Audi A3 2010 - Fuel system - car safety information, failing parts, recalls, bulletins, complaints

Audi A3 2010

Recalls
Technical Service Bulletins
Defect investigations
Consumer Complaints

Recalls

Campaign	Manufacturer	Manufacturing date	Type	# of units affected	Date Owner notified Mfg	Recall Initiated by	Manufacturers of recalled vehicles/products	Report Recieved Date	Record Creation Date
FUEL SYSTEM, DIESEL
11V490000	VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC		V (Vehicle)	168275	11/15/2011	MFR	VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC	10/03/2011	10/03/2011
Defect Summary	Volkswagen is recalling certain model 2009-2012 jetta and jetta sportwagen vehicles, manufactured from may 2008 through september 2011, model year 2010-2012 volkswagen golf vehicles, manufactured from may 2009 through september 2011, and model year 2010-2012 audi a3 vehicles, manufactured from september 2009 through september 2011, that are equipped with a 2.0l tdi common rail diesel engine/clean diesel engine. the fuel injection pulses could coincide with the natural frequency of the injector line #2, in specific load and rpm conditions. this resonance creates additional stress in the fuel line.
Consequence Summary	Due to the resonance condition, injector line number 2 could develop small cracks which could lead to fuel leakage. leaking fuel in the presence of an ignition source, may lead to a fire.
Corrective Summary	Volkswagen will install an improved fuel injector line for the number 2 cylinder on certain vehicles and will install vibration dampers on all of the injector lines. volkswagen and audi will notify owners to have the vehicles repaired free of charge. the safety recall is expected to begin during november 2011. owners may contact volkswagen at 1-800-822-8987.
Notes	Volkswagen recall campaign number is 23j9/v5 & 23j8/k5.owners may also contact the national highway traffic safety administration's vehicle safety hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (tty 1-800-424-9153), or go to http://www.safercar.gov .
FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE - STORAGE - TANK ASSEMBLY
09V377000	VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC	from 09/29/2005 to 07/30/2009	V (Vehicle)	10200	11/16/2009	MFR	VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC	09/30/2009	10/02/2009
Defect Summary	Volkswagen is recalling certain model year 2006 through 2010 audi a3, tt, and tt roadster passenger vehicles manufactured between september 29, 2005 and august 26, 2009. the closing force of an internal spring of the fuel tank ventilation valve is not adequate enough to hold the valve closed under extreme driving conditions possibly allowing fuel to leak.
Consequence Summary	In the presence of an ignition source, a vehicle fire could occur.
Corrective Summary	Volkswagen will notify owners and audi dealers will replace the fuel tank ventilation valve with an improved valve free of charge. the safety recall began on november 16, 2009. owners may contact audi at 1-800-253-2834.
Notes	Volkswagen's recall campaign number is 20q3/j3.owners may also contact the national highway traffic safety administration's vehicle safety hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (tty 1-800-424-9153), or go to http://www.safercar.gov .

Bulletins

Bulletin	Bulletin date	Item no.	Summary	Added
FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE
TSB-24-09-28	12/18/2009	10033329	Audi: mil on and one or more of the following dtcs are stored inthe ecm data memory-p310b (low pressure fuel system regulation, fuel pressure outside tolerance); p129f or p008b (low pressure fuel system, pressure too high); p129f or p008a	08/09/2010
FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE - FUEL INJECTION SYSTEM - FUEL RAIL
TSB-01-11-32	10/26/2011	10042390	Audi: bulletin to assistance in fuel pressure sensor being diagnose properly. *pe	12/06/2011
TSB-01-11-30	09/08/2011	10041666	Audi: assistance in diagnosing fuel pressure sensor-g247, properly. *pe	10/24/2011
TSB-01-10-08	05/17/2010	10034751	Audi: mil on; no start or rough running (dtc p0087-rail fuel pressure too low). contaminated or incorrect fuel can cause performance, drivability, and/or fuel delivery problems. rust or metallic debris found in the fuel system indicates	01/10/2011
FUEL SYSTEM, OTHER
TSB-01-10-08	05/17/2010	10034751	Audi: mil on; no start or rough running (dtc p0087-rail fuel pressure too low). contaminated or incorrect fuel can cause performance, drivability, and/or fuel delivery problems. rust or metallic debris found in the fuel system indicates	01/10/2011
FUEL SYSTEM, OTHER - STORAGE - TANK ASSEMBLY - PRESSURE RELIEF DEVICES
TSB-01-11-30	09/08/2011	10041666	Audi: assistance in diagnosing fuel pressure sensor-g247, properly. *pe	10/24/2011

