This data is from the NHTSA — the US gov't agency tasked with vehicle safety. Complaints are spread across multiple & redundant categories, & are not organized by problem.
So how do you find out what problems are occurring? For this NHTSA complaint data, the only way is to read through the comments below. Any duplicates or errors? It's not us.
Failure of ignition coil. Car sputters. Audi only replacing the coil that malfunctioned leaving the rest of the cylinders subject to the same dangerous failure, as all coils obviously were the same when installed at factory and therefore all are potentially faulty.
An ignition coil on my 2001 Audi A4 failed, causing an extreme loss of power, poor steering and braking. The potential for an accident exists, especially if driving at a higher speed, or in poor weather conditions (as I was). The dealer was authorized to only repair the 1 failed coil, and I am at risk for further failures, a safety concern for me.
I was in the middle of an intersection when my car began to idle irregularly. I managed to get to the side of the road. I was towed to an Audi dealership. Three days later my car was repaired. All that I was told was that my #2 coil pack failed. I was not given any information that the other 3 would most likelt fail also. Upon doing research on message boards I realized that this was an enormous problem. I called Audi client relations and told them that I felt like I was driving a ticking time bomb as I could never be sure when the other coil packs were going to fail. The woman that I spoke with told me to take the car back to the Audi dealership and "demand that the other 3 be replaced." When I took my car back to another dealership because of the terrible service I received at the 1st dealer, they laughed in my face. They told me that they were at a "crisis state" with the coil packs, that they did not have any to switch out for me, and that I would just have to wait for my car to die while in operation. And when that happened, that they could only replace the coil pack that failed! if this isn't gross negligence I do not know what is! additionally, I have had a cam tensioner replaced, the electronic sensor replaced, and now it appears that my steering rack is going bad. I have 38K miles with only 12K left on my warranty. I cannot believe the terrible reliability of this car on top of Audi's reluctance to issue a recall campaign on the coil packs. Unfortunately, it is probably going to take a person dying before anyone addresses this very serious issue.
In cold conditions (10F) and with little vehicle warm-up time, the vehicle began cutting out and lost engine power while driving. The vehicle would not recover so I shut off the engine and restarted. Engine operation returned to normal but had registered fault codes which were traced to the coils not firing properly.
2001 Audi A4. In for 3rd coil pack replacement in less than a year. This appears to be a widespread problem involving a known defective part. Audi refuses to replace all of the coil packs at once, instead prefering to have the customer come in for each inevitable failure. The car is essentialy inoperable in this condition and requires towing for each instance of failure which does not occure locally. Audi needs to recall this car! I would like you to consider the plight of handicapped individuals for whom this is more than a major inconvenience, but a dangerous situation. Audi knows about the problem and could address it directly instead of putting people through this. Thank you
- Berkeley, CA, USA
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There is a quite apparent issue with the coilpack failures on these cars, particulary with those that operate in cold weather (<30F). Audi has not officially recognized the problem through a recall.
For the second time on my Audi A4 turbo the ignition coil failed, causing car to completely loose power on busy road. My vehicle only has 12,500 miles on it and the dealership will not change all coils. They also refuse to do a trade in on the vehicle
2001 Audi A4 avant quatro, about 17K miles. Failure of ignition coil at cold stratup. Found numerous reported cases of same problem, related to 1.8T engine Audi or VW - so common that part is on backlog for 2 weeks or more! dealer refuses to change all ignition coils, so it is very likely that another one may fail soon. Sudden failure of ignition coil may create a very dangerous situation - lost of power in traffick at high speed. Audi/VW should be forced to do a recall of all ignition coils for the 2001 and 2002 models equipped with 1.8T engines.
The problem fortunately happened while the car was idling. There was a fault to one of the cylinders, so the car was running on only three cylinders. Although there were no injuries, the dealer stated that if this would have happened while driving. The car would have shut off without brakes or any other electrically operated systems. At highway speeds this would have been catastrophic. The dealer also stated that this problem has occured on many of the 1.8 liter turbo A4's.
This has happened to countless 1.8T Volkswagen and Audi vehicles. Audi has yet to make any official comment on the problem. Some people get 1 coil replaced while others get all coils replaced. They are being very inconsistent. My dealer didn't even tell me about the history behind the problem. I had to look it up myself.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
- Nokomis, FL, USA