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Audi · NHTSA safety record

2012 Audi S4

Every safety complaint, recall and defect investigation the US government holds on this vehicle.

Owners have filed 22 safety complaints about the 2012 Audi S4 with the US government. Of those, 2 mention a fire and no death is recorded. One recall campaign is open against it, covering the gasoline fuel system.

The most complained-about system is the power train, named in 14 complaints, 64% of the total. The typical failure was reported at 70,000 miles, the median across the 19 complaints that gave an odometer reading.

Compiled from NHTSA's complaint, recall and investigation files · Covers December 2012 to September 2019 · How this is counted

What is on file

22 complaints on file

22

Complaints

0

Describe a crash

2

Mention fire

0

People injured

0

Deaths

A complaint is an unverified account by the person who filed it, not a finding of fault. One complaint is one ODI number, which is how NHTSA counts them.

A recall is the manufacturer conceding a defect, and the repair is free. Whether one covers your particular car is a question only its VIN can answer, because a campaign covers a production range rather than a model year.

Which system owners named

Complaints naming each system
POWER TRAIN 14 · 64%
FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM 5 · 23%
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 3 · 14%
SERVICE BRAKES 2 · 9%
UNKNOWN OR OTHER 2 · 9%
VEHICLE SPEED CONTROL 1 · 5%
0 8 15

Red marks a system with a recall campaign against it. One complaint can name several systems, so these add up to more than 22.

When the complaints arrived

By the year NHTSA received them

By the year NHTSA received them, which is not the year the failures happened. They peaked in 2017 at 7.

8 6 4 2
12 15 16 17 18 19

This is the year the complaint was filed, not the year the failure happened. The range runs from 2012 to 2019.

Crash test ratings

NHTSA New Car Assessment Program

NHTSA crashes a car into a barrier and a pole and measures what happens to the dummies inside. This is what it awarded the 2012 Audi S4, and it is a separate question from what owners report going wrong later.

Test 4 DR AWD
Overall
Frontal crash
Frontal, driver
Frontal, passenger
Side crash
Side barrier
Side pole
Rollover
Chance of rollover 9.9%
Stability control standard Forward collision warning standard Lane departure warning standard

A dash means NHTSA did not rate that test for this vehicle.

Recall campaigns

1 on file

FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE:FUEL INJECTION SYSTEM:FUEL RAIL

15V019000 · January 20, 2015

The defect
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain model year 2011-2012 Audi S4, S5, Q7, 2012 Audi A6, Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid, and 2012-2013 Audi A7 vehicles. In the affected vehicles the fuel injection system may experience a fuel leak.
The risk
A fuel leak in the injection system in the presence of an ignition source, increases the risk of a fire.
The remedy
Volkswagen will notify owners, and dealers will replace the fuel rails and corresponding seals, free of charge. The recall began on March 17, 2015. Owners may contact Audi customer service at 1-800-822-2834 or Volkswagen customer service at 1-800-893-5298. Volkswagen's numbers for this recall are 24AP for Audi customers and 24BK for Volkswagen customers.

Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. · up to 26,008 vehicles across all model years covered

In owners’ own words

Quoted from the complaint file

Quoted from NHTSA's complaint file. These are unverified accounts by the people who filed them, not findings of fault.

FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM

fire · 60,000 miles

MY COOLANT PUMP WENT OUT AND OVERHEATED THE CAR. THE COOLANT LEAKED OUT. MY CAR ONLY HAS 60K MILES ON IT. AUDI RECENTLY RECALLED COOLANT PUMPS FOR THIS VERY REASON ON THE A4, A5, A6 BUT HAVENT MADE THE RECALL FOR THE S CLASS. PLEASE BE ADVISED THIS IS A SERIOUS ISSUE AND PLACED ME AND FAMILY IN HARMS WAY.

NHTSA complaint 11092654. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM

fire · 70,000 miles

COOLANT PUMP BLEW OUT CAUSING THE ENGINE TO OVERHEAT.

