next year.

hcuorg

Sounds like they're coming out with a newer revision that's even worse than the current one (4N1903028). If what I'm understanding is correct. Either that or they're getting rid of the 7 year warranty on the BSG's.

danibear

This is becoming very fun now…..

angrypengu

Correct.

Every part will eventually fail, but what I'm saying is that the *present* PN that has been available for the last 3 or so months is one I would proactively swap out on my own dime for peace of mind. I am making no comments wrt any possible future version/iteration.

It's not as simple as this. It's a function of how many start/stops the BSG has done, in addition to the frequency that the BSG is actively stepping down via the DC DC converter to charge the 12V lead acid battery (eg 15.4V in the winter). As I barely drive in the winter, I'm not going to worry about the BSG for now. For those that do this every day, I have little doubt your BSGs will fry faster than those who don't drive their cars in the winter.

Lego_Maniac

It's definitely not simple. I'm in the south, and the car is kept in an insulated garage that rarely drops below the mid 40's. January is our coldest month, with lows averaging in the low 30s and daytime highs in the high 40s, so we too barely drive in the winter.

Correlation doesn't equal causation and all that. The BSG design, manufacturing process and/or implementation is failure prone. If you want to don't mind the potential that the car has an electrical system failure, then by all means, don't worry about it. But to deny that the part is faulty and that your mitigating that because you don't drive in the winter, or don't use start/stop, or some other condition, doesn't make the BSG any less failure prone.