zainal

I own a 2015 Audi A5 which my wife is using to commute on daily basis & just about last week a warning sign showed up “Steering system fault. You can continue driving”. Yikes! Not sure what happened there, so I called Audi Bahrain & towed the car to the service centre.





The next day I got a call from the service rep asking if my wife drove the car through deep water!

I was like well, it was raining and surely my wife drove through “puddles” that she couldn't have avoided, pretty sure wasn’t deep to wreck a German car.

Then he asked me how deep the water was and how long did it stay in there… and I told him it wasn’t deep many cars went through that puddle for few seconds…

The water must have gotten into the sealed component, he said! I have sent you some pictures.

Now wait a minute, I owned lots of cars previously, none of them had any issues with rainy days yet my new A5 can’t seem to handle PUDDLES?

Anyway here is the email sent by Audi:

Regarding your vehicle that was recovered to us during the course of yesterday due to the ‘steering warning’ message

Please see enclosed images for reference points: Upon removing the engine under-tray, we have found water ingress between the connectors linking the Power Steering control unit (this sealed unit houses the control unit as well as the electrical components for the steering)

We have attempted to dry the water that was found in these connectors, however it appears that the water ingress has shorted an electrical element within the PAS unit, thus resulting in the warning light. To rectify, we will be required to replace the Power Steering Rack (which incorporates the electrical unit)

At this stage, there is no sign of additional damage, however, we will only be able to determine, once the affected unit has been replaced

Due to an outside element causing a ‘short’ this regrettably will not be a warrantable item as there is no manufacturing defect

Excessive water is the main cause for this defect and for this to occur, the water level would need to have been approximately 12-18+ inches deep

In the first instance, please let me know if your Motor Vehicle Insurance covers ‘flood damage’ as this would most probably be the direction forward. Agent X is determining the availability of the unit from Audi Dubai and we will advise accordingly





Fine, there is a sign of water but that's because it was raining & not because “as they claim” we drove through a LAKE!

And the 2nd Email:

The diagnostics log has confirmed that the control unit is affected. No signals are being sent to/from the unit and hence causing the warning light as well as the non-assistance in the steering

Please find enclosed costs associated with the replacement of the damaged control unit

The part is available to order from Dubai and upon confirmation will take approximately 5-6 working days to arrive

I await your further instructions as to how to proceed





A $ 3,500 to replace the steering rack that is supposed to be sealed & puddle proof, that is an engineering defect, for god sake the iPhone is IP67,it can take up to 1 meter of water with no issues, yet a premium car fails to handle a puddle.

After a long discussion with Mr defensive I concluded the following:

1. Carry a measurement unit at all times so that when you are facing a puddle you should measure it before driving into it, 12-18 inches deep is bad (it wasn’t that deep, we would have noticed)
2. If you know its going to rain, stay at home - take the day off
3. Technology evolved - to the worse with the electric steering wheel
4. A sealed component will always ingress water
5. Audi never seem to have a courtesy car, its a fad.

How silly is this, anyone?

lmariorod

If the car can be driven, I'd try to dry out the electrical steering component before taking the dealerships word that it needs to be replaced. Possibly trying a product like this:

zainal

Thank you! Will try that out.

zainal

Here is an update on the A5 steering system failure

lmariorod

There doesn't appear to be many electric steering failures here in the States. At least none that have been reported in any large numbers. There is however a TSB for a "NOTCHY" steering feel that has been corrected by a software upgrade. I had that software upgrade for the "notchy" steering wheel feel but noticed very little difference when done.

There was one in Colorado on 11/2016 for "car steering wheel did not want to go back to center, was very loose feeling. Dealer replaced steering mechanism."

Here is a website with actual reported problems of A5/S5.

2016 Audi A5 / S5 Repairs and Problem Descriptions at TrueDelta

zainal

That's odd, since it rained here, there has been 5 other similar cases within the service centre that I took the a5 to - and 11 (not confirmed) cases within Audis service centre... there is also a consolidated post with all steering issues in this form.

lmariorod

Here is a recent issue, but there seems to be no consensus about the cause.

Such as cold weather, wet conditions or NO notchy steering software upgrade.

I'd also look to VCDS for fault codes. There should be a fault code for the steering.

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a6-...issue-2911160/

Sarah Willingham

Kieran Lang

Hi I have a 2014 A4 and about 4 months ago I got a yellow warning light safe to continue drive message come up so i did and called the AA THE next day the guy came reset the code problem solved steering back to normal. Now yesterday same happened again but after continuing to drive it beeped again but a red warning and not safe to continue driving came up well I was mid bend at about 50mph merging with another lane to say I craped it is an understatement. Well just my obvs but last time it was 1 day after driving though big puddles and this time same again drove through 2 big puddles but again I mean curb height just puddles and I believe water has affected the motor on the rack but this is ridiculous its a top car well meant to be it should cope with puddles also I did not stop at any point in the puddle. I dont know if audi will fix I have had nothing but problems with them probably just gun a tackle myself but would love to hear anyone else's similar issues? Or advise?

SaratogaAudi

I had a very similar thing happen to my brand new Q5 this weekend. Drove through a large puddle, as were other cars, and maybe 1/4 - 1/2 mile later I got a "steering malfunction, stop vehicle" message. Audi dealer said a sensor got "knocked loose" by the deep puddle that must have been over the door jamb (it wasn't). Very odd.