Auburn Hills, MI   – December 4, 2021 – Volkswagen (OTCMKTS: VWAGY), which owns the Audi brand, is recalling 208,332 vehicles over faulty airbags. The airbags may become inoperable and fail to deploy during a crash, which increases the risk of injury.  

The affected vehicles are:  

• 2017 – 2020 Audi A4 Allroad
• 2018 – 2020 Audi S5 Sportback
• 2018 – 2020 Audi A5 Sportback
• 2019  Audi RS5 Sportback
• 2018 – 2020 Audi A5 Coupe
• 2018 – 2020 Audi S5 Coupe
• 2018 – 2019 Audi RS5 Coupe
• 2017 – 2020 Audi A4 Sedan
• 2018 – 2020 Audi S4 Sedan
• 2018 – 2020 Audi A5 Cabriolet
• 2018 – 2020 Audi S5 Cabriolet

Recall summary  

Vehicles affected by the recall have a Passenger Occupant Detection System (PODS) with integrated seat heating.  The wire that connects the two is faulty, which may cause PODS to not detect the passenger in the front seat and switch off the airbag.

The PODS involved in this recall has multiple part numbers, including 8W0963556 to 8W7881406.

Warning signs

If the passenger bag is disabled,  the “passenger airbag off” message will appear in the instrument cluster.

Recall risks

In a collision,  the airbags may not deploy as intended, which reduces the level of their protection.

Other Volkswagen recalls 

In May, some of the cars involved in this recall were recalled because of the risk of suspension failure. In September, A4, A5 and  A6 vehicles were recalled because of a faulty child restraint system.

The repair

Audi authorized dealers will fix the issue by replacing the seat heating mats, including the connecting cable or the entire seat cover, depending on the model, at no cost to the customer.

Notifications about the repair will be sent to vehicle owners on January 7, 2022.  

Is your vehicle a part of this recall?

This Audi airbag recall includes more than 200,000 vehicles. To do an Audi recall Check, use  MotorSafety’s free vehicle lookup tool.