Electric System Malfunction
12-10-2022, 04:37 PM
#141
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I am experiencing the same as everyone else on this thread. Back on October 19, 2022, I received the Amber Electrical System Malfunction light and immediately called Audi to schedule an appointment to bring it in. I was told to bring it up there the next day. On October 20th and around the corner (1 mile away) from the dealer, light turned from Amber to Red and shortly after, dashboard looked like a Christmas Tree and car completely shut down and had to be towed to dealer. It was confirmed to be the Alternator and I was told it was on back order and would be approximately 1 month. Fast forward to today, December 10th, Audi still has my car and can’t provide me with an ETA on when it will arrive.
My patience is diminishing. Supply Chain issues or not, if they can’t repair their own vehicle in a reasonable timeframe, that is insane; I basically have a lemon at this point. To add salt to the injury, I purchased this vehicle as as CPO back in July 2022, so I barely got 3 months usage out of it before this issue came up. I‘m contemplating telling them to buy the vehicle back because I refuse to wait 3+ months for a part to come in. I was told they have a vehicle that has been waiting 6 months, yet they have newer Q8s coming on the lot. Luckily, my car is at 46/47K miles and they gave me a 2 year extended warranty on top of the original warranty, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I owned a 2013 Audi A6 for many years prior to upgrading this year and NEVER had a back experience but this is making me reconsider. I’m seriously thinking about taking legal action against Audi USA because this is insane and if their supplier can’t produce for whatever reason, they need to find a backup supplier who can. I’m paying on a car that I can’t even drive PLUS they put me in a Q5 Loaner - a downgrade. Very frustrated with this all.
My patience is diminishing. Supply Chain issues or not, if they can’t repair their own vehicle in a reasonable timeframe, that is insane; I basically have a lemon at this point. To add salt to the injury, I purchased this vehicle as as CPO back in July 2022, so I barely got 3 months usage out of it before this issue came up. I‘m contemplating telling them to buy the vehicle back because I refuse to wait 3+ months for a part to come in. I was told they have a vehicle that has been waiting 6 months, yet they have newer Q8s coming on the lot. Luckily, my car is at 46/47K miles and they gave me a 2 year extended warranty on top of the original warranty, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I owned a 2013 Audi A6 for many years prior to upgrading this year and NEVER had a back experience but this is making me reconsider. I’m seriously thinking about taking legal action against Audi USA because this is insane and if their supplier can’t produce for whatever reason, they need to find a backup supplier who can. I’m paying on a car that I can’t even drive PLUS they put me in a Q5 Loaner - a downgrade. Very frustrated with this all.
Outside of that, I do not think audi is obligated to provide us loners, and when they do there isn’t a promise that it will be an equivalent car - though based on my experience the usually try to make it semi-equivalent.
You'd have to ask a lawyer - but I think if you have a loaner, that might make it harder to connivence a judge to rule in your favor because you probably still need to pass the red face test: "i'm really mad because audi is giving me a luxury mid size suv loaner that isn't as nice as the luxury mid size suv i bought. And i'm also mad that they can't get the parts from the third party, that they don't have control over."
Obviously at the end of the day audi needs to get the parts to fix their cars, but I'm just saying - i don't think you'd be able to demonstrate much in the way of damages and I don't think you'll get much in the way of sympathy. In my experience, people don't stop on the hwy. to help sport car or luxury car owners, they just don't. There is very little sympathy for people driving nicer cars and i'd expect that to carry into the legal system. Judges are people too and I just don't know how much the law really matters anymore.
12-10-2022, 04:44 PM
#142
Just picked up a new to me 2019 Audi Q8. Brought it into my local Audi dealer to have it checked out, all looked great. I have been following this thread, so asked if they could do a preemptive software update for this issue. Unfortunately I was told that Audi does not do software updates unless the customer has an issue or code. To me if this was an issue that could be fixed by software alone I can't imagine why Audi would not be working to update software, especially when a customer asked.
The service adviser was great and helped answer a number of my other questions. He said they had 3-4 cars in with the 48 volt alternator issue and they did not even have a delivery date for parts. He did think it was a hardware issue and not software, however if Audi's policy really is that they don't do preemptive software fixes, I guess the only way to get the software update is to have a failed alternator. Do hope Audi figures this one out and works out a way to get ahead of this one rather than have a bunch of disappointed customers. Its one thing if this could be fixed in a reasonable amount of time (1-2 days, heck even a week), but kind of feels like there is a ticking time bomb in the car at the moment.
The service adviser was great and helped answer a number of my other questions. He said they had 3-4 cars in with the 48 volt alternator issue and they did not even have a delivery date for parts. He did think it was a hardware issue and not software, however if Audi's policy really is that they don't do preemptive software fixes, I guess the only way to get the software update is to have a failed alternator. Do hope Audi figures this one out and works out a way to get ahead of this one rather than have a bunch of disappointed customers. Its one thing if this could be fixed in a reasonable amount of time (1-2 days, heck even a week), but kind of feels like there is a ticking time bomb in the car at the moment.
12-10-2022, 04:51 PM
#143
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Just picked up a new to me 2019 Audi Q8. Brought it into my local Audi dealer to have it checked out, all looked great. I have been following this thread, so asked if they could do a preemptive software update for this issue. Unfortunately I was told that Audi does not do software updates unless the customer has an issue or code. To me if this was an issue that could be fixed by software alone I can't imagine why Audi would not be working to update software, especially when a customer asked.
