Sinderblock

So yesterday we were driving my wife’s Q5 (3.0) on about an 30 minute trip. It was a hot day, so windows up AC on. A few minutes into the drive I started feeling a little nauseous. I figured it would pass so I tried to tough it out. About 15 minutes later my wife said she was feeling sick too. We started going over what we’d eaten, thinking possibly food poisoning. The scary part is our daughter was with us, but we asked her if she felt ok, and she said she said yes. At this point we weren’t considering the car being a problem. We were both getting chills, nauseous, headache, shaking and our vision was affected. We rolled down the windows just hoping some fresh air might help. After arriving at our destination and getting out of the car, we slowly started feeling better. It was then that we started thinking it might be the car. When we got back in the car to head home, it was obvious that is was the car. With it being Sunday evening there was nowhere to take it, so we decided to drive home with the windows down and AC off. The ride home wasn’t as bad, but we still felt ill by the time we got home and it was several hours before it got back to normal.

This was was one of the scariest things that’s every happened to me in a car, particularly because my daughter was there. There are no warning lights of any kind and otherwise the car is fine. We’ve contacted the local Audi dealership but the manager isn’t calling us back. Has anyone experienced anything like this before? Does anyone have a suggestion for us at all? The car has 74k and has been covered under Audicare and is in otherwise great shape.

Any information will will be greatly appreciated.

spindlewood

Very scary.

1st thing I'd try is getting a carbon monoxide meter / alarm from Home Depot and see what it measures so you have hard data when talking with the dealer and for peace of mind.

Not having the the manager call back is one thing I have little tolerance for, but that is another conversation. Another dealer near-by? Maybe AOA customer service can be of assistance, but I have little experience with AOA.

Sinderblock

The service manager got back to me. She was relatively helpful but said they can’t provide a loaner for 2 weeks, which is...frustrating. I also contacted Audi and they referred me to a dealership.

I’m not into lawsuits, but, given the circumstances, I’ve considered contacting a lawyer. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but this is a serious situation that I feel needs to be treated accordingly.

NABS4

Did you crawl under the car and take a look? I would think there’d be obvious signs of exhaust damage. A industrial safety supply store will be able to rent or sell you a CO detector. If you can’t see anything amiss with the exhaust, drive with the CO detector in the car. If there’s no reading from the detector, there’s no leak. If you’re as upset about this as you claim to be, it will require some effort on your part to investigate. I wouldn’t rely solely on the dealer.

NeedMoreHP

Did you have air recirculate on?

Sinderblock

We had the recirculation off but AC on at first when we were intitially getting sick. When we had the AC off, windows down, doing 75 we still weren’t feeling great.

I dont mind getting under the car and looking (don’t know why I never thought of that, honestly), but there’s no chance I’d start this car and drive it around. I cant express how sick we were feeling after only a few minutes of having the car on. I suppose it’s one or those things that...until you experienced it, you can’t exactly relate to how bad it is (I don’t mean that critically towards anyone reading this).

Winter Cabriolet

Any luck with a Carbon Monoxide detector? Could it be freon leaking?

Sinderblock

I’m at work and can’t test it right now.

I doubt it’s freon. You could feel it even with the AC off, and the system doesn’t have that much in it, where it’d leak that long (about an hour total) and that strong to where it’d make us sick. There’s...almost no question it’s carbon monoxide. I guess my biggest question is....doesn’t this seem like something Audi should take care of? This is a serious safety hazard and it’s not due to negligence on our part? Does it seem that way to you guys? Maybe I just inhaled too much of those fumes? 😂

audijk

If it were me, I’d stop posting in the forum, get a carbon monoxide detector in case they say they can’t find anything and get it towed to your dealer ASAP. If your car is under warranty they should fix it unless it’s damage or something else not covered (I.e. a hole from a rock in the exhaust). Either way, don’t mess around with it and get it looked at by professionals right away!

good luck - that must have been super scary. Glad you all are ok!

Sinderblock

Yea, it’s on its way to the dealership now via tow.

My main reasons for posting were to see to see if anyone else had experienced anything like this, and this is something....more than just a maintenance issue, since it seems like a safety concern and possibly something that Audi might need to be made aware of. If it were just something like my transmission acting funny or something like that, it would be pretty straightforward. This is...something else.