December 13, 2007 Audi of rochester hills 45441 dequindre road rochester hills, Michigan 48307 attention: Service manager subject: Safety concern 1999 Audi A6 avant to whom it may concern: This evening, shortly after turning on the seat heater (which automatically turns on the steering wheel heater) I noticed a strong odor (burning plastic) & smoke being emitted from the steering wheel. The smoke was coming from behind the horn/airbag module. I turned off the seat heater, but that did not stop the steering wheel from continuing to heat-up and emit smoke. I had to roll down the windows and open the sunroof (very enjoyable in 30 degree temperature!) in order to be able to ventilate the cabin & be able to drive the vehicle home. After arriving home, I located the fuse related to the steering wheel heater and removed it so that I could drive the vehicle to your shop. (the fuse is in the center console.) this obviously poses the following safety risks: Fire hazard emission of toxic fumes in the cabin risk of inadvertent airbag deployment please have the problem investigated and contact me with the findings, as soon as possible. Sincerely, ken guity

- Rochester, MI, USA

I was pouring windshield fluid into my Audi A6 one day. I sat down in the car to move it onto the street because I wanted to wash it, I turned the ignition on, as I got in I smelled burning plastic. I thought nothing of it so I drove it to the street. Smoke started pouring out of the vents on the drivers side of the cabin. I rolled down the windows and the sunroof because I thought the air-conditioning or heater was having a problem. I turned the car off and got out and watched the smoke for a minute. The smoke then turned a black-dark grey color. Then came flames pouring out of the vent on the drivers side. Just then I hear this piercing screech and pop, the car was completely ruined inside and soot spewed everywhere around the car I then turned the hose on which I already had out from when I was going to wash my car. I put a majority of the fire out, so I walked over to my garage and got a fire extinguisher and sprayed it all over to make sure it was out. I hosed my car out and around, surprisingly the interior was still intact but just a tad bit dirty, so I took it to my friend who owns a dealer/body shop and he got the car fixed and its just like new again. He was saying something about wiring and headlights but I was just happy that my car was back. Please fix this Audi because I would hate to see someone get hurt over this problem and be less fortunate than I was. Out of the whole mess I had to get a new dashboard, steering wheel, windshield and wiring also a paint kit. The car looks stunning I also had to get it detailed after so the total cost to repair was $1967.34 I love this car otherwise and I hope this does not happen again.

- Denver, CO, USA

Consumer was driving and suddenly there was fire coming from the dashboard. Consumer contacted the fire department, and the fire was extinguished. Vehicle was totaled.

- Paterson, NJ, USA

While traveling home on the atlantic city expressway, my wife and I noticed a peculiar smell coming from the vents. As the odor got stronger, we decided to pull over and check underneath the hood. When I looked underneath the hood, I saw nothing out of the ordinary. A few seconds later, I heard my wife exiting the vehicle because the cabin began to fill with smoke. Upon closer review, I saw a small flame inside the driverS side vent. We worked frantically to put the small flame out however, we had no idea that the flame was much more intense than what was visible. Seconds later, the entire dash was completely on fire. Due to traffic conditions, it took the fire department 22 minutes to reach the fire consequently; the vehicle was completely demolished by the time they arrived. After spending an hour or so giving the state police the details of what happened, we finally realized that our cell phone, house keys and other important items were lost in the fire. We had to walk home- (3 miles) and wait for my parents to bring our spare key so we could get into our house. It took us more than a week to get all of the paperwork submitted to have our driverS license, social security card, etc. Replaced. My personal computer that had more than 100 sensitive work-related documents  (worth more than the pc) was lost. These documents are completely unrecoverable and I havenT begun to evaluate the amount of time it will take to replicate them.

- Sicklerville, NJ, USA

My husband and I were driving our 1999 Audi A-6 sedan on a limited access highway, we noticed an acrid smell in the car. Suddenly smoke began pouring out the ac vents then flames began coming out the vents on the driverS side. I called the audiof America help line on the 16th of July, gave a report and on July 19, spoke to anette johnson who took a full feeling very unsatisfied by Ms. JohnsonS unhelpful, though sympathetic response, I did a web search using the terms Audi, fire, dashboard and discovered that on March 23, 2004 it was announced that Audi was recalling 172,888 vehicles because a wiring problem could cause a fire on the driverS side. Exactly what happened to us! I then went to the site www.intellichoice.com/reports/vehiclereport.efm/vehicle_nmb/11642/section/recalls there I discovered that they disiplay all current information provided by the NHTSA in their recall database and you had noted that 22 reports had been filed on fires on this vehicle. Are we the 23rd or the 85th? I called Ms. Johnson back and asked her why, when I described exactly what Audi was recalling cars for she had not told me about the recall and offered to repair our car since it fell under that problem. She said that Audi has not released this iformation that it was pending. Yet I told her you had assigned a recall number to it (according to the above site). That number is 04V133000. I am appalled that news of this problem hit the media on March 24, 2004 and we were not notified. A fire just like the ones described in intellichoiceS site occurred to us and we certainly could have been seriously injured. Yet, the Audi representative told us that owners still had not been notified. My husband and I still are having horrific flashbacks to that terrifying moment when flames lept into the passenger compartment. We strongly urge you to take action to make Audi notify all owners of cars like ours immediately.

- Ivy, VA, USA

Center display faded out at 55000 miles and needed to be replaced for $900.

- Chicago, IL, USA

While driving between 45-50 mph consumer turned the heater on and a distinct smell came from the dashboard, followed by condensation smoke; first being gray smoke, then turning to black smoke. Consumer stopped the vehicle just before the vehicle became engulfed in flames.

- Larchmont, NY, USA

I own a 1999 Audi A-6 sedan. Today it had a fire in the dashboard near the driver's side. Fortunately it occurred while it was at home where I had access to fir extinguishers and tools to disconnect the battery. It took 3 extinguishers to put out the blaze. Just moments earlier, my wife and 5 year old son returned home from church complaining of a toxic smell in the car! we were very fortunate the situation was not worse!

- Portsmouth, RI, USA