I have a 2011 A4 with 25,000 miles. On my morning commute this morning, the car decided to stall at 60 miles per hour. No warning or rough engine etc. Nor were there any lights lit on the dashboard as this happened. It occurred as I went into the left lane to pass a slower vehicle. As I attempted to accelerate, I felt the car attempt to do its typical shifting. It started to kick in and then nothing. I even saw the RPM's go up. I then lost power entirely. At this point I realized the engine had stalled. I pulled off the road onto the berm to attempt to restart it. The first three attempts it would act as though it started but with very little RPM and it would stumble for only a few seconds and then stall again. I let it sit for a few seconds and made my fourth attempt and it started without issue and ran perfectly the remainder of my trip which was only a few miles. I have over a half tank of gas so I know it isn't low on fuel. Any ideas what this could be? Should I take it to my dealer immediately or have it towed? I remain under full warranty.

 

Do you have a MIL (check engine) light on? If so get the code and if not have someone read the diagnostics port to see if there is one ready to come on. If no code or potential code is present it would be best to get it to a dealer.

 

No check engine light is appearing. I'll call the dealership and get their take. Thanks!

 

So I called the dealership explaining that I have a low mileage A4 and what had occurred. The tech advised me to continue driving it as normal and bring it in if it continues to happen. If there are no check engine lights, they can't do anything? This car was 45k new. Really!? It stalled on my while I was passing a semi at 60 mph. Safety issue!?

 

This to me sounds like a serious intermittent problem. It is a safety problem and needs to be addressed/discussed with the dealer. I would take the car to the dealer and have them document your complaint and even though you need to pay for a service call have them test drive it under the same circumstances as the failure occurred. Even though they may not find anything wrong the issue is documented in case this becomes a serious issue down the road. If you do not have the service tech's name or have the call recorded you have nothing. I go by an old expression " never written , never said".

 

I've scheduled an appointment. Dropping it off this evening and they're providing a loaner car so they can have it for the day. I still have over a year of warranty left so nothing out of my pocket as of now. That should give me plenty of time to get whatever this is resolved. I also sent them a detailed email describing the issue which I can also add to my documentation. I'm a huge fan of Audis but when you have odd issues it can really be a burden. This is my second Audi. First was A6 2.7T I had bought as a CPO. I can attest that the CPO warranty is great as I used it thoroughly. Had odd lurching issues that took them a year to fix and dozens of trips to the dealer. I'm just hoping not to be faced with something similar or I'll be trading this one in as soon as the warranty expires. I'm hoping it's an easy fix and I'll continue to love my vehicle as I have up til now. Fingers crossed :-)

 

The dealership needs to keep it another day.... They're working with a technician at Audi on the matter and haven't narrowed down the problem yet. I was hoping it would be an easy fix. I know one of the things they've done is replacing the coils. Apparently, there's a recent recall on these.

 

Any updates with this? Curious what the dealership said.

 

The dealership kept it for 3 days. They narrowed down that it was the fuel control unit. They worked with a tech at the factory and they were able to find fault codes that drew them to this conclusion. They also replaced all the coils. I wasn't aware that there was a recent recall for these on the newer models. I just found it interesting that the coils were also recalled on my 2004 A6 several years back.... I've only driven the car for a few days, but so far so good. Aside from a backup camera that no longer works after getting the car back. I mentioned this to the dealership when they called to follow up and the service guy felt it was software related. Apparently, they have to reflash the car after changing the fuel control unit and the software they use to do this relates directly to the installed options. He felt they likely used the wrong software. Also to note, I've had funny transmission issues since owning the car.. The issues involve odd shifting when going at lower speeds with the 8 speed transmission that was new for 2011. They had previously ran a few updates that remedied this. Unfortunately, the issues seem to be back. Probably also relates to the software issues that I'll also note when I take it back to the dealer. I'm sure glad this has all been under warranty!

 

I found your note interestingly familiar to my experience with 2011 Q5. It intermittently stalls out and does not restart. No diagnostic code hits the log. This just happened for the fifth time since I've owned the car new. However, a mechanic noticed this last episode and offered to help by resetting the ECM BOARD through its port located near the fire wall on the steering wheel side of the engine. It immediately restarted and no problem this past week. I called the dealer and they were not sure of the problem as in the past when they looked at it. I realize this isn't very technical of a description but you are not alone. Not sure who Audi is buying their electronic parts from but BOSCH had real quality problems in their history with Audi.