2016 Audi S6
Safety record from NHTSA: recalls, owner complaints, investigations and service bulletins.
Safety record from NHTSA: recalls, owner complaints, investigations and service bulletins.
These records cover every 2016 Audi S6. To see whether one car still needs a recall repair, decode its VIN or check it with NHTSA.
2 recalls name the 2016 Audi S6. Newest first.
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Audi) is recalling certain 2013-2017 A8, S6 Sedan, S7, S8, and 2014-2017 RS7 vehicles. The turbocharger oil supply strainer can become blocked, causing wear to the bearings due to lack of lubrication.
Worn bearings can cause the turbine wheel to contact the turbocharger housing or cause the shaft to break, causing an engine stall and increasing the risk of a crash.
Dealers will replace the oil strainer and perform an oil change, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed August 4, 2022. Owners may contact Audi customer service at 1-800-253-2834. Audi's number for this recall is 21H7.
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain 2013-2018 Audi S6 and S7, 2012-2018 A7 and A6 Sedan, and 2014-2018 RS7 vehicles equipped with basic seats (with or without heating). Stress or wear of the body-sensing mat within the front passenger seat may cause the Passenger Occupant Detection System (PODS) control module to malfunction.
If the PODS module malfunctions, the front passenger air bag may not deploy properly in the event of a crash, increasing the risk of injury.
Volkswagen will notify owners, and dealers will install a PODS system repair kit, free of charge. The recall began November 29, 2018. Owners may contact Audi customer service at 1-800-253-2834. Volkswagen's number for this recall is 74D5.
The front passenger-side 6-piston Brembo caliper's (Part No. 20.A989.63) external steel crossover tube failed due to corrosion, specifically where the tubing was covered by a protective rubber sleeve, which trapped moisture and road salt. This led to a catastrophic loss of brake fluid and braking capability. This appears to be a systemic corrosion defect.
Subject: Formal Complaint Regarding Defective Arnott Front Air Strut To Whom It May Concern, I am writing to formally report a significant safety concern regarding a defective Arnott FL front air strut purchased via RockAuto for my 2016 Audi S6 (VIN: [XXX] ). The air strut failed within five days of professional installation. This failure compromised the safety and functionality of my vehicle's suspension system, potentially risking further damage and endangering passengers. I was forced to drive the vehicle briefly in this compromised state to arrange for reinstallation, creating an additional safety hazard. Details of the issue: Product: Arnott FL Front Air Strut (purchased via RockAuto). Professional Installation Dates: October 25, 2024, and reinstallation due to failure on November 27, 2024. Failure Description: The air strut lost functionality within five days of installation, causing a significant drop in vehicle height and inability to maintain proper suspension. This defect demonstrates a failure of Arnott’s quality control and has left me concerned about the safety of their products, particularly when they play a critical role in vehicle performance and passenger safety. I am requesting that NHTSA investigate this matter to ensure no systemic issues with Arnott's products compromise the safety of other drivers. I have attached supporting documentation, including invoices for installation, reinstallation, and further details on the defective part. Thank you for your attention to this urgent safety matter. I look forward to your acknowledgment and any updates regarding this investigation. Sincerely, [XXX] [XXX] [XXX] [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
We, a group of Audi S6 owners with vehicles from the 2013-2017 model years, are experiencing premature mechatronic issues. These problems manifest as jerking when coming to a stop, which can lead to accidents, and intermittent power loss that can be life-threatening. These issues began around 40,000 miles and have progressively worsened, despite our vehicles having only approximately 70,000 miles on them. Given the early onset and severity of these problems, we strongly urge a recall. The current mechatronic design appears to be flawed and fails prematurely, posing significant safety risks.
