2012 Audi A6 Power Train
Owner-reported problems and safety issues filed with NHTSA. Review common failures, severity levels, and complaint trends over time.
Complaint Timeline
Chronological view of owner reports
COOLANT MIGRATION INTO THE WIRING HARNESS. THIS CAUSED THE VEHICLE TO SHUT DOWN ON THE INTERSTATE CREATING UNSAFE CONDITION. DEALER STATED THIS IS A KNOWN ISSUE WITH A COOLANT VALVE FAILING. CREATES FIRE HAZARD BY ALLOWING COOLANT INTO THE ELECTRICAL SYSTEM WHICH CAN THEN DESTROY THE ECU ON THE VEHICLE
SHIFTS ROUGH FROM START THROUGH FIRST SET OF GEARS. FROM A STANDSTILL, UNDER NORMAL TRAFFIC CONDITIONS, NO MATTER WHAT SETTING THE CAR IS IN, THE TRANSMISSION HUNTS FOR THE CORRECT GEAR AND ROUGHLY SHIFTS FROM 1-2 OR 2-3. THIS ISSUE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SETTLED BY THE CVT CLASS ACTION BUT AUDI IS REFUSING TO REPAIR/REPLACE. I HAVE COMPLAINED ABOUT THIS ISSUE SINCE 05-06/2014 AND FOR 9 TIMES SINCE UNTIL CPO WARRANTY AND EXTENDED WARRANTY LAPSED, NOW THEY FEEL THE PROBLEM WHEN BEFORE THEY COULD NOT AND DETERMINE THE TRANSMISSION NEEDS REPLACEMENT FOR $12,000.
I JUST HAD CHECK ENGINE LIGHT WHICH APERANTLY IS A BAD MECHATRONIC DEVICE. THANK GOD NOTHING BAD HAPPENED DURING DRIVING, HOWEVER WHEN I TALKED TO AUDI CORPORATE AND WAS TOLD IT WAS NOT ACOMMON PROBLEM AND THEY DONT WANT TO FIX IT. THE CAR IS 60K AND ALWAYS WAS TAKEN CARE IN DEALERSHIP SHOPS, ON TIME. USED ONLY 30 MILES A DAY AND ALWAYS KEPT INDORR BOTH AT MY WORK AND AT HOME. WHEN READING ONLINE ABOUT THIS PROBLEM I LEARNT THAT THIS IS A COMMON PROBLEM, AND AUDI APPARENTLY NOT TRYING TO COVER OR SOLVE IT. I AM ATTACHING DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM FROM A WEBSITE (HTTPS://WWW.ECUTESTING.COM/COMMON-FAULTS/AUDI/AUDI-S-TRONIC-0B5-GEARBOX-MECHATRONIC-PROBLEM/) "THIS S-TRONIC TRANSMISSION UNIT FITTED TO HIGH PERFORMANCE AUDI'S, WITH THE 0B5 DL501 DIRECT SHIFT GEARBOX (DSG), IS A VERY COMMON FAILING MECHATRONIC CONTROL UNIT. INTERNAL COMPONENT BREAKDOWN OF THE S-TRONIC MECHATRONIC CONTROL UNIT WILL CAUSE A MULTITUDE OF SYMPTOMS ON THE VEHICLE BEGINNING WITH THE ILLUMINATION OF THE EPC (ELECTRONIC POWER CONTROL) AND PRNDS WARNING LIGHTS. THE RUNNING SYMPTOMS THAT A FAULT WITHIN THIS MECHATRONIC...AS THE S-TRONIC/0B5 GEARBOX MECHATRONICS FAILURE ADVANCES, THESE SYMPTOMS PROGRESS FURTHER INTO CRITICAL TRANSMISSION FAILURE: STICKING IN GEAR, DEACTIVATION OF HALF OF THE GEARS, NO REVERSE OR GEARS ABOVE FIRST. TYPICALLY, WHEN DEALING WITH THESE AUDI S-TRONIC GEARBOX PROBLEMS, MAIN DEALERSHIPS AND SPECIALISTS WILL SEEK TO PURCHASE AN EXPENSIVE REPLACEMENT OR REPAIR KIT DIRECT FROM THE MANUFACTURER, WHICH WILL ALSO INCUR CODING FEES. THE GLARING PROBLEM WITH THIS METHOD IS THAT THE MANUFACTURER OF THIS MECHATRONIC CONTROL UNIT HAS NOT YET RESOLVED THE ROOT CAUSE OF FAILURE AT FACTORY LEVEL, MEANING THAT ALL REPLACEMENTS AND REPAIR KIT COMPONENTS STILL HAVE THE UNDERLYING DEFECTS THAT WILL CAUSE MALFUNCTION, USUALLY OUTSIDE THE SHORT ONE-YEAR MANUFACTURER WARRANTY."
Trend Over Time
Complaints by year
Other Issues
Common problems reported
Quick Summary
The 2012 Audi A6 has 3 Power Train complaints on file. Review the timeline above for detailed owner experiences.