RS6/7 problems and warranty claims

[FBAnder]

Regarding the start/stop system, I wouldn't do that necessarily. I had my start/stop system grey out and become unavailable many times over the last 2 years with seemingly no explanation. So it's not specific at all.

But I fully agree on the second point about the electric system malfunction warning message though.

My start/stop has never gone unavailable/malfunctioned so if I see it, I am gonna schedule a service visit out of an abundance of caution given these 48v generator failures are often abrupt and problematic. I don't really use stop/start but don't actively disable it. I drive in dynamic mode with trans in S so the only time it activates is once I put the car in park (if engine is warm). I generally switch the ignition off almost immediately after 99% of time.

Your sharing your experience has been super helpful and appreciated! Thanks

[DeputyDog95]

Started the car to take it to the dealer this morning and got the first error (electronics malfunctioning) I had from last night. Before I could even back out of the driveway, I got the second error (starting system malfunction) and my auto start/stop button was greyed out. Got halfway to the dealership and I got the third error (sport differential malfunction).

Fortunately I made it to the dealer before it quit on me. I basically left it in the service area running and got a ride home.

They have no loaners and they're not sure if they can even get the parts needed if this actually the 48v system problem.

Sigh...

[Iguana1500]

Started the car to take it to the dealer this morning and got the first error (electronics malfunctioning) I had from last night. Before I could even back out of the driveway, I got the second error (starting system malfunction) and my auto start/stop button was greyed out. Got halfway to the dealership and I got the third error (sport differential malfunction).

Fortunately I made it to the dealer before it quit on me. I basically left it in the service area running and got a ride home.

They have no loaners and they're not sure if they can even get the parts needed if this actually the 48v system problem.

Sigh...

I'm simultaneously sad that this has happened to you, but thrilled that you were able to read this thread right before it happened to save you the headache I experienced.

Ask the dealership to source the alternator part from local or Canada (germany overseas takes weeks and weeks I was told). My replacement alternator came from Canada and gives the car a maple syrup interior scent.

[Iguana1500]

My start/stop has never gone unavailable/malfunctioned so if I see it, I am gonna schedule a service visit out of an abundance of caution given these 48v generator failures are often abrupt and problematic. I don't really use stop/start but don't actively disable it. I drive in dynamic mode with trans in S so the only time it activates is once I put the car in park (if engine is warm). I generally switch the ignition off almost immediately after 99% of time.

Your sharing your experience has been super helpful and appreciated! Thanks

That's good to hear you've not yet encountered a greyed out start/stop button.
My car is full of delightful quirks and features.
Other examples:

1. Driver seat sometimes remembers to move back into position upon start up, sometimes it forgets. Sometimes car remembers while in the middle of driving so suddenly my seat is moving forward while I'm driving down the highway with both hands on the wheel.

2. The interior LED lighting has been set to the same color for years, but sometimes it changes to the wrong color upon startup. Then after a bit it fixes itself.

3. The usual complaints of the Navigation screen blacking out when Apple Carplay is on. Hard reset of the screens fixes it.

4. The AC system occasionally gets super confused. Like I'll have the fans on lowest setting (1 out of 6) for both driver and passenger but have chest for driver and feet for passenger and it will get it confused. The system will be blasting air at full volume. It is loud and yet no actual air is coming out of the assigned vents. Where is the air going? Inside the dash. You can hear it whistling internally and probably going nowhere. Fixing it is straightforward - hit the SYNC button. Then it immediately quiets down, appropriate for fan speed 1, and pushes air out of the correct vents. I almost always keep it on SYNC now since that seems to prevent it from getting confused. I never use the back two settings for rear passengers.

[FBAnder]

That's good to hear you've not yet encountered a greyed out start/stop button.
My car is full of delightful quirks and features.
Other examples:

1. Driver seat sometimes remembers to move back into position upon start up, sometimes it forgets. Sometimes car remembers while in the middle of driving so suddenly my seat is moving forward while I'm driving down the highway with both hands on the wheel.