Hi - The Crankcase Ventilation Valve Extended Warranty [XXX] covers only ten years or 120k miles. My car has close to 160k miles. According to NHTSA or Audi, “Audi has determined that, in some vehicles, it is possible for the crankcase ventilation valve to malfunction, causing a whistling noise in the engine compartment and the MIL to illuminate due to the presence of specific fault codes caused by this component. This condition may impact the vehicle tailpipe emissions, and the presence of a MIL-on condition may cause the vehicle to fail an IM (smog) test.” This is causing the engine to rev on its own, foul odor, consume more oil and gas, MIL-on, and potentially cause the IM (smog) test to fail regardless of years or miles and a safety issue. Please add this matter to recall rather than extended warranty and is likely related to NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V178000 which is causing oil separator and coolant pipe issues that need to be covered. [XXX] INFORMATION REDACTED PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. 552(B)(6)
While driving with my wife and kids, on the highway, in the rain a warning message was displayed. The warning stated: steering malfunction, please stop the vehicle!. At which point the power steering locked-up & the engine powered down. As a result, I was unable to steer the vehicle. Thankfully, I was able to “muscle” the car off the highway and onto a secondary roadway. Vehicle was towed. With the power steering locking-up and not being able to effectively steer the vehicle this is a HUGE safety issue and needs to be addressed with Audi. This could have ended tragically if it were to happen to a driver who was unable to “muscle” the vehicle to safety.
The contact owns a 2016 Audi S6. The contact received notification of NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V178000 (Engine and Engine Cooling) however, the repair had been previously completed by an independent mechanic, a year prior to receiving the recall letter. The contact filed paperwork to be reimbursed after receiving the recall letter. The contact had taken the vehicle to a dealer, and the dealer stated that the vehicle was no longer under warranty. The dealer had not performed the recall repair, stating that the vehicle had been modified. The manufacturer was made aware of the issue. Parts distribution disconnect.
I was driving my car and it stalled out in the middle of an intersection which was totally unsafe and it would barely start. I was able to limp it to safety but it would not run or idle correctly. I had it towed to the local Audi dealership and they diagnosed the issue as being the turbos. The turbos failed and need to be replaced. The obvious known issue with the oil screen starving the turbos and causing collateral damage is well documented hence Audi issued an extended warranty on turbos and the recall on the oil screen however the dealer is refusing to do any repair and has had the vehicle for over a week.
I am having a transmission malfunction warning light on the dashboard that comes on. The car will not shift gears which is dangerous when driving in streets/highway. This is a known issue with the Audi S6 and related models and a class action lawsuit is in process. Audi is trying to charge few thousands dollars $8000-$12,000 to replace the mechatronic and clutch transmission system which is very prone to failure. Thank you
Loss of power on freeway, due to known turbo issue on these cars. Filter for turbo oil clogs, and burns the turbo's without warning causing loss of power. Not to mention it often sends metal into your engines oil and the repair for that is more than the car is worth.
The Passenger Side Turbo failed. Yes it’s available for inspection. I was driving and I felt a pop, like a backfire from under the hood. The car lost power instantly and was any under power anymore on the road. It could have been a lot worse if I was on a busy highway but luckily was on a street with do one behind me. It was confirmed it was the turbo failure and the turbo has been inspected. No warning lamps or any prior symptoms before hand. Once it happened it started throwing warning lights for pretty much everything. Limited slip diff, air bags, EPC, TPMS, check engine light and traction control warning lights all went off one after the other.
On 09apr2021 I was driving on my way to pick up my dogs from daycare. During my ride the car seemed hesitant with power. When I arrived at the daycare and parked the car essentially seemed like it was choking and at one point completely shut off on it's own. After I picked up my dog I tried starting the car and it took 3 attempts for it to start. On the way home I had to try and keep the car in motion in order to keep the engine on, so every red light was a game. Moving though rush our in the city was very difficult and the care nearly died 3 times. I made it home and the car turned off on it's own, when I parked. I made an appointment with audi and brought the car in the next morning - on the way in the car died on while in motion approaching a red light on a city street. It inadvertently stopped traffic until I could put the car back in park, and attempt to start the engine twice, before it started again and I was able to drive the rest of the way to the dealership. The dealership diagnosed it as blown turbos.
