I am filing a formal complaint regarding serious safety-related defects in a newly purchased Audi vehicle. Immediately upon delivery, the car presented: • A faulty solenoid, a critical engine component, creating risks of engine misfires, sudden stalling, loss of acceleration, and transmission malfunctions while driving. Such failures pose imminent hazards during the cross-country travel that military families like mine regularly undertake. • Defective windshield wipers from the outset, jeopardizing visibility and safety during inclement weather. These defects demonstrate systemic quality control failures by Audi, undermining the safety expectations owed to U.S. consumers. Requested Action I urge the federal safety agency to: 1. Investigate Audi for potential violations of federal motor vehicle safety standards. 2. Evaluate whether a recall is warranted, as this appears not to be an isolated case. 3. Hold Audi accountable for delivering vehicles with concealed or unaddressed safety defects. As a U.S. military officer, I cannot risk the safety of my family in a vehicle plagued by such defects. American families deserve full confidence that new vehicles meet uncompromising safety standards.
Audi Q7 wipers problems
32 of the 1,059 owner complaints about the Audi Q7 describe windshield wiper failure, most of them for the 2011 model year.
- owner complaints
- 32
- worst model year
- 2011
- typical mileage
- 88,000
By model year
Often reported together
What owners say
Right passenger windshield wiper arm, broke off and windshield during driving. It started to sprinkle and the automatic windshield wipers came on. The right passenger side wiper arm broke off and went flying over the vehicle. Fortunately the vehicle behind me was far away and was able to maneuver out of the way. I checked and the whole arm broke, not the wiper blade. The drivers side is fine. I read that this is a common issue and that many drivers have had the exact issue on the same side. This spans over several years. I saw from 2008 Q7 to 2016.
1. Entire Passenger windshield wiper arm flew off of car during a rain storm on the highway. Needed replaced. This caused me to have obstructed vision. No warning lights or symptoms before it happened. 2. Passenger windshield wiper got stuck straight up, caught by driver wiper and pulled off. Needed replaced again. Obstructed vision, not able to use wipers until I was able to pull over and correct it.
Passenger windshield wiper snapped off. Light rain and also driving at normal interstate speed.
Driving on a Saturday evening when it started raining. Wipers automatically engaged, suddenly saw passenger side blade warp then snap off and fly off the to the side of the street causing the driver behind me to swerve almost causing an accident. I pulled over immediately, to retrieve the piece to try and determine what happened. Saw that it just snapped off and flew off without any notice.
2 separate occasions now, the passenger-side windshield wipers have broken off. This is apparently a common incident with some Audi vehicles due to poor manufacturing/design. Audi has not implemented a recall. This is a safety concern as the wipers have broken off while I was driving and could hit another vehicle!
I was driving in the rain with my wipers on, set on low when the passenger side wiper ejected itself and the wiper arm broke near the base. To keep my windshield from being scratched I had to turn my wipers off altogether forcing me to drive in the unsafe condition of poor visibility. There were no signs that the arm was about to break or the wiper was about to come off, they did so very suddenly.
While driving in moderate rain with the windshield wipers on, the passenger side windshield wiper flew off. I ordered a new passenger side windshield wiper and it worked for a month. Then the passenger side wiper froze during use, causing the driver side wiper to hit it.
The passenger side wiper broke in heavy rain. I called the company and they refused to fix because it is out of warranty even though this is a known and common problem.
Turned on the car and within a few minutes smoke filled up the whole car. The smoke was coming from the rear wiper from the inside. Seems to be coming from the wiper motor but can't tell until I take the plastic cover off. Started smoking immediately every time I turned the car on, tested it a total of 3 times. Strange caramel colored residue left on the back window from the inside. Smells terrible. The car was stationary the whole tome and parked in a neighborhood. Surprised a fire didn't start because of the amount of smoke. Some research on this saying some people had an actual fire inside the car.
Related recalls
No recalls on record for this model year.
Questions about the Audi Q7 wipers
Which Audi Q7 years have windshield wiper failure problems?
The model years with the most reports are 2011 (7 complaints), 2013 (7 complaints) and 2007 (4 complaints).
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