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Dreaded "Electrical system: malfunction! Safely stop vehicle"

77K views 141 replies 54 participants last post by  Eli the Barrowboy  
#1 ·
I am off to having a great start of the morning. "Electrical system: malfunction! Safely stop vehicle"
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followed by "All-wheel drive: malfunction! Limited stability. Please contact Service!"
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Luckily, that happened in garage before taking off so just sitting now and waiting for a tow truck to get me to the dealership to have the car looked at. I expect battery and/or electric motor to be shot. In the last few days I was feeling the car underperforming and showing much lower efficiency but I would put blame on the low temperatures and all. Perhaps that was a sign of things to come.
Any experience with errors like this? I could not find these errors reported anywhere on the forum ...
 
#4 ·
Initial diagnostics implies rear motor failure and/or battery failure. Either one of these is a 3 months' wait for a rebuild. So yay ... I am stuck in loaner for these 3 months.
On a flip note, I got into chatting with the service manager and these failures are not that uncommon apparently. They were originally blamed on first generation design, but apparently 20, 21 and, 22 models already show up with the same problems, with anywhere between 25k and 35k miles on them. I am smack around 27k miles right now, is that is even any trigger at all.
 
#8 ·
Fingers crossed - today the car goes into the hands of the EV foreman so I will get likely full breakdown of what is wrong, what it needs to be back on the road and how long it will take. Fingers crossed it is just a messed up sensor that threw the system off but knowing my luck, it will be both battery and rear motor together.
 
#14 ·
Our of curiosity, I checked also with local VW and MB dealers - VW is out of loaners for next 55 days or so (schedule 2 months in advance, I was told) and MB is running ~30 days behind schedule on loaners. Funny times to live in. Local Audi dealer has over 150 cars waiting for parts from Germany so I can certainly see how they are out of loaners. Not excusing them or anything, just adding things up. There are only so many loaners they put into rotation.
 
#17 · (Edited)
I am off to having a great start of the morning. "Electrical system: malfunction! Safely stop vehicle"
View attachment 8250

followed by "All-wheel drive: malfunction! Limited stability. Please contact Service!"
View attachment 8251
Luckily, that happened in garage before taking off so just sitting now and waiting for a tow truck to get me to the dealership to have the car looked at. I expect battery and/or electric motor to be shot. In the last few days I was feeling the car underperforming and showing much lower efficiency but I would put blame on the low temperatures and all. Perhaps that was a sign of things to come.
Any experience with errors like this? I could not find these errors reported anywhere on the forum ...
This exact issue happened to us about a month after delivery. (I have video of it and it occurred when it was 62ÂşF outside. Wish I could upload it, but I don't want to start a YouTube account just for this. Maybe if enough folks want to see what happens, I may reconsider.) We simply chalked it up to the car being plugged into a "free" public charger. Nonetheless, we brought the car into the local dealership service center and they told us they reset something with the MMI. Although, right after this occurred, we then encountered a tail light & signal light issue that kept giving us an error/warning dialog box. Brought the car back into service and after 2.5 months of waiting for our etron to come back from servicing, and due to our state's lemon-law clause, we were offered by Audi to exchange the vehicle like-for-like. After that, we never encountered this same issue with the new (exchanged) etron. AND we vowed to never charge/plug the car at any "free" public chargers anymore unless they were privately owned.
 
#19 ·
Not completely understanding the issue your describing, did the car run ? I had an issue with my 2020 where we had it plugged into a public charger in a underground parking structure where the car was completely dead - nothing, had to manually unlock the doors it was so dead - couldn’t put it on a flat bed because it was to high for the ceiling of the parking structure - so the tow driver said he knew how to jumpstart it and Audi had showed him how/ I figured how much deader could it go so I said yes - he jumped it / I drove it home and its be 100% great since -my dealer looked at it, said couldn’t find anything wrong - the public charger has been replaced btw in that parking structure, my wifes work. dealer told me that a bad charger can pop the protection for the 12 v battery for the incidentals- It been about a year now and all still good - happened at 8000 mile mark.
 
#21 ·
An update to my saga - Sx6 module sitting atop the battery was replaced and the car is back in my hands and on the road. It seems they either had spare module sitting and waiting or pulled it from elsewhere in the US, so I call myself lucky I guess. Outside of the darn myAudi app now not pulling any data from the car, everything else seems to be back to normal. Fingers crossed it lasts
 
#22 ·
Hi all, Jean from Canada. I had a major problems getting my 2022 Sportback 55 from a power failure problem that took 14 weeks to solve, Finally picked it up 2 weeks ago, I did 1080KM with the vehicle since, with no issues but I'm somewhat concerned how reliable it will be. If I have another problem I will definitely dup it and maybe go for a BMW or a Porsche in 2024.
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#23 ·
Hi all, Jean from Canada. I had a major problems getting my 2022 Sportback 55 from a power failure problem that took 14 weeks to solve, Finally picked it up 2 weeks ago, I did 1080KM with the vehicle since, with no issues but I'm somewhat concerned how reliable it will be. If I have another problem I will definitely dup it and maybe go for a BMW or a Porsche in 2024.
Very beautiful car. What did dealer fix for 14 weeks?

heard a few people had front motor coolant leak issue. My 2019 is so far so good. But I am debating if we should keep it. Out of warranty repair for this car gonna be crazy expensive.
 
#24 ·
It is beautiful and fun to drive. The end result for me when I got the message was that the car was stuck in neutral, NO drive NO reverse. wee needed to push it out of my garage to put it on the flatbed. The diagnostic was one falty cell in the battery section. Took 14 weeks to get the part, trained technicians and that special tool to finally arrive at the dealer for them to finish the repair. The repair sheet from the dealer's service department is 6 pages long...
 
#26 ·
Unfortunately yes, Audi needs to keep parts in stock for service issue, they also need to train their technicians and have the tools available. I bombarded them with emails and calls, they finally manage to get those 3 elements at the same time for the dealer to complete the repair.
I suggest you do the same.
 
#28 · (Edited)
Looks like my 2019 ran into this issue today. I am having it towed to the dealership as I type. I have 40k miles on it. Ughhhh I am leasing it and was going to purchase the car but with 1 month left on my lease I think they can have it back since this seems to be an issue. I will see what they say once they take a look at the car. I will say that I have really enjoyed this car over the last 3 years but I hate problems. That is why I left BMW….
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#123 ·
This is a serious issue. My 2019 etron just quit on a winding narrow mountain highway (B.C. Sea to Sky) on a dark and rainy night. Sheer cliff on one side, cliff to the ocean on the other, no shoulder. I was just lucky that no one plowed into me on their way down from Whistler. Super dangerous. I think I will never trust the car again. Might trade it in.