Oil screen interior of engine (non-serviceable) clogged which prevented turbo chargers from receiving oil. both turbo chargers failed which causes engine to stall. was driving at 25 mph on two lane city street. engine died, power was lost, and steered vehicle to avoid collision with brick mailbox. brought vehicle to a stop in roadway (no shoulder) but was blocking traffic. Car would not restart. towed vehicle to audi dealer who diagnosed turbo failure from clogged oil screen and presented a $12,732.74 quote for labor and replacement turbo chargers. Dealership noted that this IS common failure with stock and turned cars and they perform this replacement multiple times a month per audi tsb. tuned vehicles are immediately denied warranty despite there more than 131 reported cases on one owners group/volunteer website (https://www.audizine.com/forum/poll.php?pollid=4500&do=showresults). my vehicle received oil change and 40K service from audi dealership less than 5,000 miles prior to this failure. oil screen replacement requires 20 hours of labor to tear the engine down to get to the part (non-serviceable) - technical service bulletin 2044640/9 (revised 3 times over 3 years to replace oil screen with upgraded screen - rev g). have visited with multiple audi dealerships to obtain competitive quotes and learned that it IS a common issue with the 4.0 V8 engine with failures normally occurring at 65K - 85K miles in A8, S4, S6, S7 models and that the repair IS normally $11-12k per incident.
Both my turbos failed on my car on christmas day in 2019. I was coming home from dropping off my daughter 90 minutes away. After leaving the highway and starting to move once the light turned green, my car decided to completely stall. I was able to pull over the to shoulder as I was coming to a stop as I was on a one lane road. My car was towed and it was determined that my car had both turbos fail. I received my car back a month later and since then have had a coolant loss issue as well as a surge issue. The coolant loss issue requires me to put 4 ounce of coolant into my car every morning. I reported this issue to my audi dealership when I got my car back but it hasn't been fixed. I'm unsure if the coolant issue IS what caused the turbos to fail, or parts of my turbos propellers went into my engine or someplace else which IS causing issues with the car. furthermore, the car now surges when coming to a stop. The car will surge a foot or two after it's come to a complete stop which IS dangerous. both these issues can be seen on message boards at the following site: https://www.audizine.com/forum/showthread.php/808057-4-0tt-blown-turbo-poll as you can see it's a bigger problem than just a few cars. They are ranging from 10% to 40% blown turbos depending on the year.
Power significantly reduced. Clear loss of boost. Eventual complete engine stall. I was fortunate to have been pulling into a parking spot when the engine cut off uncommanded. The car had to be towed to a repair shop. It was later determined the turbos had failed due to a loss of oil supply. The oil supply IS cut off due to the singular turbo oil screen being clogged. Regular oil changes are documented at correct intervals. Audi after the middle of my2016 installed a revised turbo oil screen to help prevent this from happening. It IS a known fault at audi and should absolutely be a recall to replace the oil screens with the revised versions. It IS a major safety issue when the engine can suddenly stop running at any speed.
I was accelerating with traffic while on an on ramp and merging into busy traffic on the interstate, when suddenly I lost power and my car began to decelerate at a rapid pace. There was no throttle when the gas pedal was being pressed. Seconds after that I lost power to the car. Luckily, I was able to put my hazards and coast through 2 lanes of traffic to the shoulder. During which time, I had no power steering and had to fight to move the wheel. I had the car brought to my audi mechanic who said it sounds like your turbos blew and that was indeed the case. He said he sees it all the time on the 4.0 tt engines because of audis poor oil screen design that starves the turbos of oil and leads to the seizing up and breaking.
