Table 1 shows one common steering related problems of the 2014 Audi A8.
| Problem Category | Number of Problems |
|---|---|
| Steering problems |
Turbos failed. Was traveling home on a highway, when I pulled off the engine suddenly stalls out and loss of steering occurs as the engine system automatically puts you in park. Switching to neutral leads to a very 'leaden'/heavy driving feeling (kind of like with no power steering, but a little better). Able to get it restarted again with some effort. Car will stall out at any point in time when rpm is 1200 or less (you have about . 25s to get it back out of that range or it stalls again). Power is sluggish. To avoid stalls, shifts must be rapid and neutral-shift+gas needs to be applied to prevent rpm from being below 1200. Made it home safely, but had it towed to dealership. Dealership notified me that it was a turbo failure, both impellers have become lodged in the side of turbo casing and are stalled out. Nothing preceded this; no engine lights or anything. Effect was sudden and drastic. Temperatures were fine. Attempt to drive to repair shop led to total loss of coolant. It is believed this is a seperate issue.
Driving home from church, heard a rattle, like a stick was stuck underneath. Then felt loss of power. No warning/engine check light, but car stalled while I was turning left off a highway. When car stalled I had no warning, and no steering or brakes. Husband was able to assist with getting care off road and out of oncoming traffic. We were worried about being able to avoid pedestrians at the corner as we had no control and they did not seem to be aware of the emergency. Looked online and saw lots of similar stories. Exactly like what happened to us. Mechanic says turbo chargers failed. One is sheered off and one is rubbed/failing. Audi quoted us $14,000 to repair. Car is at 80,700 miles which seems to be 700 miles out of warrantee. All service work has been done by Audi and recorded. Audi is unwilling to help with this issue. This has to be the most scary incident driving I have ever had. It was shocking that there was no warning. And I lost both steering and braking assist while crossing a travel lane and making a turn. It appears that Audi is aware that they have filter/check valve issues for the turbo charger oil supply. They have since upgraded these parts but have failed to replace the faulty parts when cars like ours go in for service. They have also failed to warn people of this potential hazard. We have called Audi corporate and they say there is nothing they can do to help.