A3 Sportback 35 TFSI 2021 Model

[PR SE]

Purchased new August 2020.
Currently 17k km completed.
In most respects very satisfactory.
5.2 L/100km (about 45mpg UK)
Responsive and comfortable
BUT…….
1. The electronics are off the wall. Brake light was illuminating of its own accord - not resolved by dealer who needed day, date, & exact time of event(s) before tracking was feasible. Seems to have stopped this erratic behaviour, just as suddenly as it started.
2. Cruise control/Audi MIME (?)/Main light sensor all at various times become faulty and when one stops working, so do the rest.
One suggestion was brakes were too hot, but this is unlikely after 400m from a cold start on a mostly straight road. Dealer suggested front sensor could become dimmed by road dust and spray - a fairly childish excuse from people who should know better. Happened yesterday in slushy snow - the cruise control couldn’t be engaged for >100km and didn't rectify itself until the slush was removed from the sensor area at journey’s end. A fundamental flaw in need of redesign or so it seems. I can’t envisage the Polis being happy if I pull into the hard shoulder on the E4 motorway here to nip around to the front to wipe the sensor. Can you? This becomes a confidence issue in the standard fittingt of the vehicle, its safety features and a QC issue from assembly, I’d say.
3. Door surround rubbers peeling from the door (Not the door frame - at least, not so far!)
4. (Nearly forgot) Key fob batteries - one key has had three since August 2020, the second key (used more frequently) is now on its second battery.
THIS CAR IS DRIVING ME BATTY!
Has anyone any experience of these failings or found any reasonable work-around? It’s become so bad and so frequent that we have both lost confidence in the vehicle, we wonder about the quality of the “road safety and driver comfort” features and we would contemplate buying a Hyundai instead. Yes, that bad!

 

[AdamInKent]

2. Cruise control/Audi MIME (?)/Main light sensor all at various times become faulty and when one stops working, so do the rest.
[…] Dealer suggested front sensor could become dimmed by road dust and spray - a fairly childish excuse from people who should know better. Happened yesterday in slushy snow - the cruise control couldn’t be engaged for >100km and didn't rectify itself until the slush was removed from the sensor area at journey’s end. A fundamental flaw in need of redesign or so it seems. I can’t envisage the Polis being happy if I pull into the hard shoulder on the E4 motorway here to nip around to the front to wipe the sensor. Can you? This becomes a confidence issue in the standard fittingt of the vehicle, its safety features and a QC issue from assembly, I’d say.

The problem with snow / slush blocking the cruise control radar is unfortunately not unique to this car: it is common to all cars that use radar for adaptive cruise control (ie pretty much all of them, including those from Hyundai). And you are right that under no circumstances should you stop on the hard shoulder to resolve that problem (the adaptive cruise control is a convenience feature: if it stops working you should be able to fall back on standard, non-adaptive, cruise control.)

I‘ve also had the occasional failure of matrix light functionality caused by obscuration of the camera in the windscreen (to me it makes sense that if the car doesn’t have a clear view of the road then the Matrix function can’t work). The solution was to use the windscreen washers.

I am having a problem with the bottom window seals not maintaining good contact with the windows - which is a bit of a pain as I can’t clear the windows of water drops by winding them down and back up again (in a car that is less than a year old).

 

[PR SE]

The problem with snow / slush blocking the cruise control radar is unfortunately not unique to this car: it is common to all cars that use radar for adaptive cruise control (ie pretty much all of them, including those from Hyundai). And you are right that under no circumstances should you stop on the hard shoulder to resolve that problem (the adaptive cruise control is a convenience feature: if it stops working you should be able to fall back on standard, non-adaptive, cruise control.)

I‘ve also had the occasional failure of matrix light functionality caused by obscuration of the camera in the windscreen (to me it makes sense that if the car doesn’t have a clear view of the road then the Matrix function can’t work). The solution was to use the windscreen washers.

I am having a problem with the bottom window seals not maintaining good contact with the windows - which is a bit of a pain as I can’t clear the windows of water drops by winding them down and back up again (in a car that is less than a year old).

Thanks for your reply. The cruise control/MIME/light sensor all seem to be linked in some fashion and when one misbehaves the others appear to be locked out too. I wouldn’t dream of ever stopping unnecessarily along any busy highway much less Sweden’s E4!
The positioning of the radar sensor seems to attract faults. Higher up or left or right might reduce the incidence of failure.
The light sensor issue is only relevant in so far as when it reports itself not working, the cruise control packs up too. It’s happened after having the car washed and dried. It’s not a “dirt covering sensor fault”. The lower seal issue you mention is present on our A3 also. Another design glitch, it seems.
Dealership here (Norrbil) slow to respond to take vehicle in to give it a good going over, which like so many of the niggling silly little faults perpetuates mistrust in the vehicle and the marque.

 

[PR SE]

So, 6 months later……
After much to-ing and fro-ing, the car was eventually taken in in March. Lots of promises about “when we have a courtesy car available”. This was after the dash displays went blank at one point and the issues mentioned before played merry dances when mobile.
The A1 replacement car (500km on clock) started the same carry on as the A3 - no cruise control fitted though, but warning lights, and bells doing their “thing” for no apparent reason. The dealer service manager remained adamant “there’s no safety issue here” (he would, wouldn’t he!)
So the car was returned. They had been “lucky” that the internal memory had retained one or two of the earlier problems and so they had a starting point for their search. The “system” had an upgrade (don’t know which bit or what upgrade) but they consulted Audi in Södertälje who contacted Audi in Germany who are aware of a glitch somewhere in the software which gives rise to these random display and other issues. And no it’s not a safety issue (again!).
“Don’t worry”, says the service manager, “I drive an Audi and it has that fault too, they’re working on a fix in Germany and that’ll be a free download when it’s released.”
Oil consumption - nothing found; key fob battery life - nothing found; door seals 3 of 4 replaced.
I suppose it would have been a surprise if the car had been returned, washed, and no surprises there!
So there you have it, folks - it’s not a safety issue; Audi Sweden knows about it; Audi Germany is working on it for a model which was introduced 2 (?) years ago; it’s across the A1-A3 ranges at least, maybe more. Oh, and did I mention it’s not a safety issue?
In truth, though, the electronic issues since the “upgrade” seem to have decreased (touching head) and long may that continue. We’ll see where this goes!