2. The interior LED lighting has been set to the same color for years, but sometimes it changes to the wrong color upon startup. Then after a bit it fixes itself.

3. The usual complaints of the Navigation screen blacking out when Apple Carplay is on. Hard reset of the screens fixes it.

4. The AC system occasionally gets super confused. Like I'll have the fans on lowest setting (1 out of 6) for both driver and passenger but have chest for driver and feet for passenger and it will get it confused. The system will be blasting air at full volume. It is loud and yet no actual air is coming out of the assigned vents. Where is the air going? Inside the dash. You can hear it whistling internally and probably going nowhere. Fixing it is straightforward - hit the SYNC button. Then it immediately quiets down, appropriate for fan speed 1, and pushes air out of the correct vents. I almost always keep it on SYNC now since that seems to prevent it from getting confused. I never use the back two settings for rear passengers.

Interesting! I have comfort exit or whatever off for drivers side so can't speak to that. Never any issues with the led lighting nor climate control ... But i always have it on sync and just set temp and let it do it's thing. Never use carplay nor android auto either. Have had two instances total in almost two years of needing to hold the volume button now to jolt a stuck MMI.

Only real "oddity" I've had was soft error about a light malfunction a couple times over the summer. Would always clear on restart and I checked every damn light inside and out and they all worked every time. Haven't seen this message in months now.

[robwrongshoes]

When mine died on the side of the road, it was stuck in park, but the tow truck driver simply attached a battery pack for a couple minutes and I was able ti turn on the car long enough to drive it up onto the bed. When we got to the Audi dealer a couple hours later, there was, surprisingly, still enough juice to drive it off as well.

As a heads up, I called the Audi dealer again today. It has now been two weeks, and still no alternators have been shipped. They have no idea how long it will be either. This could be a looong wait. Each passing day leads me to question more the wisdom of keeping this car.

[robwrongshoes]

[QUOTE=Iguana1500;14876039]Responses to the previous comments:
2. Regarding the jumper cable idea, we tried this. The tow truck driver had a fully charged battery pack jumper thing and once connected it allowed us to turn on the car once for a few seconds before it started shaking and went into Park. We tried to use those few precious seconds to shift into Neutral, but it would shake and immediately go back into Park. The battery pack died as a result. Later on, after towed to the dealer, the dealership had a massive battery pack that apparently looks like a large suitcase (that Audi dealers have but I didn't physically see it) that once connected allowed the car to actually turn on and be driven off the tow truck. The dealer says that the power draw needed is massive and will kill most normal battery packs, which is in line with what we experienced.

When mine died on the side of the road, it was stuck in park, but the tow truck driver simply attached a battery pack for a couple minutes and I was able ti turn on the car long enough to drive it up onto the bed. When we got to the Audi dealer a couple hours later, there was, surprisingly, still enough juice to drive it off as well.

As a heads up, I called the Audi dealer again today. It has now been two weeks, and still no alternators have been shipped. They have no idea how long it will be either. This could be a looong wait. Each passing day leads me to question more the wisdom of keeping this car.

[DeputyDog95]

I'm simultaneously sad that this has happened to you, but thrilled that you were able to read this thread right before it happened to save you the headache I experienced.

Ask the dealership to source the alternator part from local or Canada (germany overseas takes weeks and weeks I was told). My replacement alternator came from Canada and gives the car a maple syrup interior scent.

Yeah, this thread came in very handy albeit much sooner than I expected to be dealing with this. Kind of figured after 25k miles, I might have got a good one and dodged the problem.

I'll try... But from past interactions, my dealership is not really interested in suggestions from me. Not going to lie, this is my first Audi and I haven't been overly impressed with the post sales experience.

Still no word from the dealer about a loaner... This is my only car and they don't seem to be overly concerned that I have no transportation.

[DeputyDog95]

That's good to hear you've not yet encountered a greyed out start/stop button.
My car is full of delightful quirks and features.
Other examples:

1. Driver seat sometimes remembers to move back into position upon start up, sometimes it forgets. Sometimes car remembers while in the middle of driving so suddenly my seat is moving forward while I'm driving down the highway with both hands on the wheel.

