A5 fire!!!!

[Sand.and]

Our a5 2.0 TDI cab caught fire just over a week before Christmas!! Completely burnt out. Fire officer said electrical fault behind the dash. Has anyone else had or heard of anything like this happening before???? Need urgent responses please, caused considerable house damage as car was on the drive. Need all the info I can get to fight our cause. As you can imagine, pretty distraught

[OilFarmer]

I would suggest you get your car insurance company involved... If the claim is going to cost the insurance company enough money, they will sent a fire investigator to determine the cause of the fire and pay for the damages.

[Sand.and]

Thanks - it is with the insurance company, but wondered if anyone else had any experience at all like this.

I've found an A1 Car fire from September, but nothing about A5's

[fdm]

Hello. Unbelievably, my A5 was also destroyed by fire in mid December. I was driving it and nearly home when smoke came from behind the dashboard. As I pulled onto our driveway I saw flames in the passenger footwell and exited the vehicle.  The vehicle was engulfed fairly quickly and was totally destroyed.  The incident damaged my driveway, nearby trees and bushes and cracked a neighbour's window due to the heat. My car insurers are dealing with the vehicle and my home insurers are dealing with the drive. However, Audi have, to date, shrugged their shoulders and deflected any blame from themselves as there is no "proof" that it was a vehicle defect. I have challenged them to provide any other cogent explanation for such a thing happening but they have been unable to do so.  To say I am disappointed by Audi's response would be a massive understatement. For such a global car brand to be so disinterested in  vehicle safety issues is staggering.

Have you been in touch with Audi at all ?

[Sand.and]

Hello. Unbelievably, my A5 was also destroyed by fire in mid December. I was driving it and nearly home when smoke came from behind the dashboard. As I pulled onto our driveway I saw flames in the passenger footwell and exited the vehicle.  The vehicle was engulfed fairly quickly and was totally destroyed.  The incident damaged my driveway, nearby trees and bushes and cracked a neighbour's window due to the heat. My car insurers are dealing with the vehicle and my home insurers are dealing with the drive. However, Audi have, to date, shrugged their shoulders and deflected any blame from themselves as there is no "proof" that it was a vehicle defect. I have challenged them to provide any other cogent explanation for such a thing happening but they have been unable to do so.  To say I am disappointed by Audi's response would be a massive understatement. For such a global car brand to be so disinterested in  vehicle safety issues is staggering.

Have you been in touch with Audi at all ?

Hi

OMG - two A5's in December!! Fire officer has stated he is sure it was electrical, but like you Audi seem to be shrugging it off. We have made contact with them via email - copied in top bloke at Audi UK. Had a guy from Audi UK make contact a couple of times, first time he was all apologetic and wanted info so he could help - since then it's been all down hill. Got fed up and emailed top guy in Audi Germany and re-copied UK guy - both have read the email, but no response so far.

Were not letting it go, determined to get answers. Our home has suffered considerable damage, lucky it was a cabriolet though as the roof released the tension from windows exploding and causing more damage according to fire officer. 

Have you looked on you tube??? Its amazing how many Audi's have gone up in flames. 

What have Audi said to you?? "Proof" works both ways, vehicles don't just go up in flames. They may say no proof that the vehicle was defective, but also, there is no proof to say that it wasn't.!!  I wonder what the press would make of our claims???

[fdm]

Were you driving the car at the time ? How old was the A5 ?  Did your insurers inspect the vehicle ?

I've made sure that my vehicle is retained to allow Audi to inspect it.  The vehicle was inspected by an engineer from my insurers who concluded that it was likely to be an electrical fault but as the vehicle was a CAT A burnout they wouldn't be able to definitively conclude that so further forensic inspection would be pointless. However, Audi have forensic experts who could inspect the vehicle and, possibly (although not definitely), find a cause for the fire.  I, like you, have been shrugged off by Audi and whilst they were initially concerned they refused to assist with a courtesy car as mine was not with them for repair (?!) and so we were down to one car for 3 weeks and over the Christmas holidays. It has been a massive hassle and they've done absolutely nothing to assist.

I am waiting for Peter Morrell from Audi to come back to me.  I have put him on notice that unless Audi act in the proper way then this incident will be in local media and socail media. 

Could you please let me have the e mail addresses of the UK and German Audi people you have been e mailing ?

Thanks.

[Burning]

Our a5 2.0 TDI cab caught fire just over a week before Christmas!! Completely burnt out. Fire officer said electrical fault behind the dash. Has anyone else had or heard of anything like this happening before???? Need urgent responses please, caused considerable house damage as car was on the drive. Need all the info I can get to fight our cause. As you can imagine, pretty distraught thanks.

My three and a half year Audi A5 Sportback, bought from an Audi dealership and serviced exclusively by Audi went up in a fireball on the motorway without any warning three weeks ago. Audi UK have been absolutely useless. The ironic thing was that I was returning from a dealership at the time having just put in an order for an S3 demonstrator.  Audi UK have failed to reply in writing to any of my emails and have refused either to supply a courtesy car or release the demonstrator early to get me back on the road. Their customer department have admitted their service has been appalling and have 'promised to make it up for me'. And here I am three weeks later still waiting to hear from them.  I cancelled my order ... no surprise there!

[Sand.and]

Blimey, that's three now in such a short space of time. Speak to Peter Morrell at Audi UK, tell him you had his details from the customer of the A 5 cab that went up in December he will know who I am. Any problems email the CEO of audi uk Andre Konsbruck. You can find his email if you google him. Pm message me if you want more details, I know this site is being monitored so not giving too much info out, but they both know who I am. building work has just started repairing our house, £50k worth of damage, the roof is half stripped, the rest of the roof coming off next week. All of the front windows of the house are due to be replaced, fascia, guttering etc all melted!! Audi refused to accept liability for both our car and the other one too. Audi are desparate to close our case as they think it's all over - but it's far from that!! They must admit now there is a problem, would be interested to now exact age of you car.

