When this problem first came to light, there was a serious shortage of available replacement parts. Some owners waited weeks. A recall, however desirable that might be for several reasons, would have put thousands off the road for weeks.

On 12/4/2025 at 5:42 PM, Forbzy said:

@Forbzy  I am so sorry this is happening to you. i have had a terrible experience with Audi. I used the complaints channel via Audi Uk who "investigated" then closed the case. I then wrote to the corporate office and they did the same. They have actually said if I write again they won't even respond.  The Southampton dealership claimed I left the ignition on with the engine off for 15 hours which is absolutely not true, then refused to give me diagnostic logs or evidence. I had to pay £2300 to get my car back. I have opened a case with ombudsman but it's a 6 month back log.   I have attached the technical bulletin. Please let me know if I can help you. I am thinking about trying to reach out on facebook to see if there are significant numbers that can get behind this. it has been so stressful I don't have spare cash for this. 

 

MC-10233377-0001.pdf

@CharlotteW  This may help me as it does not seem to be model specific. Is an internal bulletin?

As far as I'm aware it's from Audi's "hub" 

@CharlotteW thank you

On 2/20/2024 at 1:55 PM, Mark2 said:

Audi UK rang me on Sunday. The long and short of the conversation was- There is no European vehicle Construction requirement to provide an indication that the battery is not being charged ( despite having 156 warning lamps in the manual). The fact that Audi do not consider this failure to be a safety issue really worries me. When I asked if Audi would prepare a software fix I was told this car is 3 years old and designed 5 years ago so very unlikely. So thanks for spending £100,000 now just !Removed! off.

This failure is not specific to RS models but all models which have the hybrid 48/12volt system. Audi have now instigated a 7 year warranty on this starter/charger. What they need to do is come clean about it and advise owners what to do if the yellow battery light comes on, which is TURN EVERYTHING OFF then DRIVE TO YOUR NEAREST AUDI DEALER. 

I was thinking of selling the car but have decided because I know so much about this problem I can handle any future issues. What would I replace it with which does not have all this electronic crap?

Has anyone had this issue resolved by Audi on there used car that was purchased from a third party garage ? 

On 2/6/2025 at 3:30 PM, DADSQ7 said:

See Nik’s post. 

This is our experience too. Denial, lies, deflection and !Removed! mindedness. Just remember, even though you think Audi care about you or their reputation, they don’t. 
 

Which dealer are you going to? 
 

My advice. The only way you will have any chance of getting anything paid is to follow their procedure to the letter. We deviated after 7 weeks, and insisted the part be replaced. As we did that, they denied any further entertaining of any claim. This is even when 7 weeks should be considered unreasonable. Be prepared to be without a car for a long time, or, just have the part replaced and pay the £2k and get on with your life. Even after months of waiting, they’ll likely wriggle out of it anyway, and by then they’ll have made you pay for their guided diagnostics, which is just guessing by swapping parts from a car in stock, and pay for parts that don’t need replacing such as the 48v battery and/or the inverter. 
 

Don’t think Audi executive office will help either. Our experience leads us to think there’s a big cover up in which the dealer and head office are together being made to save costs under the extended warranty issued, but make your own mind up based on how you get on. 
 

I really wish you all the luck in the world, you’ll need it. 
 

Hi mate, I've sent you a DM. I've got my Q7 booked in for Thursday with same fault.

On 4/16/2025 at 10:34 AM, Hardip Singh said:

Hello Kari and everyone.

Collected my A7 from garage this morning. Full repair was done under the 7 year free extended warranty.

Ive got the written report etc and will share later once scanned it. 

The Audi free 7 year warranty exists, do NOT let anyone at Audi fob you off. 

Tell them about all of us with same problems, print this forum if necessary and show them, tell them u are fully aware of rhe USA and UK warranties.

Audi garage will always insist on carrying out their diagnostic check (£150) as first step. But dont worry re that cost as it will be covered by the 7 yr warranty. I didnt pay for anything.

Also, book the diagnostic asap and push them for a courtesy car. Mine said rhey didnt have any which i think was nonsense, but no way of proving.

I need to chase Audi for the independant towing service i had to pay. 

Started to draft a big complaint letter. Will share when done. 

Best of luck everyone, we are all in this mess together and must all push Audi to do better.