Investigations

NHTSA ID	Manufacturer	Date open	Date close	Subject
FUEL SYSTEM, DIESEL
PE11023	VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC	08/02/2011	12/02/2011	Diesel Fuel Injector Line Leakage
	By letter dated october 3, 2011, volkswagen group of america, inc. (vw) notified the national highway traffic safety administration (nhtsa) that it will conduct a safety recall to address a defect in approximately 168,275 model year (my) 2009-2012 volkswagen jetta, jetta sportwagen, golf, and audi a3 vehicles equipped with the 2.0l tdi common rail clean diesel engine (nhtsa recall no. 11v-490).the recalled jetta and jetta sportwagen vehicles were built from may 2008 through september 2011, the golf vehicles were built from may 2009 through september 2011, and the audi a3 vehicles were built from september 2009 through september 2011.according to volkswagen, in u.s. applications of the above cited tdi vehicles including engine codes cjaa and cbea, the fuel injection pulses could coincide with the natural frequency of the injector line #2 in specific load and rpm conditions.this resonance creates additional stress on the fuel line which a small number of parts (based on the statistic spread of line strength) cannot withstand over its lifetime.as a contributing factor, vw indicated that a supplier used tube material with scratch marks from a grinding process during certain production periods.lines manufactured in these periods were installed in vehicles produced in the following 10 months:december 2008, january-february 2009, october 2009, march-april 2010 and september-december 2010.injector lines using this material exhibit a significantly higher failure rate.dealers will replace injector line #2 in all vehicles built in these months.in addition, as a precautionary measure, all recalled vehicles will have vibration dampers installed on all four fuel injector lines.analysis of nhtsa complaints, vw complaints, vw field reports and warranty claims found allegations of injector line leakage in 443 subject vehicles.the leaking line was not identified in 62 of the vehicles.for the 381 that did provide information about which injector lines were leaking and/or replaced, 358 (94%) involved an injector line #2 leak/repair.almost three-quarters of the injector line #2 leak/repair incident vehicles were built in the 10 months identified by vw, which accounted for approximately one-quarter of the recalled vehicles.the failure rate for injector line #2 in vehicles built in the 10 months affected by the supplier line scratching issue is 6.0 incidents per thousand vehicles (iptv).the failure rate for injector line #2 in other production months of recalled vehicles is 0.8 iptv.the leak/repair rates for the other injector lines are all well under 1 iptv.the action taken by volkswagen is sufficient to resolve the issues raised by this investigation. the agency will continue to monitor this issue and reserves the right to take further action if warranted by the circumstances. accordingly, this investigation is closed.
EA11003	VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC	02/07/2011		High-Pressure Fuel Pump Failure (HPFP)
	The office of defects investigation (odi) and volkswagen (vw) have received a total of 160 complaints and field reports alleging incidents of engine stall and/or loss of power that appear to be related to high pressure fuel pump (hpfp) failures in certain model year (my) 2009 through 2010 volkswagen jetta and my 2010 volkswagen golf and audi a3 vehicles equipped with tdi clean diesel engines.approximately half of the reports indicate that the failure resulted in an engine stall incident, with many of these alleging stall incidents at highway speeds in traffic with no restart.there has been one minor crash alleged to have resulted from hpfp failure in the subject vehicles.in response to odi's information request for pe10-034, vw indicated that it had found no defect related to motor vehicle safety with relation to the tdi clean diesel fuel system at issue in this investigation and attributed problems with hpfp failure to operation with gasoline contaminated diesel fuel.volkswagen stated that even a small amount of gasoline in the diesel fuel may disrupt the necessary lubrication required and may cause the hpfp to fail.in response to concerns that fuel contamination was the major cause of hpfp and related fuel system failures, vw issued a