The service adviser was great and helped answer a number of my other questions. He said they had 3-4 cars in with the 48 volt alternator issue and they did not even have a delivery date for parts. He did think it was a hardware issue and not software, however if Audi's policy really is that they don't do preemptive software fixes, I guess the only way to get the software update is to have a failed alternator. Do hope Audi figures this one out and works out a way to get ahead of this one rather than have a bunch of disappointed customers. Its one thing if this could be fixed in a reasonable amount of time (1-2 days, heck even a week), but kind of feels like there is a ticking time bomb in the car at the moment.
The service adviser was great and helped answer a number of my other questions. He said they had 3-4 cars in with the 48 volt alternator issue and they did not even have a delivery date for parts. He did think it was a hardware issue and not software, however if Audi's policy really is that they don't do preemptive software fixes, I guess the only way to get the software update is to have a failed alternator. Do hope Audi figures this one out and works out a way to get ahead of this one rather than have a bunch of disappointed customers. Its one thing if this could be fixed in a reasonable amount of time (1-2 days, heck even a week), but kind of feels like there is a ticking time bomb in the car at the moment.
12-10-2022, 05:04 PM
#144
I did not go over the TSB with him, probably should have. They did do my vehicle inspection for free and looked into a concern I had with the start stop system so I felt like they were willing to work with me if there was something they could do. He indicated Audi required a screenshot of the fault codes with any warranty work they do. The way I read the TSB was that the software was to be updated if there was a fault present only. Curious if anyone has had a dealer do the software update without an issue or fault? Since I am looking for my long term service provider, perhaps as you suggest I should reach out to a few other dealer to see if they are willing to be more proactive.
12-10-2022, 05:32 PM
#145
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such an eye roller of an process from them. the purpose of the screen shot is what? to keep techs from updating software when they haven't yet seen proof that an issue occurred? my point back would be: the software that is updated is improved to cover some event or case that the original software obviously does not - so why would you actively wait for the issue to occur, and hardware damage to occur to do the software update? that is rediculous. unless they are worried that the new software isn't fixing the issue, or may cause another issue, and so they are wanting to roll it out only in vehicles that had the fault to "test" to see if the software update fixes it. but if that is the case, my point would be: you should have already reproduced the issue and tested, so if you did that, then there is no harm in installing the software. This is basic Software Development LifeCycle (SDLC) stuff. Who puts out a patch, and then adopts a strategy of: and only install the patch if you have the issue. code just doesn't work that way, there presumably would be some added logic or conditional statement that would not do anything, other than lay dormant. then once the applicable case or condition occurs it would execute to cover what ever the missed case was in the original software. this is the fundamental problem with a car company trying to do software. i just think they are very immature on the software front at audi. I would press them further. I think they can do it. even if they "have to get permission from audi". If they can't get permission i'd ask to talk to someone who is saying "no". just escalate up the chain.
12-10-2022, 06:49 PM
#146
AudiWorld Super User
Pay for the software update to save you grief. That is what i'll be doing.
12-11-2022, 07:12 AM
#148
AudiWorld Super User
I agree w @retom that the issue is originating in the battery charging module software - if you read the TSB, that's essentially what it says.
So, I speculate that if you get the battery charging module software updated, you shouldn't ever have this issue - but you may need to lean on your dealer to get them to do this as a preventative.
I wanted to look up the alternator parts to see if the part versions in the cars have been superseded, just to see if there might also be a alternator issue - and it doesn't appear they have, except with the Q8. However, since the SQ8 and RSQ8 parts aren't superseded, I don't think we can draw the conclusion that the alternate is part of what is causing the failure. Plus the records people have provided show the new part number that are going in as replacements as matching these part numbers.
These are the parts for each Q8, these are also shared with other models.
4N0903028R is the RSQ8 part:
https://parts.audiusa.com/p/Audi_202...N0903028R.html
4N0903028P is the Q8 part:
https://parts.audiusa.com/p/Audi_202...N0903028P.html
06E903024T is the SQ8 part:
https://parts.audiusa.com/p/Audi_202...6E903024T.html
The diagram of the SQ8 part makes it look so different from the other two. I don't know why that is, maybe in reality it looks the same, but I do not have my car yet so I can't check.
So, I speculate that if you get the battery charging module software updated, you shouldn't ever have this issue - but you may need to lean on your dealer to get them to do this as a preventative.
I wanted to look up the alternator parts to see if the part versions in the cars have been superseded, just to see if there might also be a alternator issue - and it doesn't appear they have, except with the Q8. However, since the SQ8 and RSQ8 parts aren't superseded, I don't think we can draw the conclusion that the alternate is part of what is causing the failure. Plus the records people have provided show the new part number that are going in as replacements as matching these part numbers.
These are the parts for each Q8, these are also shared with other models.
4N0903028R is the RSQ8 part:
https://parts.audiusa.com/p/Audi_202...N0903028R.html
4N0903028P is the Q8 part:
https://parts.audiusa.com/p/Audi_202...N0903028P.html
06E903024T is the SQ8 part:
https://parts.audiusa.com/p/Audi_202...6E903024T.html
The diagram of the SQ8 part makes it look so different from the other two. I don't know why that is, maybe in reality it looks the same, but I do not have my car yet so I can't check.
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ajmilan (12-11-2022)
12-11-2022, 01:32 PM
#150
AudiWorld Super User