2. The interior LED lighting has been set to the same color for years, but sometimes it changes to the wrong color upon startup. Then after a bit it fixes itself.

3. The usual complaints of the Navigation screen blacking out when Apple Carplay is on. Hard reset of the screens fixes it.

4. The AC system occasionally gets super confused. Like I'll have the fans on lowest setting (1 out of 6) for both driver and passenger but have chest for driver and feet for passenger and it will get it confused. The system will be blasting air at full volume. It is loud and yet no actual air is coming out of the assigned vents. Where is the air going? Inside the dash. You can hear it whistling internally and probably going nowhere. Fixing it is straightforward - hit the SYNC button. Then it immediately quiets down, appropriate for fan speed 1, and pushes air out of the correct vents. I almost always keep it on SYNC now since that seems to prevent it from getting confused. I never use the back two settings for rear passengers.

I deal w number one all the time. I've told the dealer. Nothing was done about it.

[DeputyDog95]

[QUOTE=robwrongshoes;14876767]

Responses to the previous comments:
2. Regarding the jumper cable idea, we tried this. The tow truck driver had a fully charged battery pack jumper thing and once connected it allowed us to turn on the car once for a few seconds before it started shaking and went into Park. We tried to use those few precious seconds to shift into Neutral, but it would shake and immediately go back into Park. The battery pack died as a result. Later on, after towed to the dealer, the dealership had a massive battery pack that apparently looks like a large suitcase (that Audi dealers have but I didn't physically see it) that once connected allowed the car to actually turn on and be driven off the tow truck. The dealer says that the power draw needed is massive and will kill most normal battery packs, which is in line with what we experienced.

When mine died on the side of the road, it was stuck in park, but the tow truck driver simply attached a battery pack for a couple minutes and I was able ti turn on the car long enough to drive it up onto the bed. When we got to the Audi dealer a couple hours later, there was, surprisingly, still enough juice to drive it off as well.

As a heads up, I called the Audi dealer again today. It has now been two weeks, and still no alternators have been shipped. They have no idea how long it will be either. This could be a looong wait. Each passing day leads me to question more the wisdom of keeping this car.

My lease is up in 10 months or something like that. Was considering keeping it... Now, if the market stays strong on them, I'll probably sell it, pay off the lease, make a few bucks and move on to something else. I absolutely love this car, but not sure it's something I want to keep out of warranty. I've already had quite a bit of warranty work done that fortunately I did not have to pay for.

[RMode]

Yeah, this thread came in very handy albeit much sooner than I expected to be dealing with this. Kind of figured after 25k miles, I might have got a good one and dodged the problem.

I'll try... But from past interactions, my dealership is not really interested in suggestions from me. Not going to lie, this is my first Audi and I haven't been overly impressed with the post sales experience.

Still no word from the dealer about a loaner... This is my only car and they don't seem to be overly concerned that I have no transportation.

To be fair, the dealer has very defined procedures they have to follow in order to execute a warranty claim. If a part exists in Canada, their normal search will reveal it, and they can source it…if that dealer agrees to sell them the part. They don’t have to though, so keep that in mind. So it’s not really down to making a suggestion, as it’s just part of their normal procedure anyway.

You could definitely request that they arrange a loaner from a local enterprise etc. There was a time where Audi would reimburse them for these rentals. I don’t know if it’s still the case however. If that dealer is part of a larger group, you could ask if a sister store can spare a loaner, or even a recent trade in to preowned. There were plenty of times where even the local enterprise stores had nothing to give out. So, I’d arrange a recent trade that we didn’t have the title for - since we couldn’t sell it without the title anyway. Or, even my GM would give up his demo car for a client to use, using the dealer plate and client insurance. Not necessarily ideal, but, solved a problem and clients were usually much happier to have anything to use that was decent (think VW Atlas, or regular Q5) vs nothing.