H

Where did you get the work done and what year is you A7 

47 minutes ago, Ptt said:

Where did you get the work done and what year is you A7 

Hello

I live in Chatham in Kent, the closest audi dealership is in Maidstone, Kent.

Its a 2019. 

I had asked the dealership for all the correct paperwork ibclhding the technical report / document relating to the 7 year warranty but never recieved it.

I emailed Ben but he never replied.

Next week i will be going to the dealership to ask for all documents.

Sorry to everyone on this forum that ive not compiled a full report of things, cause i think its very dangerous for everything to switch off. Especially at night when even the hazard warning lights stopped working.

Will target to produce something soon.

Best of luck to everyone to get your motors repaired for free as it should be

H

Just for information, I live in Surrey but my 2019 A7 broke down in the South of France last year. The car was recovered to a French dealer by Audi Assistance. That dealer diagnosed the problem. I and my passengers had already returned to England as it was not clear how long recovery and repairs would take.

The Audi Executive Office was responsive. Although they had no means of paying a French dealer direct, the Office did agree to reimburse me under the extended warranty if I paid the dealer first, which I did. I was reimbursed within a couple of days of sending in the paperwork.

Audi Assistance arranged and paid for travel back to France to collect my car. I was quite impressed by the French dealer given my language limitations. Their labour hourly rates are significantly lower than England.

Apart from the obvious dangers inherent in a complete electrical breakdown on a French motorway in pouring rain and the general disruption and inconvenience caused by a breakdown abroad, after a few hiccups, Audi Assistance proved its value and the Executive Office did what was required. 

 

That is just the sort of story I would expect from Audi, how is it that other dealers get it so wrong?

4 hours ago, Hardip Singh said:

the closest audi dealership is in Maidstone, Kent.

You have my sympathy.

22 minutes ago, cliffcoggin said:

You have my sympathy.

So would people agree that Audi seem to fix the issue free of charge or do they look for reasons not to. I’m only asking because my 2019 A6 with 45000 miles has just had the alternator fail. As of yet I have no idea how Audi will respond as the car was a used car purchased from a third party dealer. Now although I haven’t yet had the car serviced as it’s not due for another 3 months or 4000 miles I’m not sure if the previous owner did. The car is booked in on the 23rd December at Bolton Audi hopefully they can sort it under the extended warranty. 

2 minutes ago, Ptt said:

So would people agree that Audi seem to fix the issue free of charge or do they look for reasons not to. I’m only asking because my 2019 A6 with 45000 miles has just had the alternator fail. As of yet I have no idea how Audi will respond as the car was a used car purchased from a third party dealer. Now although I haven’t yet had the car serviced as it’s not due for another 3 months or 4000 miles I’m not sure if the previous owner did. The car is booked in on the 23rd December at Bolton Audi hopefully they can sort it under the extended warranty. 

The $64,000 question !

In brief, they used to be horrendous on the Belt Starter Generator and denied all knowledge. There are lots of awful cases on here and other sites.

In 2025, there have been more examples of "I dont know what all the fuss is about, as my dealer sorted it". Just go armed with a copy of the 7 years from date of first registration warranty.

In my case they had the car for over a month and wanted me to underwrite 8 hours Labour (£1600) to strip the rear of the car as it turned out 'not to be the BSG failing, but something else' . I gave up.

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, DieSel-Q said:

The $64,000 question !

In brief, they used to be horrendous on the Belt Starter Generator and denied all knowledge. There are lots of awful cases on here and other sites.

In 2025, there have been more examples of "I dont know what all the fuss is about, as my dealer sorted it". Just go armed with a copy of the 7 years from date of first registration warranty.

In my case they had the car for over a month and wanted me to underwrite 8 hours Labour (£1600) to strip the rear of the car as it turned out 'not to be the BSG failing, but something else' . I gave up.

 

 

 

Where can I get a copy of the 7 year warranty? 

On 7/24/2025 at 9:05 AM, brt286 said:

Last week, I experienced a serious issue with my car. It started with a "Electrical System Fault" warning on the dashboard following a failure of the stop-start system. I managed to drive about five miles before other systems began shutting down one by one. 

The next day, I was able to get to work with the electrical fault still showing. However, on the way home, the car began displaying multiple system failure messages before eventually shutting down completely. I contacted both the RAC and Audi. The RAC engineer charged the battery and connected a spare one, which allowed me to drive the car to the nearest Audi service centre, about four miles away.

