Bris14

2 hours ago, Moggsy said:

HI All,

I am going through this at the moment as I have an Audi A3 2017 plate, with 45000 on the clock, On Sunday 28th March 2023 I noticed my EPC light come on and it struggles to start,

however Monday morning I noticed a pool of fuel underneath my car, so took it to an independent garage to find out today that it is the fuel rail leaking from one of the seal's 

costing me £888.00 to be fixed, and without a car until Friday. so if anybody has any tip's on what process I should go through with Audi please PM me. 

Any advise would be gratefully received.

Many Thanks

John

Hi John,

From my own experience regarding this exact issue, Audi just deny any issue exists and claim it's the first they have heard of it (even though there is evidence here that people have reported it). 

I personally think a group complaint to Audi is the way forward. It's clear from this thread alone that there is a batch of cars made late 2016-2017 that has this issue. I'm sure there are plenty of others out there that haven't seen this thread but had the issue and Audi no doubt suppressing the issue. The closest I ever got to an admission from Audi was the lead mechanic from my local Audi dealership agreeing that this issue shouldn't occur at the age and mileage that it happened. But because it's not recognised as an issue (I was the first report of it happening supposedly), Audi said no to "good will". 

Alex

On 12/25/2022 at 7:22 AM, Mamf said:

I have had exactly the same thing happen to me with my March 2017 A3. It is at the local dealers at the moment and I will be taking it further with Audi uk. It is completely unacceptable that this would happen with a car of this age. I have done around 50k miles.   It is a fire risk so hopefully they won’t wait for someone to be injured before looking into this. 

I will be looking into this further to see if I can find further evidence of others having the same issue so if anyone has any information that would be helpful. I will be asking for a full report of the issue and the work completed to fix it. Will update as things progress.  Thanks! 

Hi,

Just wondering how you are getting on with talking to Audi regarding this issue? 

Thanks 

Yeah I got the same response originally (nothing been logged previously, supposedly). One of the reasons why I questioned them in the first place was because I saw others having the same issue, 1 in particular where he called out Audi on Twitter and Audi UK customer services responded to him publicly (I also commented on that thread). I get a sense that there is poor communication internally within Audi, both dealership and Audi UK. I actually spoke to Audi UK again yesterday for an update on the issue and they said a manager would get back to me. 

Like Gareth says, it's up to the individual whether to pursue or not. Even though I don't own the car anymore, I'm still happy to chase them, I will let you know if I have any breakthrough with the issue.

Alex 

19 minutes ago, Sophxo said:

Hi unfortunately I didn’t as I wasn’t sure if this was a common thing. I’ve only had the car for less than 3 years and it’s at 36k miles. Was surprised how it could happen but didn’t get much information on it and my local Audi just fixed the problem as my car engine was struggling to turn on and the strong smell of fuel. I have updated my location now. I’m actually quite hopeless when it comes to cars and after googling it lead me to this page which I’m glad as this could be a bigger issue Thanks. 

I'd definitely still call Audi UK customer service and let them know. They can view the batch of cars your car was build alongside. My car was built late 2016, I'd be interested to know if your car was in the same batch as mine! 

Audi know there is a fuel rail issue within the brand and have been forced to recall certain models, that was due to a certain amount being reported. They are simply ignoring other models until enough reports are made or as horrible as it sounds, a car goes up in flames.

Alex

Hi,

Definitely report it to your local dealer and Audi UK customer services. The more reports, the more likely they are to help customers out! Unfortunately at the time for me, Audi stood firm and denied it was a build problem/faulty part. The best admission I got was from the lead mechanic for my local Audi dealership, he said that this issue shouldn't occur especially at the mileage my car had done (40k). The dealership said there was no recall out for the vehicle so it's the customers problem, Audi UK said the same thing. I do believe this is the start of a bigger problem that Volkswagen will have so I got Audi to repair it and will push for a refund if it becomes a recall in the future. I got Audi to send details of the parts used and how it's repaired, touque tension used etc just as evidence in the future. 

I have spoken about this to a few people and someone mentioned about the change of fuel type (E10) potentially adding pressure to the fuel rail. I haven't looked into this though so just a thought. Is there anyone that has knowledge on this? 

Alex

On 9/15/2022 at 3:29 PM, David Q said:

Exactly the same happened to me this week on my 66 plate 1.4 A3. Bolts sheared on the fuel rail and fuel started leaking out and engine wouldn’t start( also at the supermarket!). As I’m out of warranty I took it to an independent mechanic I know who couldn’t work out how this had happened. Worth letting Audi know? 

Yeah I'd say it's worth getting in touch with Audi UK customer services and/or your local dealership to report it. It helps to narrow down if there is a batch of cars out there with an issue. 

I'm still chasing Audi for information, I'm interested to see if the A3 uses the same set up as the A4/A5/A6.

I'm just wondering if there are other A3 owners that have had issues with the fuel rail/fuel rail bolts?

My car is currently with Audi as the fuel rail bolts have backed out of the fuel rail and damaged the seals. The day it happen I had only driven roughly 2 miles. 1 mile to shops, 1 mile home. It was the mile home were the cabin filled with the smell of fuel and, drained all my fuel and the engine cut out requiring the car to be towed home. Audi mechanics are claiming it's a wear and tear issue. 

I did some research as I wanted to understand the issue before paying the bill, I found people having the same issue but with different brands, Skoda, Volkswagen, Seat (all of which are owned by Volkswagen). It seems to be vehicles built between 2015-2018 with 1.2/1.4 engines. Audi has also had recalls in Europe for fuel rail bolt issues but for A4/A5/A6. 

I have spoke to Audi UK as I wanted more information as to how often this occurs, to highlight the issue as it could be a fire risk and to ask why other models had recalls but not the A3. The overall outcome was they can only trust the mechanics who looked at the car because a recall isn't currently in place for the A3.

Any information would be greatly appreciated as I'm just trying to understand the issue.