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[RMode]

[QUOTE=DeputyDog95;14876852]

My lease is up in 10 months or something like that. Was considering keeping it... Now, if the market stays strong on them, I'll probably sell it, pay off the lease, make a few bucks and move on to something else. I absolutely love this car, but not sure it's something I want to keep out of warranty. I've already had quite a bit of warranty work done that fortunately I did not have to pay for.

You would have to first buy the car, pay sales tax, wait for the title, and then you could sell it.


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[DeputyDog95]

To be fair, the dealer has very defined procedures they have to follow in order to execute a warranty claim. If a part exists in Canada, their normal search will reveal it, and they can source it…if that dealer agrees to sell them the part. They don’t have to though, so keep that in mind. So it’s not really down to making a suggestion, as it’s just part of their normal procedure anyway.

You could definitely request that they arrange a loaner from a local enterprise etc. There was a time where Audi would reimburse them for these rentals. I don’t know if it’s still the case however. If that dealer is part of a larger group, you could ask if a sister store can spare a loaner, or even a recent trade in to preowned. There were plenty of times where even the local enterprise stores had nothing to give out. So, I’d arrange a recent trade that we didn’t have the title for - since we couldn’t sell it without the title anyway. Or, even my GM would give up his demo car for a client to use, using the dealer plate and client insurance. Not necessarily ideal, but, solved a problem and clients were usually much happier to have anything to use that was decent (think VW Atlas, or regular Q5) vs nothing.


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Tried that... Told them if they had an old beater Kia in the back I would be happy to use it so long as it had AC. Nope. Asked about recent trades/demos we could slap a dealer plate on. Nope. They are part of a group so I asked if a sister store might have something and that I didn't really care if it was comparable. Simply want transportation at this point. Nope. He said they don't work together like that.

[RMode]

Tried that... Told them if they had an old beater Kia in the back I would be happy to use it so long as it had AC. Nope. Asked about recent trades/demos we could slap a dealer plate on. Nope. They are part of a group so I asked if a sister store might have something and that I didn't really care if it was comparable. Simply want transportation at this point. Nope. He said they don't work together like that.

That’s beyond a shame, and shows you where their head is at. That’s not an audi thing - that’s wholly on your dealer. Are there any others in the general area, even if a little further away?


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[DeputyDog95]

[QUOTE=RMode;14876863]

You would have to first buy the car, pay sales tax, wait for the title, and then you could sell it.


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I have a couple of dealers I could run the whole thing through so I could avoid waiting on the title and offset the sales tax by them taking it in as a trade towards the new vehicle. I actually used another leased car that was one year away from term as part of my RS6 deal. Made a few bucks on that one as the car was worth more than the agreed buyout, but the dealer kept my trade in that case and there wasn't a 3rd party. I need to go online and see what the current payoff/buyout is and how the market looks on RS6's at the moment. I would assume due to their scarcity, they're probably still doing well?

[RMode]

[QUOTE=DeputyDog95;14876944]

I have a couple of dealers I could run the whole thing through so I could avoid waiting on the title and offset the sales tax by them taking it in as a trade towards the new vehicle. I actually used another leased car that was one year away from term as part of my RS6 deal. Made a few bucks on that one as the car was worth more than the agreed buyout, but the dealer kept my trade in that case and there wasn't a 3rd party. I need to go online and see what the current payoff/buyout is and how the market looks on RS6's at the moment. I would assume due to their scarcity, they're probably still doing well?

No clue, I’ve stopped paying attention to the values of anything


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[Nsd991]

Front right suspension failure in July of last year. Required “new air shock”. This am same thing. No suspension mods....

[robwrongshoes]

That’s beyond a shame, and shows you where their head is at. That’s not an audi thing - that’s wholly on your dealer. Are there any others in the general area, even if a little further away?


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I would contact Audi of America and complain about the dealer not offering you a car. That's not realistic of them. At a minimum, they should reimburse you for a rental.

[Iguana1500]

Front right suspension failure in July of last year. Required “new air shock”. This am same thing. No suspension mods....

Did anything happen prior to this event? Any warning messages in the dash? Any strange noises?

