Laguna Hills, CA – March 25, 2020 – Volkswagen Group of American, Inc. is recalling 2019 Audi Q8 vehicles and 2017-2019 Audi Q7 vehicles.
- A manufacturing defect in the 2019 Audi Q8 and 2017-2019 Audi Q7 vehicles may cause drivers to lose ability to control steering.
- Bolts connecting both the steering gear and the steering shaft may loosen, resulting in a loss of steering control.
- There have been three reported field incidents surrounding the recall, but no reported injuries.
The defect
If you have been having trouble using your steering wheel on your Audi vehicles then your car may be under this recall. Vehicle owners experiences remain the same across the board – the steering wheel becomes unresponsive during the vehicle’s operation.
One Audi Q7 owner in Toronto, outlined his experience when his “steering wheel suddenly stiffened and locked.” In March 2018 he wrote, “Sometime about 2 months ago, while driving in local streets, my steering wheel suddenly stiffened and locked.
Let me explain… imagine your car is off and your steering wheel doesn’t move – the “lock” feeling is kind of like that! The “stiffening” feeling is what leads up to that.”
Don’t worry, there have been no injuries associated with this recall – but if not fixed, the problem could be a serious risk to your safety and the safety of other vehicles.
Even if you have not had problems with the steering assembly on your vehicle, it would be better safe than sorry to check the VIN of your vehicle for specific recalls.
Volkswagen aware of the problem
Volkswagen first received reports of certain incidents involving the steering wheels back in February 2019. The steering wheel in the incidents reported to Volkswagen seemed to be overly loose, leaving room for excessive play when the drivers tried to turn the wheel.
Excessive play here means that regularly a slight turn of the wheel to the right would have turned the vehicle slightly to the right, but now a drastic turn of the steering wheel will only slightly turn the vehicle in that direction.
Although this is the first incident that Volkswagen chose to report to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), it seems that Audi’s have been having a couple of problems before that.
In 2006, a customer in Mexico reported that their Audi A6 had a few malfunctions with the steering wheel’s more technical features. All buttons on the steering wheel, including volume control and the car horn, stopped working entirely.
Ten years later, another customer experienced the same problem, writing in the online forum Audizine, “My steering wheel controls such as the volume control and track change function don’t work.”
2016 seemed to be a year filled with steering wheel issues for Audi Q7 and Q8 models, for multiple other owners wrote to online forums complaining of “hard/stiff steering”.
This correlates more to what March 9, 2020’s recall is referring to – a bolt that was not tightened enough causing the steering to either stiffen up or become too loose. Either way, if your vehicle is affected Volkswagen and Audi will fix your Audi vehicle free of charge.
The best steps forward are to check Motorsafety.org for any other repairs that may be needed on your Audi Q8 and Audi Q7 vehicles. This is not the first recall for this vehicle.
Just last year Audi Q8 vehicles were also recalled due to another problem with suspension and vehicle steering. However, most Audi recalls in the past several years have been unrelated to steering issues.
Kelly Blue Book wrote that most Audis in the recent past have been “recalled for Violations of the EPA Clean Air Act over excessive diesel emissions, while others have been recalled for faulty Takata airbag inflators.”
The solution
Although Audi has issued recalls on previous vehicles they are mostly unrelated to the steering mechanism. If you would like to check the specifics of recalls on your vehicle, use your VIN number and Motorsafety.org will be able to find all recalls relating to your car.
For more information on this or other recalls past or present, visit MotorSafety.org.
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About MotorSafety.org
MotorSafety.org is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to vehicle safety and assisting consumers with the identification and resolution of vehicle manufacturing recalls and defects. Through education, awareness, government relations, repair facility referrals and strategic partnerships, MotorSafety.org hopes to remove every unsafe vehicle from the road, facilitate its proper repair, and ensure its prompt return to the owner once the vehicle has met the required safety and performance standards. For more information about MotorSafety.org, please email support@motorsafety.org.