NHTSA complaint 11127920. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

POWER TRAIN

98,000 miles

CIRCUIT BOARD ON THE MECHATRONICS UNIT FAILED AND CAR IS UNDER 100K MILES. SUDDEN SHAKING AND BANGING ON THE HIGHWAY WHEN GIVING IT GAS ABOVE 30. FREQUENT JOLTS, DANGEROUS TO DRIVE...

NHTSA complaint 11258596. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

POWER TRAIN

64,000 miles

THE DSG TRANSMISSION IN MY AUDI S4 EXPERIENCES ABRUPT JERKING FROM 2ND TO 1ST GREAT WHILE DECELERATING. IT ALSO JERKS AND FEELS LIKE IT IS BEING HIT WHILE SHIFTING FROM 1ST TO 2ND WHEN ACCELERATING NORMALLY.

NHTSA complaint 11246180. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

FUEL/PROPULSION SYSTEM

105,000 miles

FUEL INJECTOR LEAKING AND NEEDS REPLACED. MY CAR WAS NEVER ON THE RECALL LIST. SITTING AT AUDI DEALER NOW.

NHTSA complaint 11240976. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

POWER TRAIN

107,592 miles

THE GEARBOX MALFUNCTION SCREEN ON THE DASH SHOWED UP OUT OF NOWHERE THEN FOLLOWED BY A PARKING BRAKE MALFUNCTION THEN THE CAR GOES INTO NEUTRAL AND JUST SITS THERE REVVING THE ENGINE. I TRY TO PUT IT IN NEUTRAL THEN DRIVE BUT THE LEVER GETS STUCK AND I CANT MOVE TO DRIVE. THIS FIRST HAPPEN IN THE HIGHWAY AND I COULDN'T DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT AND I KNOW THIS CAR HAS HIGH MILEAGE BUT LOOKING AT IT THIS TRANSMISSION HAS PROBLEMS ALL THE WAY TO THE 2016 MODELS. THIS IS SOMETHING THAT NEEDS TO BE LOOKED AT BECAUSE THIS IS A POTENTIAL HAZARD AT HIGHWAY SPEEDS

NHTSA complaint 11172981. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

POWER TRAIN

102,000 miles

WHILE DRIVING TODAY ON THE HIGHWAY MY 2012 AUDI S4 EXPERIENCED THE COMMON DSG GEARBOX MALFUNCTION ALERT ALONG WOTH THE TPMS FAULT LIGHT. ON THE HIGHWAY LOOSING ALL POWER AND CAUSING THE VEHICLE SLOW DRASTICALLY WHILE IN TRAFFIC NEARLY CAUSING AN ACCIDENT. THE AMOUNT OF COMPLAINTS ON THIS SAME ISSUE IS ASTONISHING THAT AUDI HAS NOT TAKING CARE IF THIS YET. THIS MALFUNCTION CAN CAUSE A SERIOUS ACCIDENT, ITS TIME TO RECALL THE DSG TRANSMISSION AND FIX THE ISSUE!!!!!! AS WELL AS REIMBURSEMENT FOR ALL THE PEOPLE WHO SPEND THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS TRYING TO DIAGNOSE THE ISSUE, AUDI WILL TRY TO MAKE YOU PAY UPWARDS OF $5,000 TO $10,000 IN REPAIRS RATHER THAN DO THE RIGHT THING AND FIX THE PROBLEM.

NHTSA complaint 11130019. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

Compare

Other years of the Audi S4

Model year Complaints Recalls Deaths
2020 16 3 —
2014 17 1 —
2013 33 1 —
2011 26 1 —
2010 60 0 —

Other 2012 Audi models

Q5 168 A6 59 A3 43 A7 30 Q7 29 A5 Cabriolet 14 A8 11 S5 10

Complaints on file, same model year.

Every Audi on this site — 155 vehicles.

If this is your car and a dealer keeps failing to fix it, your state's lemon law may require the manufacturer to replace it or buy it back. How many repair attempts it takes, and how long you have to file, is set by the state you bought in and by nothing on this page.

Where these numbers come from

A complaint is one owner's account and has not been verified by NHTSA or by us. A vehicle with more complaints is not necessarily worse: models that sold in larger numbers collect more of them. How this is counted.

Compiled and maintained by
Independent developer and analyst