technical service bulletin in may 2010 (vw tb v011011 2023624 and audi tb a011008 2023360-1), with instructions to inspect the diesel fuel for vehicles requiring fuel system service that have symptoms associated with hpfp failure.the bulletin states that fuel system damage incurred by use of fuel not complying to astm-d-975 grade 2 s15 (b5 or less biodiesel content) standards will not be covered under warranty.volkswagen also provided information about 121 mis-fueling incidents reportedly acknowledged by consumers or dealers and test results for about 50 diesel fuel samples taken from complaint vehicles in late-august through early-october 2010.the mis-fueling incidents include about 20 reports involving incorrect fueling by dealer sales or service personnel and generally report symptoms such as rough running, stalling and/or no start within a few miles of refueling the vehicle with gasoline.volkswagen indicated that the testing of fuel samples from complaint vehicles found that nearly 90 percent contained high amounts of gasoline.volkswagen implemented design changes for the hpfp in may 2008, september 2009 and november 2010 to improve the robustness of the pump when used with poor quality fuel.odi analysis of hpfp failures identified from all sources shows failure rates of 0.53% for my 2009 vehicles and 0.11% for my 2010 vehicles.this investigation has been upgraded to an engineering analysis to continue to investigate the issues with mis-fueling and hpfp design identified during the preliminary evaluation.
PE10034	VOLKSWAGEN OF AMERICA, INC	08/26/2010	02/08/2011	High Pressure Fuel Pump Failure (HPFP)
	The office of defects investigation (odi) and volkswagen (vw) have received a total of 160 complaints and field reports alleging incidents of engine stall and/or loss of power that appear to be related to high pressure fuel pump (hpfp) failures in certain model year (my) 2009 through 2010 volkswagen jetta and my 2010 volkswagen golf and audi a3 vehicles equipped with tdi clean diesel engines.approximately half of the reports indicate that the failure resulted in an engine stall incident, with many of these alleging stall incidents at highway speeds in traffic with no restart.there has been one minor crash alleged to have resulted from hpfp failure in the subject vehicles.in response to odi's information request for pe10-034, vw indicated that it had found no defect related to motor vehicle safety with relation to the tdi clean diesel fuel system at issue in this investigation and attributed problems with hpfp failure to operation with gasoline contaminated diesel fuel.volkswagen stated that even a small amount of gasoline in the diesel fuel may disrupt the necessary lubrication required and may cause the hpfp to fail.in response to concerns that fuel contamination was the major cause of hpfp and related fuel system failures, vw issued a technical service bulletin in may 2010 (vw tb v011011 2023624 and audi tb a011008 2023360-1), with instructions to inspect the diesel fuel for vehicles requiring fuel system service that have symptoms associated with hpfp failure.the bulletin states that fuel system damage incurred by use of fuel not complying to astm-d-975 grade 2 s15 (b5 or less biodiesel content) standards will not be covered under warranty. volkswagen also provided information about 121 mis-fueling incidents reportedly acknowledged by consumers or dealers and test results for about 50 diesel fuel samples taken from complaint vehicles in late-august through early-october 2010.the mis-fueling incidents include about 20 reports involving incorrect fueling by dealer sales or service personnel and generally report symptoms such as rough running, stalling and/or no start within a few miles of refueling the vehicle with gasoline.volkswagen indicated that the testing of fuel samples from complaint vehicles found that nearly 90 percent contained high amounts of gasoline.volkswagen implemented design changes for the hpfp in may 2008, september 2009 and november 2010 to improve the robustness of the pump when used with poor quality fuel.odi analysis of hpfp failures identified from all sources shows failure rates of 0.53% for my 2009 vehicles and 0.11% for my 2010 vehicles.this investigation has been upgraded to an engineering analysis (ea11-003) to continue to investigate the issues with mis-fueling and hpfp design identified during the preliminary evaluation.

