[boblepp]

This week I had a complete failure of the battery with no prior warning. It simply went dead overnight. Boosting and then a short drive failed to add enough charge to restart. The dealer charged overnight and got a small charge but not any sustained power. The replacement was under full warranty of course.

I have never experienced such a sudden complete failure so thought I would pass it along.

 

[rnlabas]

it happens about 0.5% of the time across all lines ...

 

[john]

My Q3 starting 'hard starting' in the mornings - cranking for a few or more seconds. My wife's Q3 is just fine at this point. Running my over the dealer to have them check it out tomorrow. Will report back.
Thanks, John

 

[AudiFox]

Should be covered by your warranty also but two dead batteries already... Maybe that one batch of batteries were faulty?

 

[john]

Everything tested fine today. Battery was good and not other faults found.

 

[DEQ3.NEWB]

I had the same experience with my Q3 at 1,700 miles (or 8 days ago). It was an utter disappointment. I hate to take my convertible out in the cold; but had no choice as I had an appointment to go to.

The battery for me was totally dead -- like you overnight and plop it wouldn't even disarm as I put my hand in the handle or even blink as it should. I had to use the key o) to open the door. When I started to push the Start/Stop button, I got hardly even a flicker -- mainly from the Passenger Air Bag is Off light.

My other car has a 1800 CC motor and a tiny battery to fit. Unlike a larger motor and a larger battery for that matter, it took a longer than expected time of 15 minutes for my Q3 to finally turnover.

Fortunately, albeit it's still a relatively short amount of time it hasn't died since. But I have also changed a few lighting (dimmer or off in most cases) settings.

Knock on wood that it happens again.

 

[wkchu]

Same thing happened to me today. Everything seems working fine Friday night and the battery is completely dead Saturday morning. Milage is only 4500 km. Jump started and drove to dealer right away. After their initial check, they told me the battery seems normal. They will continue to investigate next Monday. I'll update if they find out what the problem is.

 

[rnlabas]

hmmm - given that this forum represents a practically small sample of Q3 owners, say about 1000 members, even at a "normal" rate of such failure of 0.5%, that'd be about 5 failures. So we are now in the "normal" range I'd say ...

 

[cableguy]

A friend of mine said that Audi's have a history of electrical system reliability problems. And he'd be leery of buying one. But this was in reference to longer term ownership not first year issues. Is that an accurate representation?

 

[rnlabas]

A friend of mine said that Audi's have a history of electrical system reliability problems. And he'd be leery of buying one. But this was in reference to longer term ownership not first year issues. Is that an accurate representation?

Nope - I would NOT say that - sounds like Unintended Acceleration kinda hype or propaganda. I see a LOT of older cars and while certain models and certain drivetrains do have "their" issues, I have NOT seen (nor heard) of such long term electrical system reliability problems for the brand, and certainly NOT as much as I HAVE seen and heard of others (who shall remain nameless).

 

[cableguy]

Thanks Roger. My friend said this came from Consumer Reports comparative rankings and that Audi, VW and Chrysler products did not receive as favorable ratings on electrical problems. I found it interesting...I would say that I see more Audis driving around Bend than just about any other car...except Subaru that is. Apparently these rankings haven't deterred local buyers.

 

[wkchu]

So here is the update. They performed a draw test and no amperage draw when car is parked. They charged the battery Saturday night and found that the battery drop low Monday morning. So they confirmed it is a battery failure. Got the battery replaced and hopefully I won't get 2 bad batteries in a roll

 

[liy]

Thanks Roger. My friend said this came from Consumer Reports comparative rankings and that Audi, VW and Chrysler products did not receive as favorable ratings on electrical problems. I found it interesting...I would say that I see more Audis driving around Bend than just about any other car...except Subaru that is. Apparently these rankings haven't deterred local buyers.

FWIW, from Consumerreports.org, in its detailed report on the Audi Q3, under Reliability (which overall, it rates the Q3's reliability as" 94% above average"), rates the "Reliability History" for its electrical system as "Excellent."

I'm thinking that maybe your friend should throw away some of those old issues of Consumer Reports, and subscribe online for a more current assessment!

 

[Ohio Joe]

FWIW, from Consumerreports.org, in its detailed report on the Audi Q3, under Reliability (which overall, it rates the Q3's reliability as" 94% above average"), rates the "Reliability History" for its electrical system as "Excellent."

I'm thinking that maybe your friend should throw away some of those old issues of Consumer Reports, and subscribe online for a more current assessment!

Not to mention that they also recently rated the Q3 as the most reliable overall period.....

 

[AudiFox]

Thought Lexus would take that title since they're generally known for reliability but good on Audi for beating them.

 

[cableguy]

Since the Q3 was just introduced to the US in 2015, is the reliability rating a long term rating based on non-US results or were they only measuring short term reliability?

 

[rnlabas]

...or as Mark Twain once notably quipped, "... lies, damned lies and statistics."

 

[DampDuffer]

Took our 2016 Q3 in for its free six month checkup today....and everything was "normal" and looking good.......

HOWEVER, while at the Audi dealer they performed "Control Module Software Update 45E1" which is a critical recall that just popped up on 9 March 2016.

The software update is to correct an "excessive amount of current drawn from the battery after the car is parked and turned off."

It only affects 2016 models built during certain dates, but the dealer was unable to tell me what those dates are.

Perhaps this is one of the culprits in the dead batteries that some have experienced.

Note: As I've not been a Continental Tire fan in the past, and because cableguy reported three blistered tires on a Q3 that was delivered within days of our Q3, I had them take a thorough look at the tires when they took them off to be rotated.....no problems found!

 

[rnlabas]

Good catch - thanks ! I'll post some additional details on this update shortly -

 

[rnlabas]

Please see this post for an update of the Audi TSB and campaign - NOT "a critical recall" for more information ...