JazziNva

I have a 2023 Q8 with 7,000 miles. Last week I had 'Suspension Malfunction" and "Matrix Light Malfunction" indicators pop up on the dash. I took the car into the dealership for repairs, and was told today that the indicators were caused by damage to a wiring harness that had been chewed by a rodent which comes under the category of "outside influences" which aren't covered under the Audi warranty. I called AudiUSA and was told they would have to stand by the dealerships interpretation of the damage to the wiring. Cost to repair -- $2,300.

Has anyone ever had damage to their Audi attributed to rodents before? As a new and first time Audi owner, I'm terribly disappointed they would use this excuse for not covering a repair.

angrypengu

Why would Audi warrant rodent damage?! Like come on, this is ridiculous.

Contact your insurer. This isn't an OEM defect. Posts like these make me mad.

JazziNva

I usually ignore posts that I don’t want to respond to the posed question, but you do you.

ThomasWShea

I would argue for arbitration of whatever, IF it is true that audi used a coating on their wiring that turned out to be very appealing to rodents. I don’t know if they moved away from that coating back to what was originally used, or to something else. I also don’t recall where I read that rodents were particularly attracted to the audi wiring coating. maybe someone like @retom will know if what I am saying is a wives tale or real.

dwboston

I played golf with a friend the other day who has a Mustang Mach-E. He doesn't have a garage at his house so he has to park outside. He recently had several thousands of $ in damage to his car due to mice chewing through wiring. It's an issue across many automakers. They all chose to use wiring with a soy-based coating instead of the old petroleum-based coating since the newer one is allegedly better for the environment. This wasn't an issue with the oil-based coating.

retom

Rodents bite the installations in many cars, regardless of the brand or year of production of the car. It does not matter much what the cable insulation is made of. However, in the area where I live, martens are a particular problem and have gotten into many of my neighbors' cars. They destroy not only electrical installations but also rubber pipes and soundproofing.
This type of damage was never covered by the car manufacturer's warranty and I completely agree with angrypengu on this.
That's what car insurance is for.

Agent Boost

This. I certainly feel for your wallet in this scenario, but im having trouble connecting the dots on the thought process that this is an Audi issue.

namvar

I went away for a week and when I came back there was a massive rat's nest on top of my engine block. I recall the cost of repair was over 5K as they had to pull the engine to replace all wiring, fire barrier material etc. My homwowner's insurance covered the damage.

burnout6

It's not unique to Audi. My neighbor across the street had the same issue with rats chewing through some sensors in the engine bay of his X4M. He spent thousands getting it repaired.

methodtim

Rodents getting under the hood are the worst. We had that in my wife's Audi Q5 when staying in a long-term rental, and even after all the cleanup, we never did get rid of the smell of **** coming out of the vents. Cheers to the next owner of that car...