At the dealership, I was told that a diagnostic check would be performed  and I would be contacted with the results. A few hours later, I received a call informing me that the issue was a faulty starter generator. Since my car is seven months out of warranty, I was told I would need to cover the full cost of the repair — £3,411.31. 

I mentioned the recall listed on the government website and the 7-year extended warranty for the starter generator, but the representative didn’t seem interested. I then asked to speak with the manager, explained the situation again, and informed him that I had a copy of the extended warranty and the relevant TSB. I also requested that the quotation and the reason for denying the warranty be sent to me in writing.

Shortly after ending the call, I received another call from the branch manager, who apologized and admitted there had been a mistake. He confirmed that they were aware of the issue and would honour the 7-year extended warranty. The part has been ordered, and I was told I should have my car back within a week. I'm expecting to pick the car up tomorrow.

Car Audi A7 50 TDI Quattro 2019, Milage on the car -40.567 miles

If not for this forum, I would probably have ended up paying for the full repair and diagnostics — so thank you, audiowners.com. 

Where did you get a copy of the warranty I’ve been looking and cannot find it 

If you look back through this thread, copies of the Audi Bulletins have been posted.

Try these

Warranty extention for starter generators.pdf

4 hours ago, Bingomighty said:

Try these

Warranty extention for starter generators.pdf 62.46 kB · 7 downloads

Thanks for sending that I’ve printed off to take with me. Everything I read seams to say Audi will replace the alternator if it’s failed so I’m unsure as to why people are having problems ?? Guess I’ll find out next week when mine gets looked at. 

... If your car is absolutely knackered and immobile I would hope that word has got round to the extent that *most* dealers know what they are doing.

However, if it's failing or intermittent, many dealers will do everything possible to fob you off or open your wallet, because they are afraid they won't get reimbursed.

Edited December 16, 2025Dec 16 by DieSel-Q

Well today I got my car back, all work and parts covered by Audi with no issues what so ever. I must say Audi Bolton did everything possible and even returned my car with a valet top marks for customer relations. I will certainly be returning in future for my next car and any work required. 

For anyone else interested, I had the same experience with Stytner Audi Leicester. Parts and labour covered under the extended warranty, 2019 Q7.

JCT600 Audi Hull covered nothing and wouldn't liaise with Audi. I also had to pay up front in full despite having a third party warranty which covered some of the repair cost regardless of the seven year Audi warranty. Dealing with Audi Executive Office was a pitiful and painful experience in light of the fact I could have easily been killed during the breakdown.

On 1/14/2025 at 3:39 PM, Naughty1 said:

Update after 1 week. Having displayed all the symptoms of an alternator failure (a million warning lights, disconnection of gearbox etc). The only difference was my engine did at least keep running and the brakes worked but couldn't do anything till I turned it off and on again. Mine did restart and I was able to drive 2 miles home albeit with yellow battery light and "electrical failure" showing on dash. I then risked the drive to Audi Tetbury. They submitted information and error codes back to Audi "Technical" who for £150 told me it was NOT the BSG / Alternator / Starter failure as per the warranty. They said if it had been, I wouldn't have been able to start it again... 

So what is it? I asked, they said they'd need to do further tests on the 2 x battery's / wiring  - would take approx 4 hours! and I had to agree to pay another £750 for the pleasure. I mean seriously, how long does it take to test the voltage output on a couple of battery's?! "oh no it's much more complicated than that"

I asked for the codes that they had seen and they have sent me these

23759 - U012000 Lost Communcation with Starter

Voltage Converter 00C4 4K0959663 DCDC_GEN_2

Convenience System Central Module 0046 4N0907064CP 

 261 U112100 Data bus Missing Message

There had been a shed load of standing water on the road, had driven through a couple of fords earlier on that day, I'm wondering if it had all just got a bit wet and freaked out ...Any of you OBD buffs out there? Let's see what they come back with 🙂

Hello,

Did You have solution to this problem ?

I have heard but have nothing in writing that the BSG failure is due to water ingress and replacements have been modified.

however your dealer has not confirmed whether the BSG is charging or not. When mine failed I drove 5 miles and a breakdown truck patched in another battery to allow me to drive to his garage, which you can do but the battery is not charging so eventually thus will run down.