[Iguana1500]

Interesting! I have comfort exit or whatever off for drivers side so can't speak to that. Never any issues with the led lighting nor climate control ... But i always have it on sync and just set temp and let it do it's thing. Never use carplay nor android auto either. Have had two instances total in almost two years of needing to hold the volume button now to jolt a stuck MMI.

Only real "oddity" I've had was soft error about a light malfunction a couple times over the summer. Would always clear on restart and I checked every damn light inside and out and they all worked every time. Haven't seen this message in months now.

Same here regarding the "light malfunction" message. Nothing has actually ever malfunctioned in the sense that no lights went out or failed to work, so it is still a mystery why it comes on from time to time.

[oripaamoni]

Hoping to pick up a used 2021 RS7 with 19k miles on it. Glad I found this thread, I am gonna dig though the service records and see if the PO expedited this failure already.

[sds193]

Over the weekend, I got the dreaded 'Electrical system malfunction' warning followed by the Sport Differential and Vehicle Starting System malfunctions on my 21 RS6 with 14k miles. Managed to get it to the dealer that day. Was told no loaners but maybe on Monday.

After reading through long threads on the alternator issues, I was expecting the worst: long wait, no loaner or rental.

First thing this morning I got a call from service. Loaner was available much to my surprise. He also said that RS models are much quicker and he's expecting to get the parts needed in two weeks. It certainly made my Monday after crying myself to sleep the night before from reading all the issues people are having. This came only a month after I got my car back from 4 months in the body shop after getting rear-ended. Think I'm cursed.

Audi Devon has always been and remains to be great to work with.

[Nsd991]

I’m response to post 139:


Nothing happened. Apparently I left the car for a week without driving it this time and they told me just to drive it. I’ve been driving it daily since then and all is back to normal.

[OneFastBMW]

I just saw that there is a TSB for the RS6/RS7 with a production date before January 27th, 2022. The TSB is for a valve spring that can break off. If a valve spring breaks the repair is to replace either all intake or all exhaust valve springs, or in some cases replace all 32 valve springs. This is IF the valve with the broken screen does not contact the cylinder head.

IF the valve contacts a piston or drops down into the cylinder you are looking at a new engine.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...11720-0001.pdf

[GR8VTen]

I just saw that there is a TSB for the RS6/RS7 with a production date before January 27th, 2022. The TSB is for a valve spring that can break off. If a valve spring breaks the repair is to replace either all intake or all exhaust valve springs, or in some cases replace all 32 valve springs. This is IF the valve with the broken screen does not contact the cylinder head.

IF the valve contacts a piston or drops down into the cylinder you are looking at a new engine.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...11720-0001.pdf

Unbelievable, this car goes from bad to worse!! It is plagued with so many different issues including that of half a dozen recalls... definitely the worst product Audi has produced in a long time. This even isn't a recall, rather Audi is happy for owners who aren't as savvy to keep up on TSBs, to come in with their 4+ year cars and fork over a fortune to repair their poor product.

Sadly this reminds me of my C7 RS7 whose valve spring broke 4 weeks after my warranty expired and I was saddled with an $8,500 fix for a $35 spring (Audi wanted $15,000) - You have to remove the engine and transmission because of the angle of the cylinder heads.

Reminder to everyone, sell your C8 RS6/7 the day before its factory or extended warranty expires.

[OneFastBMW]

At least it didn’t take out the long block in the process!

A new long block and installation from Audi is in the $45k range.

[RMode]

Unbelievable, this car goes from bad to worse!! It is plagued with so many different issues including that of half a dozen recalls... definitely the worst product Audi has produced in a long time. This even isn't a recall, rather Audi is happy for owners who aren't as savvy to keep up on TSBs, to come in with their 4+ year cars and fork over a fortune to repair their poor product.

Sadly this reminds me of my C7 RS7 whose valve spring broke 4 weeks after my warranty expired and I was saddled with an $8,500 fix for a $35 spring (Audi wanted $15,000) - You have to remove the engine and transmission because of the angle of the cylinder heads.

