Safety Recall 20DN / Fuel Level Sender – 2021 Audi RS6, RS7, 2020-2021 A6, S6, S7, 2019-2021 A6, & A7

March 14, 2022 NHTSA CAMPAIGN NUMBER: 22V155000

Fuel Gauge May Display Inaccurate Fuel Reading

An inaccurate fuel reading may cause an engine stall due to lack of fuel, increasing the risk of a crash.

 

NHTSA Campaign Number: 22V155

Manufacturer Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.

Components ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

Potential Number of Units Affected 45,789

 

Summary

Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Audi) is recalling certain 2021 Audi RS6 Avant, RS7, 2020-2021 A6 Allroad, S6 Sedan, S7, 2019-2021 A6 Sedan, and A7 vehicles. The fuel level sender may stick, causing an inaccurate fuel level reading to be displayed on the instrument cluster.

 

Remedy

Dealers will install a new sensor in the tank, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed February 17, 2023. Owners may contact Audi customer service at 1-800-253-2834. Audi’s number for this recall is 20DN.

 

Notes

Owners may also contact the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Vehicle Safety Hotline at 1-888-327-4236 (TTY 1-800-424-9153), or go to www.nhtsa.gov.

 

Check if your Audi has a Recall

 


Affected Vehicles

Country Beginning Model Year Ending Model Year Vehicle Vehicle Count
USA 2020 2021 A6 ALLROAD 1,714
USA 2019 2021 A6 SEDAN 30,351
USA 2019 2021 A7 8,295
USA 2021 2021 RS6 AVANT 1,501
USA 2021 2021 RS7 1,353
USA 2020 2021 S6 SEDAN 1,459
USA 2020 2021 S7 1,116
CAN 2020 2021 A6 ALLROAD 187
CAN 2019 2021 A6 SEDAN 1,078
CAN 2019 2021 A7 1,017
CAN 2021 2021 RS6 AVANT 465
CAN 2021 2021 RS7 226
CAN 2020 2021 S6 SEDAN 117
CAN 2020 2021 S7 126

 

Problem Description

Due to tolerance deviations, the distance between the fuel level sender and a ventilation pipe in the tank may be too small. As a result, the fuel level sender may get stuck on the ventilation pipe which will lead to a drop in the fuel level not being detected and therefore to an incorrect fuel level and remaining range being displayed in the instrument cluster. This may cause the vehicle to run out of fuel even though the indicator shows that there is still fuel in the tank. Inaccurate fuel indication may lead to an engine stall due to fuel starvation, increasing the risk of a crash.

 

Corrective Action

In order to create a sufficient distance between the fuel level sender and the ventilation pipe, a sensor with tighter geometric tolerances will be installed within the fuel tank.

 

Precautions

If the recall condition is present in the vehicle, the driver may notice an implausible remaining range since the last refueling or an implausible stagnation of the fuel gauge. Should this occur, customers are advised to contact their authorized Audi dealer without delay to have the vehicle inspected.

 

Code Visibility

On or about March 18, 2022, the campaign code was applied to affected vehicles.

Owner Notification

Owner notification will take place in February 2023. Owner letter examples are included in this bulletin for your reference.

 


Chronology :

December 2020: First field cases reported to AUDI AG where customers ran out of fuel but fuel level indicated tank still half full. December 2020 – February 2021: Investigation of field cases and root cause analysis together with supplier of tank and supplier of fuel level sender. It was found that fuel level sender may get stuck due to borderline tolerances. In combination with a different installation position of the fuel delivery module which was introduced in production in April 2018, this may cause the distance between the sender and the internal ventilation pipe may be too small in certain cases. In February 2021 the tank supplier introduced a special precheck of the fuel level sender before installation in production.

March 2021-August 2021: Due to the unknown frequency and effect of the potential tolerance anomaly, Audi continued field monitoring to better assess the issue.September 2021 – February 2022: After the US market reported an increase in claims for fuel level sender getting stuck and indicating the wrong fuel level, an additional analysis commenced regarding the field situation in the different markets, failure rates, specific influences and possible impacts. Based on field cases potential additional root causes were investigated and finally ruled out.

March 7, 2022: The topic was presented to the Audi Product Safety Committee. Due to the possibility of customers running out of fuel while driving, a decision for a voluntary worldwide recall is made. Since the production remedy was introduced at the tank supplier in February 2021, Audi decides to include vehicles built until May 2021 in the recall population. This includes a large safety margin to assure all tanks produced before the improvement are captured.

Date of determination: March 7, 2022

As of March 11, 2022 VWGoA is aware of 115 warranty claims in the US.

There are 234 field reports (ATA and FRED). From 11/30/2018 to 3/30/2022.

AMENDED 12/21/2022: Updated chronology in separate document.

 


12 Affected Products

Vehicles

MAKE MODEL YEAR
AUDI A6 2019-2021
AUDI A7 2019-2021
AUDI RS6 2021
AUDI RS7 2021
AUDI S6 2020-2021
AUDI S7 2020-2021

 


15 Associated Documents

Defect Notice 573 Report

RCLRPT-22V155-1562.PDF 221.155KB

RCLRPT-22V155-1562

 


Recall Acknowledgement

RCAK-22V155-1272.pdf 645.584KB

RCAK-22V155-1272

 


Manufacturer Notices(to Dealers,etc) – AUDI Date: March 18, 2022 Advance Notice – Safety Recall 20DN / Fuel Level Sender

RCMN-22V155-2636.pdf 845.69KB

RCMN-22V155-2636

 


Recall 573 Report-Amendment 1-04/06/2022

RCLRPT-22V155-9366.PDF 221.126KB

RCLRPT-22V155-9366

 


ISSUED Interim Owner Notification Letter(Part 577) – PRI

RIONL-22V155-0318.pdf 126.529KB

RIONL-22V155-0318

 


ISSUED Interim Owner Notification Letter(Part 577)

RIONL-22V155-3239.pdf 108.284KB

RIONL-22V155-3239

 


Recall 573 Report-Amendment 2 ( 22V155 ) 06/13/2022

RCLRPT-22V155-7577.PDF 243.408KB

RCLRPT-22V155-7577

 


Chronology for Amended Volkswagen Recall Audi 20DN / NHTSA 22V-155

RMISC-22V155-5461.pdf 203.694KB

RMISC-22V155-5461

 


ISSUED Interim Owner Notification Letter(Part 577)

RIONL-22V155-5990.pdf 108.284KB

RIONL-22V155-5990

 


ISSUED Interim Owner Notification Letter(Part 577) – PRI

RIONL-22V155-9278.pdf 126.529KB

RIONL-22V155-9278

 


Remedy Instructions and TSB

RCRIT-22V155-8723.pdf 2239.343KB

RCRIT-22V155-8723

 


VolkswagenAudi Dealer Launch Notice – February 2023

RCMN-22V155-1172.pdf 222.211KB

RCMN-22V155-1172

 


ISSUED Owner Notification Letter(Part 577)

RCONL-22V155-0561.pdf 155.527KB

RCONL-22V155-0561

 


ISSUED Owner Notification Letter(Part 577) – PRI

RCONL-22V155-3339.pdf 169.52KB

RCONL-22V155-3339

 


Recall 573 Report-Amendment 3 ( 22V155 ) 12/21/2022

RCLRPT-22V155-7314.PDF 249.953KB

RCLRPT-22V155-7314

 


Latest Recalls Documents

https://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs/documentList.xhtml?docId=22V155&docType=RCL

 


 

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