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Audi · NHTSA safety record

2012 Audi S5

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

Owners have filed 10 safety complaints about the 2012 Audi S5 with the US government. Of those, no death is recorded. One recall campaign is open against it, covering the gasoline fuel system.

The most complained-about system is the air bags, named in 8 complaints, 80% of the total.

Compiled from NHTSA's complaint, recall and investigation files · Covers July 2016 to May 2022 · How this is counted

What is on file

10 complaints on file

10

Complaints

0

Describe a crash

0

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
AIR BAGS 8 · 80%
ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 1 · 10%
POWER TRAIN 1 · 10%
0 4 8

Red marks a system with a recall campaign against it. One complaint can name several systems, so these add up to more than 10.

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 6.

8 6 4 2
16 17 20 21 22

This is the year the complaint was filed, not the year the failure happened. The range runs from 2016 to 2022.

Crash test ratings

NHTSA New Car Assessment Program

NHTSA has not crash tested the 2012 Audi S5. Its New Car Assessment Program tests a selection of each year's vehicles and does not reach motorcycles, heavy trucks, motorhomes or most low-volume models, so an absence here says nothing about how the vehicle would perform. It is not a low score.

What owners have reported about this vehicle is below, and it is a different question: a crash test measures what happens to the people inside in a controlled impact, while a complaint records what broke during ordinary use.

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.

AIR BAGS
I am affected by recall 69R6 for this vehicle. I moved to Germany in 2012 and took my car with me. Audi in Germany refused to honor the recall claiming that it is not applicable to Germany due to different "climate conditions". What can I do (other than shipping the car back to the US) ? Thanks

NHTSA complaint 11466128. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

40,000 miles

THE CAR'S BACKUP CAMERA FEED HAS A LOT OF ISSUES FOR MANY OWNERS, MYSELF INCLUDED. THERE IS A PROBABLY 10% CHANCE OF THE BACKUP CAMERA NOT TURNING ON WHEN I FIRST START THE CAR EACH TIME. LOTS OF OTHER OWNERS ARE HAVING SIMILAR ISSUES ON THE A5/S5/RS5 PLATFORM FROM SIMILAR YEARS. IF YOU GOOGLE THE FOLLOWING: "SITE:A5OC.COM BACKUP CAMERA" YOU CAN SEE LOTS OF THREADS FROM A FORUM DEDICATED TO THE ABOVE MODELS. THE FAILING BACKUP CAMERAS ARE DANGEROUS SINCE THEY INTERMITTENTLY FAIL. SOMETIMES I CATCH MYSELF STARTING TO REVERSE ASSUMING THE BACKUP CAMERA WILL COME ON BUT IT NEVER DOES. THIS ISSUE HAS BEEN HAPPENING FOR A WHILE NOW. I WILL PUT AN ESTIMATE FOR WHEN IT FIRST APPEARED.

NHTSA complaint 11404200. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

POWER TRAIN

76,456 miles

I GET THE GEARBOX MALFUNCTION AND TPMS LIGHT FLASHING AND THE CAR JERKS AND STUTTERS ESPECIALLY FROM START AND COMING TO A STOP. WHEN STOPPING, IT FEELS LIKE SOMEONE HIT YOU FROM BEHIND. RAN THE CODES AND IT IS A MECHATRONIC MALFUNCTION/FAILURE. *TR

NHTSA complaint 11330486. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

AIR BAGS

70,000 miles

FT. COLLINS DEALER SAYS REPLACEMENT AIRBAGS NOT AVAILABLE

NHTSA complaint 11041948. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

AIR BAGS
TAKATA RECALL.SAFETY RECALL 69N2. I CONTINUE TO GET DEFECT NOTICES FROM AUDI BUT NO ONE AT AUDI HAS ANY IDEA WHEN THE REPLACEMENT OR REPAIR PARTS WILL BE AVAILABLE. WHEN AND WHERE WILL THE REPAIR PARTS BE AVAILABLE IS MY QUESTION?

NHTSA complaint 11012187. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

AIR BAGS
TL* TAKATA RECALL. THE CONTACT OWNS A 2012 AUDI S5. THE CONTACT RECEIVED NOTIFICATION OF NHTSA CAMPAIGN NUMBER: 16V078000 (AIR BAGS); HOWEVER, THE PARTS TO DO THE REPAIR WERE UNAVAILABLE. THE CONTACT STATED THAT THE MANUFACTURER EXCEEDED A REASONABLE AMOUNT OF TIME FOR THE RECALL REPAIR. THE MANUFACTURER WAS UNABLE TO CONFIRM WHEN THE PARTS WOULD BECOME AVAILABLE. THE CONTACT HAD NOT EXPERIENCED A FAILURE. VIN TOOL CONFIRMS PARTS NOT AVAILABLE.

NHTSA complaint 10981664. Filed by an owner and not verified by NHTSA or by us.

Compare

Other years of the Audi S5

Model year Complaints Recalls Deaths
2025 11 2 —
2020 25 4 —
2018 26 2 —
2011 8 1 —

Other 2012 Audi models

Q5 168 A6 59 A3 43 A7 30 Q7 29 S4 22 A5 Cabriolet 14 A8 11

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.

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