ThomasWShea

I believe buy back gets you what you paid for the car - the best way to go, but not sure about all the details though. the dealer can agree to it, but if they don't want to do that, and you want to force it there are criteria state by state so you'd have to talk to someone knowledgeable. someone mentioned in mass. that the time a car is waiting for parts doesn't count toward time in the shop there. time in the shop is a criteria in most states. in your case, you have a loaner, so that may be another loop hole that could disqualify you from a buy back - you aren't without a car. the dealer is providing a vehicle.

hhhmd

Thanks Tom - I appreciate the reply.

vanduynaj

Mine (2019 Q8, no warranty left on part) broke on the highway and was sitting at an independent mechanic since Dec 01 trying to rebuild the alternator/generator with no success.

Monday the indy told me the dealer is going to pay for the work even outside of warranty according to a bulletin issued Jan 31. I cannot find it myself but dealer confirmed that's correct. I had my car towed to the audi dealer yesterday and put in the line. No courtesy car offered because they have 8+ others waiting on the part, but they did indicate they will cover all expenses. This is in the Chicago suburbs.

Mattman928

It went into the shop last week, and they have a bout a half dozen cars. They’re all waiting for alternators. I was lucky enough to get a loaner so I have a car not a great one, but a car and in the last. They mentioned something about a trade-in deal Audi has for these cars with alternator issues. I’m waiting to hear from their sales department. My senses it’s going to be in underwhelming offer, but I’ll let you know what I hear.

Rubberbumper

2019 Q8 owner; warranty expires this August. I'm already looking at replacement candidates. If Audi doesn't extend the warranty on the alternator, I'm going, going gone! The pity is it's hard to find anything else that has the Q8's rear seat legroom. Maybe back to Acura MDX....

Steve

Mattman928

The dealer called to say that Audi is warranting the alternator and I won’t need to use my extended warranty’s

BRITinUS

I just took my RS Q8 in for its first service at the local Audi dealership having owned it for exactly a year. I quizzed the SA about the alternator issues and he said they currently have 19 vehicles waiting on alternators including A6's, Q7's and Q8's. The longest one has now been waiting for an alternator for 78 days. He said they have no delivery forecasts for any of their replacement alternator orders. I then asked him about the alternator software update and exactly what its supposed to do. He said it fixed nothing, and the problem was physical failure within the alternator itself.

On the positive side my first year of ownership has been entirely problem-free. After 7,300 miles I have not added any engine oil since delivery, and the electronic dipstick was showing the level at about 50%. Let's hope the second year of ownership proves to be as problem free as the first.......

jzhu625

2022 RSQ8 here, 12k miles so far no issue. knock on wood!

gb4.2

Hello--I'm an S8 (2021 MY) owner and posted the following yesterday in the A8/S8 forum. This problem is spread throughout all Audi models that use the 48 volt belt starter/generators so Audi has a huge issue on their hands.

Good news update!!--My local dealer called this morning to let me know they'd received a shipment of 4 Continental 48v belt starter/generators this morning. One of them is for my 2021 S8. I had stopped by the dealership yesterday and spoke with one of the service advisors and the parts dept. about any projected arrival timing. They showed me the status of this part on their system monitor throughout the eastern U.S.None were designated for our area as of yesterday morning. I left there yesterday feeling like there was no hope they'd be able to get one of these units for my Audi for weeks or months to come. When I got the call early this morning that 4 of them arrived today, I was shocked. I was told that Audi called them yesterday afternoon and wanted to know how many new units they needed and asked for the VIN's and owner information. With no promises made or even an indication of what was going to happen, 4 new units showed up this morning with one of them designated for my car. It'll be installed next week!

Further interesting information---These new units of the same build design...no improvements/no re-design. Audi is simply sending out new units to replace known bad ones. Continental has not solved the issue yet so all of their production is still of the faulty design. Newly produced 2023 Audi's are receiving the same potentially faulty starter/generators which is why the TSB was extended to cover 2023 models. As part of their "solution" for owners, Audi has announced an extended warranty for this problem (U56) for 7 years/unlimited mileage. They are most likely going to issue a recall for every vehicle that has the current unit so they can replace it with the new version of this Continental product--but not until the new version is fully in production. It's anyone's guess as to when that could happen.

After next Thursday, I'll be able to drive my Audi again but will need to be on the alert for that group of codes at startup that tells me not to drive it if the new alternator/generators fails.

retom

Problem is in 48V charging system software, not in starter/generator.