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Well...after a week ago I had a Steering Failure on my 2015 SQ5. It's only now I able to advise you about it due to work and pure frustration from Audi.
On Saturday Feb 13th (very cold day in Toronto at -24), I had warmed up my sq5 for approx. 5-10mins before heading out at 8am with my daughter. 10 Mins into our drive and as I was slowing down at a red light I heard 3 loud beeps and all of a sudden it appears that my steering locked and the warning on my dash had indicated Steering failure and to stop vehicle immediately. The steering was rock solid and it took me a hell of a lot of effort to turn it. I waited for the green light and after all other cars around me left so I proceeded through the intersection and pulled int a plaza...a bit stunned to say the least as we were about to head onto the highway.
Cut to the chase, 4 hours to wait for Audi Care to come and flatbed me to my dealership which 20mins away from where my car was stopped. The dealership rep didn't seem to bother about the issued until I made it an issue.
Having time to read into this issue while waiting for the flatbed to come and get me I found the steering issue as a problem for the recalled in Canada late last year. I had brought my by SQ5 in for this recall as well as regular maintenance.
Tuesday following the failure I had received a call from the dealer confirming that my power steering had indeed suffered a failure and that they would have to order the rack and module from Audi AG (2-3weeks). I then contacted the Senior Investigator at Transport Canada to find out what he knew and how they are able to look into this. The investigator mentioned to me that he would lodge my report and contact Audi North America...which contacted Audi AG (Germany) and Audi Canada. So now I have the attention of all three responsible parties.
On the Thursday same week, the service rep at my dealer called me to inform me that the parts is on other, later that afternoon, the General Service Manager calls me to say the SQ5 is fixed and they wanted to keep it over night! WTF? After further clarification here was the issue and what how they intend to fix it.
Issue, when they had my vehicle for the power steering recall, the software fix did NOT actually work as they thought it would...they had to send the log of my SQ5 to Germany and the US and they found the code had not changed and the service rep who loaded the code to my SQ5 the first time found it did not work, loaded a second time and felt it worked!....but it didn't.
Now that the code apparently has worked, they are waiting for the engineers in Germany to give them the Clarence to release the car back to me.
Told them the negligence they have shown on this pretty major recall has made me very uncomfortable in their vehicles. The family’s a bit scared of what happens and commented if this was have happen only a few minutes after I got onto a busy highway what could have happened? That I'm glad I did not have to answer!.
Audi has written back to me of what the issues were and what they doing to fix it...pretty amazing they have put down what is considered a pretty bad job on this issue...just be warned for those living in cold climates driving Audi’s...I'm one for sure that will say my prayers on cold days here on....
Here's a little excerpts from the email i received from Audi.
"Thank you for the update. I apologize for any confusion we might be causing you with conflicting updates. Having gotten involved a little later in the process, I wasn’t aware of what discussions you have had and should have updated you accordingly. Again, I am very sorry that you have had to go through this experience.
With our original diagnostic, we found there to be a fault indicating a defective steering module. As you may or may not know, there was a recall regarding this issue, which was performed by us in August of last year. The recall is a software update that addresses the exact concern you experienced and therefore your vehicle should not have had this issue. Seeing the recall had been performed, we ordered a steering rack, which includes the module in question. Shortly after this we contacted Audi Canada to verify our findings, at which time we were asked to provide the diagnostic logs from the previous time when the recall had been performed. After a lot of review by Audi Canada and Audi AG engineers, it was determined that the programming for the recall did not complete its program properly and therefore, contrary to our belief, the recall had not in fact been performed…
This is where I have to sincerely apologize and ask for your understanding, as we were not aware of this when the car was given back to you after the recall. Somewhere during the recall reprogramming, something did not program properly and was not caught by us, which has caused the subsequent failure you experienced. It is never our intention to have something like this happen and we take it very seriously when it does. Having conferred with Audi Canada, they believe the recall being completed fully will make the system fully operational again. However, they also will not “assume” anything, so we have run another diagnostic after completion of the recall and sent it to Audi for analysis. Once the engineers get back to us from Germany, we will be instructed what to do. There is a slight possibility that they will still recommend the rack be replaced, which will then take longer as the part hasn’t arrived yet. It was ordered on the original diagnosis, so if needed will still become available on the original time line.
Hopefully we hear back shortly and can give you a more accurate timeline for the return of your SQ5. Thank you again, for your understanding and please let me know if there is anything else I can do for you in the meantime."
Just had this happen in my wife's 2014 Q5 hybrid. I read a Canadian forum and it seems to have been recalled up there for SQ5's only. Not many hybrids rolling around, so not sure if this is rare to affect other vehicles, or just not many people with hybrids speaking up. Anyway the Canadians knew the problem effects 2014 models and part-way into 2015 before they revised the design. Didn't see any other 2.0L problems on that board.
My wife took our 8 month old daughter to daycare, then parked at a breakfast shop. When she went back out to the car, it gave the steering failure message. It does seem to be cold weather related from other posts, and it was around 0F here at the time. After being stuck there for about an hour, it eventually got over it and the warning went away. Not sure how much I trust the vehicle at this point, and nearest dealer is an hour away through twisty roads. Even if I do get it to the dealer, my dealer (Bloomington, IN) is too small to provide loaner cars. I suppose I'll have to call the dealer and see if they'll admit to the problem and cover a tow and service. The factory warranty expired last month, so not looking forward to covering this on my own. Hopefully we can force them to own up to such a dangerous failure as Canadians had to contact government officials to stick it to Audi. Like if they're supplying dangerous vehicles and not repairing faults, they could easily be banned from selling in that country. Can't believe the horror stories I've read of crashes and near misses with infants in the car, followed by Audi not caring and telling them there is no problem.
Yes I just went on Transport Canada's website and find this interesting.The SQ5 steering is recalled but not the Q5.It must be a component which is unique to the SQ5 ( a sensor apparently) .Here's a link to the recall. http://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/Saf-Sec-Sur/...rchResult&pg=0
I parked my car and went into a store. On return, started my car and tried to move away from the curb and was able to but steering was rock solid and I had to really pull on the one side of wheel to turn. I then noticed red steering warning light was on solid and a notice below telling me steering had failed and I was not to drive car. I managed with great difficulty to get car to a parking spot at curb and after an hour it was taken away by Audi towing to the local dealership. Mine is a 2015 model with 22,000km on the vehicle so I am not impressed. I am less impressed now I have read about the recall for this problem and will be checking if my car was ever recalled and checked out for this problem. Had this been a failure at anything other than low speed on a quiet side street I shudder to think what might have happened. I have just checked with Audi Burrard Street where I bought my car and found that this particular vehicle was never recalled for steering so this is one more VIN# to add to the ones for faulty steering. I am hopeful of a quick and full fix and if not for a loaner car so I can go to work.
Having had one power steering hydraulic failure (thank you, Ford) and one power steering hose chafe on the exhaust manifold and catch on fire (thank you, GM) I can see some benefit to having it done electrically instead. There are a number of failure modes in anything you add to a basic rack-and-pinion system. Aside from tight urban parallel parking, I kinda prefer the manual rack for that reason. Simpler, cheaper, still turns the car.
02-22-2016, 05:26 AM
WARNING 2015 SQ5 - Steering Failure!!!
