Alternator failure related to mild hybrid system?

[DieSel-Q]

On 1/14/2025 at 11:28 PM, DieSel-Q said:

Mine has been at the dealer for a week now. Confirmed there's a drain, but don't know why...

Day 12 ...

[JohnfromEssex]

I am yet another victim of this horrible electrical failure.  My 19 plate A6 50TDi had 2 complete electrical failures around 12 months ago, exactly as documented previously in this thread.  My car was with an independent Audi specialist with whom I have been a customer for many years.  Under guidance from Audi Germany, they remade all the earthing point connections associated with the system and, for almost a year, I had no further issues.   A few weeks ago the yellow warning light  appeared again, however I switched off the car at the "Electrical Fault Contact Workshop" stage, left it for a while and allowed it to reset.  It's been fine since although my Audi specialists ran a diagnostic test and found the alternator had put out 53V which apparently triggered the warning light.  The alternator itself is apparently not in fault mode (yet) but like many others in this thread I have completely lost confidence in the car and the MHEV system in general.  This is my 4th Audi with the 3.0TDi engine, which I think is fantastic and have clocked up some big mileages in the previous cars but I simply don't trust this one now.  I don't want to have the alternator changed before it fails completely (and possibly claim on the 7 year warranty) unless I am 100% certain that a replacement will solve all the problems.  

So, to my question.  Does anyone have any thoughts as to whether this whole issue has now been solved on more recent production cars, e.g. from 2023 onwards?  Is it only related to an initial poor batch of alternators or is it likely an ongoing problem with even recent models with this MHEV system?  I am likely going to change the car soon and naturally this will affect my choice of replacement.

Any thoughts welcome.

Thanks.

[DieSel-Q]

I don't know, but this was an earlier thread on another Audi forum. 

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/a8-s8-d5-platform-discussion-221/belt-starter-generator-fixed-3069220/

Im like you - the 3.0 TDi has been great over the years - economical, quick, reliable usable. 

My A8 is brilliant, but it could be fallible. Waiting dealer...