2018 A7 55 tfsi - Major Electrical failure

[koolkul]

After 4 years of reasonably happy ownership, I ran into a dead battery situation travelling up the M40 yesterday.

As I was travelling I noticed an orange battery warning symbol flash up, electrical fault and Stop/Start won’t function then 30mins in had other electrical faults warning until I got a red message telling me to stop the car.

Since new I’ve had various warning messages before that disappeared after a restart so expected the same but in this occasion the messages continued with it telling Low Battery but I can continue to drive as the car will recharge itself.

Drove off again but within mins it told me to stop again and just as I got onto the hard shoulder the dashboard went blank. Tried to restart but dashboard remained lifeless and ended up getting breakdown recovery truck.

Has anyone experienced this with a second gen Audi A7 before? Car is a year out of warranty now and recently had a big service. I am expecting a very large bill :-(

Cheers


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[OolongA7]

Could be a failed Alternator. Your description is typical of what happens on these later model cars.
I'm afraid you won't see much change from a £1000 if your car is now at an Audi dealer.
Last year I had to have an Alternator and a Battery on a "12" plate Jag XF. The bill came to £850 at a JLR dealer.

 

[NHN]

Alternator for me.

 

[koolkul]

Could be a failed Alternator. Your description is typical of what happens on these later model cars.
I'm afraid you won't see much change from a £1000 if your car is now at an Audi dealer.
Last year I had to have an Alternator and a Battery on a "12" plate Jag XF. The bill came to £850 at a JLR dealer.

Yeah thanks mate, much appreciated. I expect it will be expensive


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[NHN]

I maybe able to assist in the alternator replacement if that's your way forward & fitment, ping me a WhatsApp.

 

[koolkul]

Dealership has just said battery and starter alternator suggesting at least £3000, wow just wow!


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[OolongA7]

I am err............... speechless.

 

[NHN]

Doubt it's all that & 3k, yeah ok jog on.

If out of warranty ping me if my services are needed.

 

[Lordvader]

I had this exact problem a month ago. I had a yellow "electrical system malfunction" warning along with "start/stop failer"

Had audi assist out to look at it at home and they suspected alternator/starter generator. Tried to drive it to Audi Leicester (only 15 miles from where i live) and once i hit the M1 started getting red warning messages, everything failing, breaks, power steering etc etc then completely shutdown. Lucky there was a proper hard shoulder!!

Had recovery van dump it at Audi Leicester. Lucky i was JUST inside my approved used warranty so they fixed it under warranty. Had to wait almost a month for them to get the starter generator and had to wait a couple weeks before I finally got a loan car out of them.

The part alone was £1500+Vat and took them a good few hours to swap it.

Got it back yesterday just unsure now what to do. I love my car but not sure i no longer trust it. Cant decide if to keep it and just to buy Audi extended warranty to cover if anything massive breaks again.

 

[NHN]

It's only the alternator, it happens, get the warranty & keep the car, can't see the issue tbh & certainly not a reason to get rid of it.

 

[atifhussainzeb]

Dealership has just said battery and starter alternator suggesting at least £3000, wow just wow!


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Hi mate,
I had the same issue 2 weeks ago. Did the starter alternator fix the issue?

 

[Mooogie]

I've just had same issue today. 2nd gen 2018 55TFSI, 35k miles. Started with electrical fault and Stop/Start won’t function. I though, ok I can live with that (and get it fixed when I get time to sort it out), but next day 15mins into our journey on fast lane of motorway, all systems stated shutting down rapidly until red warning telling me to stop car. Managed to get across to hard shoulder on very busy motorway just as engine lost power and car shut down. Very dangerous. Wife and 9 year old daughter also in the car so everyone very frightened. Tried a few times to restart with no success. Eventually, Roadside recovery arrived, the guy diagnosed alternator failure immediately and started the car 1st time with booster pack. Alternator only generating 8v.... Managed to get car off motorway and towed to relatives house not too far from breakdown. Its the weekend, so no chance of any garage/workshop any anyone being able to do anything until Monday...
From googling the problem and how to fix it, I came across this recall notice:

Recall AUDI R/2020/138 - Vehicle Recall UK

Recall AUDI R/2020/138. MOISTURE MAY ENTER THE BELT-DRIVEN STARTER-ALTERNATOR

www.vehicle-recall.co.uk

The manufacturing dates are within those of the recall. Don't quite understand the VIN structure, but my car starts with
WAUZZZF28KN00.... so is this within the range ( 28 is higher than 20 and less than 2X)?
I know my car has not had this recall. It has been serviced twice by my local dealer since the notice date and they have never said anything about it needing recall work..
If my car had had a new alternator fitted by this recall, then I assume it would not have broken down today and I'd not be typing this message. Anyone else aware of this recall notice or aware of it being done to their car?
I'm also astounded there is no alternator voltage monitoring? To detect an alternator only producing 8v when the engine is running and report a fault is a simple circuit and would be safer than the car dying on you in the fast lane of a motorway...
Thanks

 

[fireman099]

It's only the alternator, it happens, get the warranty & keep the car, can't see the issue tbh & certainly not a reason to get rid of it.

