That didn't go well

[Blacklablover]

A week last Tuesday I picked up my new Q7. Thursday of this week I set off on my long journey home to Northern Ireland from London. The traffic was atrocious but the car has the Tour Pack so the ACC and Lane assist were put to the test and passed with flying colours. An absolute joy to drive in very heavy traffic.
As I travelled north on the M6 I got a yellow battery sign and the text 'Electric fault, contact workshop'. I contacted Audi assist via the onboard call system and was told that as nothing else was wrong that I should be ok to continue but obviously dependent of further possible further faults.
Some time later I got the message that there was a fault with the air suspension and then a slew of other fault messages in quick succession and finally gearbox fault and to stop the car. By now it was dark, pouring with rain and windy - the start of storm Eric. I had been overtaking a procession of trucks and they weren't allowing me to pull over but as my speed reduced one of them realised I had a problem (car had gone into neutral) and allowed me to pull in to the hard shoulder..
After coming to a halt the car died with the exception of the hazard warning lights. Absolutely nothing was operable even the SOS or the Audi Assist. A little while later the car came to life and I was able to contact Audi Assist. I was close to Gretna and the closest Audi technicians were Glasgow and Newcastle! Not helpful. I was recovered to the Days Inn at Gretna which Audi assist organised and who paid for the room
The following morning I got the message that I would be taken to Audi Carlisle where the matter would be investigated. Prior to the arrival of the recovery truck out of curiosity I turned the ignition on and surprisingly the display had no faults indicated. I started the car and drove it 50 yards and stopped. Still no faults displayed.
The car was booked in at Audi Carlisle and the investigations began. A faulty alternator is suspected though I am not convinced. I am now back in London in a rental Q7 due to my own car being fully loaded with luggage
Audi Carlisle were great to deal with and Audi assist were very efficient. I am now awaiting contact with an update from Audi Carlisle as by the close of play the fault had not been fully identified/rectified in order that I can finally return home.
So a brand new Audi Q7 with just 600 miles on the clock is sitting in a workshop after being recovered from the hard shoulder of the M6. Not exactly what I expected from a £60K+ car and not a great start to my Audi ownership.

[Papereyes]

Sorry to hear that, particularly as is a brand new car.

Hope it gets rectified asap, think there probably has been only a few owners with such bad luck.

It's an excellent car, Shame it had to begin this way. Hopefully you'll be back on the road enjoying your new ride

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[ragebe]

My personal experiences with Audi Assist are very good. However I fully understand what you're saying, with respect to the cost of the vehicle

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[Nemo78]

Sad start to New car life - Audi Assist are fantastic and to be fair so are the AA when Audi Assist haven’t been available.

Not that it’ll make you feel any better but my Q at 4 (or 6) weeks old needed a new gearbox and since then other than the odd issue with DPF regeneration issues it’s been superb, in face whilst the most unreliable Audi my favourite Audi by far - when it works it’s absolutely phenomenal in doing everything and more that I need it to.

Fingers crossed it’s all resolved nice and quickly for you - from memory dealers have to report back within 48hrs if it’s a breakdown recovery (sshhhh sometimes the easiest way to get the car in with an issue rather than trying to book it in....my dealers told me that )

Anyway fingers crossed it’s nothing major

[Blacklablover]

I spoke with the service department at the dealership today. Apparently the technician dealing with the car has sent a report to Audi in Germany and they are awaiting a reply. They are to contact me tomorrow with an update. A report to Germany by the technician doesn't sound too great to me.

[Retom]

I have been driving Q7 for more than 3 years ( one of the first Q7 4M). It happened to me couple of times that the car started to send false communicates about malfunctioning of different systems. First time I was almost in panic because it was the fault of air suspension and the gear box. But after restarting the car all these messages disappeared. Later when it happened again, I knew that first I should re-start the engine after couple of minutes when all the systems are switched into the sleeping mode. Always helped.
I am not saying that it would help also in your case but my experience is: first restart engine after couple of minutes, if it does'n help disconnect the battery (risk of loosing of some car memory - but this is a later problem of Audi service). If these steps don't help: call Audi assist.
Our cars are mobile computers and such a reboot sometime helps. It shouldn't be like this and the car has to be checked later by Audi but in emergency situation like yours it is always worth to try.

[Blacklablover]

Retom I agree with you. I probably had every fault message possible but when the gearbox fault flashed up my little heart nearly stopped pumping particularly when the box went into neutral on its own accord.
In the owners manual reference is made to a reset following a malfunction. This we did that night. Placing the back of the key against the key symbol in the centre console performs the reset and in my case clearly reset all the fault messages. Your post is reassuring in that it suggest that some of the fault warnings may in fact be erroneous though there is an issue with the alternator or relays as the battery in my car was allegedly low.

[andyhud007]

So sorry to hear this and I hope it gets sorted soon.

I wouldn't be concerned about the report to audi Germany.. If anything the opposite. The dealers in the UK only have a finitie amount of info to work with and the diagnostic tools are very much 'follow the bouncing ball' so when there is no ball to follow they have to go back to mother ship. This doesn't mean its more serious, just that their systems don't give a concrete answer... Not in all cases.

As for all the messages, yes like the others have said I think a lot will be erroneous. Remember every module in the car talks to every other module so if one fails it can cause a heap of 'warnings' from other modules as they are basically complaining about the one module at fault.. Not the whole car is about the self implode.

Let us know how it goes but hope this may have been of some additional value.

Andy

[Blacklablover]

Andy I was hoping it was like you mention that all the other faults were related to the original electrical system fault. As more and more energy was used from the battery a module would shut down as a safety precaution and so on.
Pleased to hear about the report to Germany possibly just being a case of reporting to the mother ship lol. I would also think Audi would like to be informed of a car with only 600 miles on it needing a repair.
In a way it is my own fault. As I mentioned in the original post, the traffic was horrendous and I would ring my wife and them my daughter telling them how well the car was doing and what a pleasure it was to drive in atrocious traffic. The adaptive cruise control, traffic jam assist and lane keeping (semi autonomous driving) were fantastic and certainly kept the stress levels down. I won't boast about it next time!
Many thanks to everyone who has responded as it kind of lifts the spirit rather than me thinking of worst case scenario. Once I have an outcome I will update the thread.

[Nemo78]

As I mentioned in the original post, the traffic was horrendous and I would ring my wife and them my daughter telling them how well the car was doing and what a pleasure it was to drive in atrocious traffic. The adaptive cruise control, traffic jam assist and lane keeping (semi autonomous driving) were fantastic and certainly kept the stress levels down. I won't boast about it next time!

Don’t worry about boasting about this - I think we all have in the past - fantastic system

Fingers crossed you get the call and update later today and it’s nothing major at all