2019 Audi A6 POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE
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
The car gave me electrical malfunction warning while driving on the highway, then all the screens turned black, and the car completely shut down while driving. The steering was still working, although heavier than usual, and the breaking also worked. The car slow down to a complete stop at the shoulder of the highway. This was very concerning, and thankfully happened close on exit with a shoulder at the side in which I was able to park the car.
Starter warning followed by electrical system malfunction, these were followed by Multiple warning lights (Lane departure, adaptive cruise control, collision avoidance, etc) then 1 minute later transmission failure and engine failure imminent.... pull over immediately and contact dealer. I turned into a road off main highway within a minute of the last two warnings and as I turned, my center MMI went blank then my electronic dash went blank, transmission went into neutral and the engine died all within a few seconds. Fortunately I was able to coast to a stop.
Two miles from home all sorts of electrical malfunction warning ️ lights appear. Too many to list here. Then car completely stops and all electricals shut down. This happened in the middle of a very busy three lane 45mph main artery. Stuck in gear, unable to push off side of road. After ten minutes or so of cars zooming around us, it started enough to get off road to safe place. Waited 4 hours in freezing cold for tow truck. Very scary incident for my wife and me, as we are in our 70s. Towed to my local Audi dealer. The problem seems to be with the “Starter Alternator” and is a national problem with 1000s of affected owners. Was told 29 vehicles are ahead of mine for replacement and that it could be weeks before parts are available. One car family and no loaners available and there talking weeks / months to repair.
While driving my 2019 Audi A6 Premium Plus I received error messages: "electrical system malfunction contact service", then "start stop system malfunction contact service", then "electrical system malfunction stop vehicle safely". I went on an Audi owner internet forum and read about others with the same errors. Reports from others indicated that in about 40 miles from the first message appearing, all systems will completely shut down including the engine while you are driving. This could leave you stranded in the roadway if you are not able to pull over in time and requires a tow; the vehicle cannot be relied upon to get you to a service center at that point. My vehicle was in a parking lot at the time for a few hours. I was able to start the vehicle. It presented the first two messages immediately. I was able to drive another 10 minutes to arrive at home safely. On my way home the check engine light came on and as I got to my driveway "electrical system malfunction stop vehicle safely" appeared again. Two days have passed (where I did not operating the vehicle anymore) and I've now had the vehicle towed to my Audi dealer / service center. My service advisor called me back this afternoon saying that they confirmed starter / generator / alternator needs to be replaced. The alternator (only) is now on order for me with no ETA. He said the last one they fixed with this issue took 42 days. He said he has 6 vehicles on the lot with the same issue. This issue appears to be popping up for all early builds that has the Audi 48v MHEV (mild hybrid battery system). Other owners report they needed their 48v and sometimes 12v batteries replaced. As I mentioned earlier they only ordered the alternator at this point; I'm worried that my batteries cannot be trusted after this issue as apparently the cells in the 48v become unstable after entering this state.
Multiple warnings indicating to contact dealer (Lane departure, adaptive cruise control, collision avoidance, etc) then 1 minute later transmission failure and engine failure imminent.... pull over immediately and contact dealer. I turned into a road off main highway within a minute of the last two warnings and as I turned, my center MMI went blank then my electronic dash went blank, transmission went into neutral and the engine died all within a few seconds. Fortunately I was able to coast to a stop in the parking lot. Flatbed towed to dealer who stated most likely the generator between the lithium battery bank and gas engine failed. They have seen several in this year for A6 and A7's with mild hybrid engines. I'm lucky to be in low volume traffic as there was no power to indicate to drivers around me that my engine quit and not even turn signals worked.
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Quick Summary
The 2019 Audi A6 has 5 POWER TRAIN,ELECTRICAL SYSTEM,ENGINE complaints on file. Review the timeline above for detailed owner experiences.