Hi, Just reading this thread i have the same issue from my B9 A4. Some replies above refer to a starter generator or starter alternator? Am i right in thinking its just a standard alternator? mine is a 2.0 Ultra diesel

Cheers

Neil

 

[OolongA7]

If your car is the MHEV variant I believe it will have the belt driven starter / alternator, if not it should have a standard alternator.

 

[fireman099]

I've just had same issue today. 2nd gen 2018 55TFSI, 35k miles. Started with electrical fault and Stop/Start won’t function. I though, ok I can live with that (and get it fixed when I get time to sort it out), but next day 15mins into our journey on fast lane of motorway, all systems stated shutting down rapidly until red warning telling me to stop car. Managed to get across to hard shoulder on very busy motorway just as engine lost power and car shut down. Very dangerous. Wife and 9 year old daughter also in the car so everyone very frightened. Tried a few times to restart with no success. Eventually, Roadside recovery arrived, the guy diagnosed alternator failure immediately and started the car 1st time with booster pack. Alternator only generating 8v.... Managed to get car off motorway and towed to relatives house not too far from breakdown. Its the weekend, so no chance of any garage/workshop any anyone being able to do anything until Monday...
From googling the problem and how to fix it, I came across this recall notice:

Recall AUDI R/2020/138 - Vehicle Recall UK

Recall AUDI R/2020/138. MOISTURE MAY ENTER THE BELT-DRIVEN STARTER-ALTERNATOR

www.vehicle-recall.co.uk

The manufacturing dates are within those of the recall. Don't quite understand the VIN structure, but my car starts with
WAUZZZF28KN00.... so is this within the range ( 28 is higher than 20 and less than 2X)?
I know my car has not had this recall. It has been serviced twice by my local dealer since the notice date and they have never said anything about it needing recall work..
If my car had had a new alternator fitted by this recall, then I assume it would not have broken down today and I'd not be typing this message. Anyone else aware of this recall notice or aware of it being done to their car?
I'm also astounded there is no alternator voltage monitoring? To detect an alternator only producing 8v when the engine is running and report a fault is a simple circuit and would be safer than the car dying on you in the fast lane of a motorway...
Thanks

what does it mean by “starter” alternator? i’ve had the same problem, had the alternator replaced by local garage (not cheap) only for the same thing to happen 8 days later . My car sits in that recall group but has a brand new normal alternator. Is the starter alternator something different ?

Neil

 

[Mooogie]

I've just had same issue today. 2nd gen 2018 55TFSI, 35k miles. Started with electrical fault and Stop/Start won’t function. I though, ok I can live with that (and get it fixed when I get time to sort it out), but next day 15mins into our journey on fast lane of motorway, all systems stated shutting down rapidly until red warning telling me to stop car. Managed to get across to hard shoulder on very busy motorway just as engine lost power and car shut down. Very dangerous. Wife and 9 year old daughter also in the car so everyone very frightened. Tried a few times to restart with no success. Eventually, Roadside recovery arrived, the guy diagnosed alternator failure immediately and started the car 1st time with booster pack. Alternator only generating 8v.... Managed to get car off motorway and towed to relatives house not too far from breakdown. Its the weekend, so no chance of any garage/workshop any anyone being able to do anything until Monday...
From googling the problem and how to fix it, I came across this recall notice:

Recall AUDI R/2020/138 - Vehicle Recall UK

Recall AUDI R/2020/138. MOISTURE MAY ENTER THE BELT-DRIVEN STARTER-ALTERNATOR

www.vehicle-recall.co.uk

The manufacturing dates are within those of the recall. Don't quite understand the VIN structure, but my car starts with
WAUZZZF28KN00.... so is this within the range ( 28 is higher than 20 and less than 2X)?
I know my car has not had this recall. It has been serviced twice by my local dealer since the notice date and they have never said anything about it needing recall work..
If my car had had a new alternator fitted by this recall, then I assume it would not have broken down today and I'd not be typing this message. Anyone else aware of this recall notice or aware of it being done to their car?
I'm also astounded there is no alternator voltage monitoring? To detect an alternator only producing 8v when the engine is running and report a fault is a simple circuit and would be safer than the car dying on you in the fast lane of a motorway...
Thanks

7 weeks have passed, my car still at dealers waiting for a new Alternator that has been on back order all this time and nobody can provide an ETA... totally shocking. Don't buy an Audi..

 

[Mooogie]

anyone know the exact part number for the alternator in a 2018 - 55 TFSI 3.0 MHEV Quattro S-Line 340PS ?

 

[Mooogie]

guys, just came across this thread in another forum about this issue that myself and others have experienced.

2019 A6, A7, and A8 Electrical Failures - AudiWorld Forums

A7 - 2019 A6, A7, and A8 Electrical Failures - I picked up a used 2019 A7 Prestige and the next day (April 1st) while coming back from an appointment 7 miles away I had four electrically related failures in a very short time frame. The last error message was ominous so I was glad I was in my...

www.audiworld.com

For Audi to not accept this being a problem in the UK and recalling cars to have this addressed outside warranty is a disgrace...