Auxiliary Heater Recall - Audi Q5 and others

[James_G]

My wife's Q5 is approaching 4 years and is due for a service. As part of the conversations about what would need doing (which were unecessarily protracted but can be saved for another thread) I have been told that it is subject to a recall, specifically 80C6 for replacement of the auxiliary heater.

There's a bit of news out there about this, apparently 1.2m cars affected and 33k of those are in the UK according to the DVSA and it includes the A4, A5 and the Q5 (diesel models in all cases)

https://www.dft.gov.uk/vosa/apps/recalls/searches/...

Speaking about the Q5, apparently this job takes 30 minutes on the LHD car but for those of us in the UK (and other RHD markets?) it takes 6 hours! Sadly nobody can explain to me why it takes so much longer on RHD but I suspect more of the car needs to be removed, presumably the dash.

Has anybody had this work done in the UK? Do you know what needs to be removed? My fear is that my local dealer won't have done many before (the first time they did it, the technician took 2 days they told me) and whatever they remove will rattle incessantly afterward.

[gregpot2000]

Nothing much to add, just that my A4 is in today for a service and this is being done as part of it.

Did you find out anything else on it? Creaks and rattles drive me mad as well, and already starting to get a few! (Late Dec 63 plate)

[fourstardan]

I got this today in the post, it isn't of concern as i got rid of the car back to audi last year.

What did make me chuckle was that i'd now got a Passat that has i find heating that takes a while to warm up.....I always thought it was better on the A4, little did I know it was probably combusting not actually heating LOL

[tigger1]

fourstardan said:

I got this today in the post, it isn't of concern as i got rid of the car back to audi last year.

Are audi using old owner data? I got my letter today. but sold car in September (trade in at a non-audi main dealer)

[James_G]

gregpot2000 said:

Nothing much to add, just that my A4 is in today for a service and this is being done as part of it.

Did you find out anything else on it? Creaks and rattles drive me mad as well, and already starting to get a few! (Late Dec 63 plate)

Yes I did. I went to my local dealer last week to book in for the S-Tronic service (38k miles, 14 plate) and spoke with the service advisor about the recall. Turns out they've worked out how to replace it by just removing the glovebox rather than, I presumed the dash, and so the time to do it has dropped from many hours to 3.

Work was done on Friday last week and there are no signs that they've done anything, so no trim damage and no rattles. I would test the auxiliary heater but I don't know what circumstances are needed to activate it because MMI only gives the option of "off" or "auto".

[RammyMP]

James_G said:

Yes I did. I went to my local dealer last week to book in for the S-Tronic service (38k miles, 14 plate) and spoke with the service advisor about the recall. Turns out they've worked out how to replace it by just removing the glovebox rather than, I presumed the dash, and so the time to do it has dropped from many hours to 3.

Work was done on Friday last week and there are no signs that they've done anything, so no trim damage and no rattles. I would test the auxiliary heater but I don't know what circumstances are needed to activate it because MMI only gives the option of "off" or "auto".

I believe the aux heater comes on when the outside temperature is low and the engine hasn’t warmed up yet (and you have more than a 1/4 of a tank of fuel). On my A5 the consumption meter in in DIS says fuel is being used when it’s cold outside when the A/C, heated seats, etc are all off. That’s when I presume the aux heater is on to blow out warm air.