Consumer Complaints

Fail date	miles	occurences	Purchase date
FUEL SYSTEM, DIESEL
07/29/2011	10334
	2010 audi a3 tdi high pressure fuel pump failure at 10,000 mi
07/25/2011	50611
	Our 2010 audi a3 tdi deisel lost power while traveling at 65 mph on an interstate highway. after pulling over, we were unable to restart the car. the car was towed to an audi dealer who informed us that the fuel pump had failed due to contaminated fuel. we had put brand name diesel into the tank on every refill and have the receipts to prove it.
07/29/2011	10334
	2010 audi a3 tdi high pressure fuel pump failure at 10,000 mi
07/25/2011	50611
	Our 2010 audi a3 tdi deisel lost power while traveling at 65 mph on an interstate highway. after pulling over, we were unable to restart the car. the car was towed to an audi dealer who informed us that the fuel pump had failed due to contaminated fuel. we had put brand name diesel into the tank on every refill and have the receipts to prove it.
06/23/2011	28040
	While driving on to a free way on ramp at about 25-30mph, the engine indicator come on and started to flash, almost immidiately the car stall in the middel of moving traffic. i did my best to steer the car into a safe area with no power steering before it came to a complete stop. i tried cranking the engine a couple of times but it would not restart. this is a very dangerouse situation to be in, with fast moving vehicels paasing by at high speed, i was lucky enough that i did not get rear ended or cause an accident. towed the car to audi of los angeles but it was already closed. they looked at it the next morning and found metal shavings in the diesel filter pod. they told me that the pump might gave out, they have to send fuel samples to get it analize. this car is only a year old, how can the pump,fail already?
03/26/2011	13500
	Driving on local street at ~35mph, car suddenly would not accelerate, loss power, then stalled. unable to restart engine.
02/01/2011	19000
	Driving home after dark on a local boulevard at about 45 mph in our audi a3 tdi. vehicle suddenly lost all engine power. engine shut down completely. was able to coast to side of road. vehicle would not restart. vehicle was towed to dealer. dealer determined that the high pressure fuel pump exploded and quit working. this failure circulated metal particles throught the vehicle fuel system. they are still reviewing with the audi, but dealer said that this happened to another tdi not long ago and audi had them replace the entire fuel system from the fuel tank to the injectors. vehicle is stall at dealer waiting on parts. if this had happened on the highway in traffic i don't believe i could have coasted to the shoulder and would have been stalled in traffic.
12/14/2010	15000
	2010 audi a-3 tdi (diesel) stalled while driving on freeway. will not start. towed to stevens creek audi, ca.
FUEL SYSTEM, GASOLINE
10/25/2011	22000
	In 30-35 mph traffic, glow-plug light began flashing. i pulled over, checked the manual, and called the dealership: nalley audi, roswell. i was told the car was safe to drive, and was given a service appointment for the following morning. upon restarting the car, i noticed not only the flashing glow-plug light, but the check-engine light, which had come on as well. also, when i pulled out, power seemed limited and acceleration difficult. now on a two lane country road with no shoulder, i called the dealership again, and was told to stop the car immediately and have it towed in. since i was close to home, and unable to find a good place to stop, i drove home. the following morning, the car would not start, and audi sent a tow truck. the car was not looked at for 24 hours (tdi-trained mechanics in a meeting or some such), but on thursday i got a report. the fuel pump had failed catastrophically, sending metal debris throughout the fuel system. total replacement of the fuel system was required, including the fuel tank. the first-suspected cause -contaminated fuel- had been ruled out. i was told the failure was a 1-in-100,000 fluke, but nothing about the fact that there had been over 100 complaints to the nhtsa as of early 2011, prompting an nhtsa investigation.