Turbo failure at 60,000 miles stationary would not start
Turbocharger(s) failure due to oil filter screen clogging with contaminants at 47000 miles causing turbocharger bearing failure destroying the turbine and compressor wheels along with compressor housing and exhaust manifolds. Possible engine damage. the vehicle operated while driving on highway. Sudden loss of power at highway speeds while failure occurred inducing loss of engine throttle control. Harsh surging of the engine occured. Once vehicle was pulled over to side of the highway. Engine was unable to maintain idle and unable to be driven.
This was a low mileage (9K) less than 1 year old pristine condition audi S6. the vehicle was driven approximately 10 miles and then parked in a driveway where it was turned off. the driver sat in the vehicle for 5 minutes with the engine off prior to exiting the vehicle. between 5 to 10 minutes after exiting the vehicle we smelled smoke in the house. we discovered the vehicle had flame and smoke emanating from under its hood. the fire department had to extinguish the flames as we were unable to do so with a garden hose. the entire front of the vehicle burned. it was classified as totaled. the vehicle was inspected by a fire cause and origin inspector and audi. I have been told verbally that the fire likely began in some electrical components behind the driver side headlight area. audi has confirmed that the fire was not caused by external factors but I have not been provided any other feedback from audi as to what the actual defect. Was. just to re-cap: 1. The ignition was off 2. The car was not running 3. The car spontaneously caught fire and was destroyed. 4. It was raining that day 5. The car was in like-new condition, well maintained and with no known defects. 6. We were lucky the car was not in the garage as the house would have caught fire.
There IS something wrong with the way the S6 downshifts which makes driving unsafe. a downshift IS followed by about 1 second of the transmission not being engaged (so no power to the wheels) and then suddenly the transmission engaged and the car violently thrusts forward. The issue IS more profound when downshifting 3RD to 2ND at about 20-30 mph and can result in rear-ending the car in front. apparently many S6 owners face the same issue. Audi has fixed it in 2013 models with software update but the issue happens again in the latest models.
NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation opened these reviews into vehicles including this one.
On March 29, 2021, the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened a Preliminary Evaluation (PE 21-009) after the agency received 58 reports alleging engine stalling in 2013-2016MY Audi vehicle models A8, S6, S7, S8 & RS7 equipped with the 4.0L, twin-turbocharged engine. Complainants reported the vehicles would stall with no warning while driving at highway or city traffic speeds. Several of the complainants alleged an inability to restart. The complaints alleged the major contributing factor to the engine stalling was the failure of the turbochargers. The complaints cited the turbocharger failure was a result of oil starvation due to a clogged oil strainer in the turbocharger oil supply line.The location of the oil strainer in the turbocharger oil supply line is in the inner valley of the engine. It is not easily accessible, making servicing the component difficult. The oil strainer removes particles and carbon deposits from the oil before lubricating the turbochargers. Over time, if the debris is not removed from the oil strainer, it becomes clogged and prevents oil from flowing to the turbochargers. This causes the turbine bushings to run dry and overheat resulting in turbine shaft failure due to thermal stress.On April 04, 2022, PE21-009 was upgraded to an Engineering Analysis (EA22-001) to further assess the scope, frequency, and potential safety related consequences of the alleged defect. Volkswagen filed recall 22V-178 to replace the 30?m mesh oil strainer with a 90?m mesh oil strainer in the subject vehicles. VW introduced the larger mesh oil strainer into production in March of 2017 effecting the 2017-2018MY vehicles.ODI reviewed information from VW for vehicles that had the larger mesh installed in production. The data received showed, since the new oil strainer size of 90?m went into production for the 2017-2018MY, there has not been any reported incidents of turbocharger failures due to oil starvation or other failures