Reminder to everyone, sell your C8 RS6/7 the day before its factory or extended warranty expires.

There are tens of thousands of TSB’s issues per year for every car in production. The sky isn’t falling.


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[rexus300]

Surprisingly we have the same issue for my first edition Ford bronco. Who knows if the RS7 or Bronco will drop the valve first! Either way the RS7 has been flawless for more than 2 years now and driving great. My A7,A8 etc have all been solid.

[rexus300]

It's affecting the RS7 and RS7 built AFTER Jan 28th, 2022. So my 2021 RS7 was built July 2020 and should be fine

[OneFastBMW]

It's affecting the RS7 and RS7 built AFTER Jan 28th, 2022. So my 2021 RS7 was built July 2021 and should be fine

Is says after January 2022 “Improved valve springs introduced as of vehicle production date (see VIN break)” so RS6/RS7’s built before this have the potentially faulty valve springs. If the vehicle was made between June of 2021 and October of 2021 then replace all 32 valve springs. If the vehicle was built between October of 2021 and January of 2022 then replace only the 16 intake valve springs. Again, this doesn’t mean everyone needs to replace their valve springs, but if one breaks this is the recommended action based on when the vehicle was built.

[rexus300]

Is says after January 2022 “Improved valve springs introduced as of vehicle production date (see VIN break)” so RS6/RS7’s built before this have the potentially faulty valve springs. If the vehicle was made between June of 2021 and October of 2021 then replace all 32 valve springs. If the vehicle was built between October of 2021 and January of 2022 then replace only the 16 intake valve springs. Again, this doesn’t mean everyone needs to replace their valve springs, but if one breaks this is the recommended action based on when the vehicle was built.

Good to know. Correction to my original post, my 2021 RS7 was built July 2020 not 2021. Thanks!

[rusq5]

so, it sounds like i’m the first 2022 car with an alternator failure. everything lit up today, thankfully close to home. built the week of jan 24 2022.

glad that after this repair i have to watch out for valve springs too.

[Corgiman30]

so, it sounds like i’m the first 2022 car with an alternator failure. everything lit up today, thankfully close to home. built the week of jan 24 2022.

glad that after this repair i have to watch out for valve springs too.

I now have 3 open recalls- 2 of which have no repair available-plus the valve spring issues. This engine has been in production a long time. Don’t know how this could crop up now unless they changed suppliers due to supply chain issues. Same with the fuel sender.

[GR8VTen]

I now have 3 open recalls- 2 of which have no repair available-plus the valve spring issues. This engine has been in production a long time. Don’t know how this could crop up now unless they changed suppliers due to supply chain issues. Same with the fuel sender.

It's not too surprising, the C7 RS7/6 had an unacknowledged issue with valve springs where there wasn't even a TSB issued, but enough incidences occurred it was a wider spread problem... sadly I got hit with that one at $8,500 later... the car was immediately sold after that.

Audi does have fix for the sticky fuel float recall... its called replace the fuel float assembly... they're simply being cheap as always and not issuing it, plus now they have another epidemic on their hands with a wave of failing alternators at $6,000+ a piece.

[FBAnder]

I gotta stop reading this thread.

[Corgiman30]

I gotta stop reading this thread.

Same

[rexus300]

Same here. Dont want to jinx anything.

[DeputyDog95]

I just saw that there is a TSB for the RS6/RS7 with a production date before January 27th, 2022. The TSB is for a valve spring that can break off. If a valve spring breaks the repair is to replace either all intake or all exhaust valve springs, or in some cases replace all 32 valve springs. This is IF the valve with the broken screen does not contact the cylinder head.

IF the valve contacts a piston or drops down into the cylinder you are looking at a new engine.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...11720-0001.pdf

How do you look up all the TSB's etc for the RS6? I've never done that before.

[The_Capt]

How do you look up all the TSB's etc for the RS6? I've never done that before.

Input your VIN here at NHTSA site; https://www.nhtsa.gov/


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[tinmanwpk]

I got my car a couple of weeks ago. It seems I am now "on the clock".