Recall · 21V874000
Volkswagen Group of America recalled 5 models over seats
208,332
Vehicles covered
5
Models
15
Model years
November 10, 2021
Filed with NHTSA
SEATS
- The defect
- Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Audi) is recalling certain 2017-2020 A4 Allroad, A4 Sedan, 2018-2019 RS5 Coupe, 2019 RS5 Sportback, 2018-2020 A5 Cabriolet, A5 Coupe, A5 Sportback, S4 Sedan, S5 Cabriolet, S5 Coupe, and Audi S5 Sportback vehicles. The cable connecting the seat heater to the Passenger Occupant Detection System (PODS) may have a contact fault, causing the software to misdiagnose a malfunction and disable the passenger air bag.
- What it can cause
- A disabled passenger air bag increases the risk of injury in the event of a crash.
- What the dealer does
- Dealers will replace the connecting cable and either the heating mat or entire seat cover, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed January 7, 2022. Owners may contact Audi customer service at 1-800-253-2834. Audi's number for this recall is 74E3. This recall is an expansion of Recall 19V-547 (74D9). Vehicles previously repaired under 19V-547 will need to return for the new remedy.
- NHTSA's note
- Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.nhtsa.gov.
The repair is free, whatever the age or mileage of the vehicle, and whether or not you are the original owner.
Which vehicles
A recall reaches a range of VINs inside these model years, not every car built in them. Yours may not be covered even if it is listed here, and the only way to find out is NHTSA's own VIN lookup .
How this campaign compares
At 208,332 vehicles this is a bigger campaign than 95% of the 19,818 vehicle recalls filed since 1995 whose size NHTSA published. The middle campaign on file covers 472. It covers model years 2017 to 2020, so the oldest vehicles on it were 4 model years old when the defect was reported to NHTSA.
Audi vehicles have been recalled over the seats 7 times before this, most recently in October 2020 as 20V644000. That is not evidence the earlier repair failed.
This site holds the complaint record for 12 of the 15 model years the campaign names. Their owners have filed 424 complaints with NHTSA, 60 of them before this campaign was filed. 7 of those name the seats, the system this recall is about — a count of complaints, not of this defect. The earliest of them reached NHTSA in June 2017, 4 years before this filing.
The vehicles on this campaign carry 4 other recalls published here: 22V034000 (tires), 21V295000 (suspension), 20V760000 (electrical system), 20V737000 (exterior lighting).
Check your own car
A VIN check is the only answer for a specific vehicle, and it also shows every other open recall on it, which is usually the reason it is worth doing rather than reading one campaign.
Filed by Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. with NHTSA on November 10, 2021 as campaign 21V874000. Every word of the defect, consequence and remedy above is NHTSA's published record of that filing, not a summary of it.
Compiled and maintained by guarledes . Data last checked 2021-11-10.
Independent developer and analyst