I just got off the phone with a senior AOA contact I've known for many years. He confirmed with me that a couple of days ago, dealers were informed that a software update for the electric steering issues was due out very soon. He felt that the software update should be in dealer's hands by sometime next week and that it would take about 20 minutes to perform. (Edit: Reports show some dealers appear to have it now and are performing the update).

While he didn't specify which years or models, he said that 167,000 U.S. vehicles will be affected by the TSB. Since he knows I have a 2013 A6, one could presume that all 2012+ C7s and, based on that number, probably other models with electric steering (at least sold prior to MY2014 which may already have the update applied), will be eligible for the update.

I didn't ask if this would be an active or passive update by the dealer but I'm going to guess that it would be performed automatically at the next service. To be on the safe side, if you have electric steering issues, I would recommend that you contact your dealer or when you bring the car in for the next scheduled maintenance.

The good news is, after many months of programming and testing, Audi has hopefully been able to resolve the various electric steering issues that have been reported here at AudiWorld and elsewhere.

 

Can you list off the top of your head some of the electric steering issues people have had?

 

Rob, Google this for lots of threads:

"Audiworld electric steering"

Here's one to start you off..
https://www.audiworld.com/forums/sho....php?t=2844976

You'll see all kinds of issues mainly about notchiness, vaugeness and wandering off center,

 

My 2013 A6 has been in the shop for unrelated issues for several days. The service manager called me yesterday and told me about this same TSB. He said they would perform the update today before I picked the vehicle up. I received a call from him while I was on my way to pick it up. He said there was an issue with the software update and now my car has no power steering at all. He said they are still trying to figure out what happened, but ordered me a new "module" just incase mine is fried! Mine was one of the first ones they tried the software update on so maybe Audi needs to do some more homework on this? Just a heads up for those of you who will be taking their vehicle in for the new TSB.

 

Thanks, I've not noticed any of these issues so I guess I should consider myself lucky. Some of the symptoms are disconcerting and obviously a safety issue with cars veering to one side on its own. It all electric steering equipped cars are subject to this, then I would think they would do the TSB on every car rather than just for folks who complain about steering problems.

 

Not necessarily a safety issue. Not everyone experiences all of the reported issues or to the same degree. In my case, no notchiness just an occasional wandering on the highway. Others have it much worse and many don't even notice there's an issue.

In any case, they might just do the update automatically when the next time the car is in service.

 

Since my car was built July 16, 2013 I wonder if it has the update already?

 

Surprising to hear your dealer already had the software based on what I was told. In any case, Audi tests the heck out of these software updates before releasing it in the wild - that's one reason it takes so long to get these fixes done. Perhaps the dealer did something wrong during the install or there was an issue with the disk, USB drive or whatever medium they use. No way Audi is going to send out hundreds of updates for 167,000 cars that don't work. Hopefully.
I'm sure they'll figure it out for you.

 

One would think the 2014's have it already. I'm sure you'll find out in due course.

 

I had my 2013 A6 in for service today to repair my A/C. When I looked at my invoice I have a line item for Power Steering software update. It doesn't seem to have a TSB number but here are the lines from my invoice:

POWER STEERING CONTROL UNIT SOFTWARE UPDATE
CAUSE: 48K8
48402599 UPDATE J500 CONTROL MODULE
FC: 48K899