that could be related to the larger screen mesh. In view of the recall being conducted by VW and lack of any detrimental side effect to the turbocharger caused by the larger mesh, ODI is closing this Engineering Analysis (EA). The agency reserves the right to take additional action if warranted by future circumstances.11502847,11506565,11494663,11488813,11486393,11480926,11479882,11476289,11466761 11464663,11463254,11460580,11460496,11458973,11458804,11457556,11454753,11452668 11452589,11452584,11452383,11452175,11452111,11451724,11451724,11450995,11450988 11449661,11447092,11443657,11442867,11440536,11440052,11439959,11438691,11436461 11435619,11433925,11433733,11432336,11431661,11431421,11429704,11429584,11428128 11426929,11424203,11423603,11423337,11422431,11421084,11420626,11420342,11419693 11418884,11418437,11418433,11418135,11417635,11417351,11416095,11414578,11414235 11414064,11413359,11413285,11413214,11407510,11407450,11406897,11406821,11406637 11406460,11406416,11406291,11406287,11406277,11406273,11406263,11406256,11406251 11406229,11406222,11406208,11406204,11406197,11406182,11406015,11404665,11404426 11404348,11403823,11403430,11403268,11402684,11399435,11397821,11396241,11394763 11391037
On March 29, 2021, the Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) opened Preliminary Evaluation (PE) 21-009 after the agency received 58 reports alleging engine stalling in 2013-2016MY Audi vehicle models A8, S6, S7, S8 & RS7. The subject vehicles are equipped with 4.0L, twin-turbocharged engine. Complainants reported that the vehicles stall suddenly with no warning while driving on the highway or in city traffic. Several of the complainants alleged an inability to restart. The complaints allege the major contributing factor to the engine stalling is the failure of the turbochargers. The complaints further allege the turbocharger failure is a result of oil starvation due to a clogged oil strainer.The location of the oil strainer in the turbocharger oil supply line is in the inner valley of the engine. It is not easily accessible, making regular service difficult. The oil strainer removes dirty particles and carbon deposits from the oil before flowing to lubricate the Turbochargers. Overtime if the debris are not removed from the oil strainer, it clogs the strainer and prevents free flow of oil to the turbochargers and makes the turbine bushings to run dry and overheat which causes the turbine shaft to break due to thermal stress. In VW's response to ODI's Information Request letter, VW provided approximately 611 warranty claims with unique VINs, 70 Field Reports and 45 Consumer complaints. These reports allege engine stalling due to turbocharger failure similar to the NHTSA reports described above. To date, NHTSA has received approximately 98 allegations of stall due to turbocharger failures. The total of 824 reports shown in the table above eliminates duplicate reports received by both ODI and the manufacturer.This Preliminary Evaluation is being upgraded to an Engineering Analysis (EA) to further assess the scope, frequency, and potential safety related consequences of the alleged defect of engine stalling due to turbocharger failureThe ODI complaints cited above can be viewed at www.NHTSA.gov under the following ODI identification numbers:11452589, 11452584, 11452383, 11450995, 11450988, 11449661, 11447092, 11442867 11440536, 11440052, 11439959, 11438691, 11436461, 11435619, 11431661, 11429704 11429584, 11426929, 11424203, 11423603, 11423337, 11421084, 11420626, 11420342 11418884, 11418437, 11418433, 11417635, 11417351, 11416095, 11414235, 11413359 11413214, 11413285, 11413133, 11407510, 11407450, 11407289, 11406821, 11406416 11406291, 11406277, 11406273, 11406256, 11406251, 11406229, 11406222, 11406204 11406197, 11406182, 11404665, 11404426, 11404348, 11403430, 11403268, 11399435 11397821, 11396241, 11394763, 11391037, 11388662, 11387166, 11377446, 11363283 11354107, 11344193, 11342497, 11342360, 11340302, 11325065, 11324163, 11322168, 11321144, 11318477, 11306754, 11279429, 11268109, 11256706, 11252723, 11246579 11234853, 11234714, 11231582, 11231013, 11230589, 11229484, 11222281, 11218822 11218749, 11217604, 11209168, 11209142, 11197149, 11191243, 11175842, 11170776 11164032, 11152418.
Technical service bulletins and other communications the manufacturer sent dealers about this vehicle. Ask a dealer for the full document by its number.
Bars are owner complaints, dots mark years with recalls. Select a year to open its report.