[fdm]

Wow ! Another one.  As you know, there is a lady in Worcester who this happened to. My 2 year old A5 also went up in flames in mid December.  The chief fire officer, my insurer's engineer, and a Forensic Engineer have all opined that the likely cause was an electrical defect in the vehicle. Audi inspected the shell and concluded that the vehicle was too badly damaged to come to that definitive conclusion and therefore found it "not proven" and thereafter washed their hands of it.  They also tried to allege that the fire could have been caused by external causes (the very guesswork that they rubbished earler) but have been totally unable to say what those external causes could have been.  Suffice to say I have been disgusted by Audi's attitude to this and their (and, in particular, Peter Morrell's) customer service standards leave an awful lot to be desired.  I very much get the impression that they just do not care and I am no more than an inconvenience to them.   It came to a point when I sent them a letter before claim.  They have, without seeking to discuss the case with me at all, instructed Solicitors to represent them. It's a disgrace.

[Steve]

Please keep us updated on this mate

[Sand.and]

Steve - The update is Audi just don't care - its only three cars!! They sell thousands!!

Until, as I told Peter Morrell one causes a serious problem.

After all - £50k of damage to our house, and having to be rescued from our back garden by the fire brigade at 2am, is "not" a serious problem!!

I emailed Andre Konsbruck and Rupert Stadler yesterday telling them that us first two, now know about the third, but no comment back, that's really not surprising in the past any email to them usually generated a comment from Peter Morrell, which I have specifically requested he NOT contact us AT ALL

Audi's last response regarding our car was it was arson, they had an engineer look at photo's and in his own words stated "a great deal of assumptions must be made" He assumes an accelerant was used, but not fuel - I asked what other accelerant could be used - but I had no response to that.

The fire officer who reported that our car, was in his opinion, after viewing the remains and examining it completely an electrical fault as he found NO TRACES of any accelerant. He confirmed in his opnion, the fire started behind the dash as that was where the main heat source seemed to come from. Our two neighbours who were outside our house trying to get us out, both confirmed the inside of the car was completely ablaze - not the outside at that early point of the fire. 

It was only when the roof melted (it was a cab) that the car alarm started to go off.

Audi just don't care, stupidly we have bought another Audi - which is faulty!! 

[Pacco212]

Wow cant believe what i been reading here! I work in Safety for a major company and for any large operation to ignore these kind of serious malfunctions is beyond belief? Are they waiting for someone to loose their life through this before they act.

If i had read these threads previous to my purchase, it would have changed my decision on buying my recent Audi, I would suggest the media need to highlight this and make people aware of the possible safety hazard that exisits within their product. I could understand their reluctance if these cars had been modified in any way by yourself or previous owners, however if they have not even bothered to send an investigator round to investigate any of these claims this makes me wonder what Audi's Management Values are?

Hope you all get some sort of justice out of this soon.

[Emmagine]

Attached photos of my car! A5 fire under the dashboard ! Starting to become a common problem ! Anybody got any joy from Audi yet ! ? I've been taking to them and same crap, not accepting responsibility ! I ask them how does a car with full service history for up in smoke spontaneously ?? Fire brigade and assessos say electrical fault. Audi yet to report back to me.  ? I'm not letting this go ! Not a hope ! I will get justice after all I did nothing wrong. I just bought an Audi ! 

[Burning]

Perhaps we should approach one of the TV consumer programmes. What do you think?

[James]

Wow only just seen this thread. Unbelievable. Any more updates on this guys?

[fdm]

Hello everyone.  Emma, so sorry to hear about your incident.  Sandra, hope your house is now rebuilt and life is back to normal.

It is truly shocking that there has been yet another A5 fire but what is more shocking is that Audi don't seem to take these issues seriously at all. The level of customer care and concern is virtually zero.  The arrogance they have shown towards me beggars belief. I would never buy an Audi ever again.

I would only say do not give up on pursuing Audi. Ideally, you would want some independent engineering evidence as to the likely cause of the fire although if the car is destroyed then a definitive opinion will not be possible. However, as I said to Audi, what other reason (other than vehicle defect) could there be for the vehicle to go up in flames ? Any claim against Audi will have to be pursued pursuant to the Consumer Protection Act.  It wont be easy as, ultimately, you may have to issue proceedings against Audi in Germany.  Audi UK would not, ultimately, pick up the tab/compensate so it may be a red herring pursuing them.  Ask Audi to confirm the producer of your actual vehicle. It is that producer who you will ultimately have to pursue. The VW group are currently very busy with the emissions issue so this may delay their response. However, don't give up.

Hope that helps.

[Burning]

Thank you, fdm, for your most helpful post.

I was shocked at the level of service Audi provided.  Ironically, my A5 caught fire on the way back from an Audi garage after I had just put in an order for a replacement demonstrator.  What really amazed me is that following the fire Audi refused either to supply a courtesy car or release the demonstrator to me. This meant I was left without any means of transport whilst trying to sort out the mess.

Needless to say I cancelled the order! In contrast, BMW had a car outside my office within fifteen minutes of me calling - now that's what I call service!

I sent photos of my car on fire to Audi the day after the blaze, but received no reply. I sent another email and again no reply.  When the case was eventually picked up Audi seemed totally disinterested even though I and my wife have been loyal customers of the brand for many years. My A5 was bought from an Audi dealership and serviced exclusively by Audi. The fire brigade thought the cause of the blaze was likely to be electrical, but of course as the car was burnt to a shell there was no way to verify this beyond reasonable doubt.

[fdm]

I still find it surreal how dis-interested Audi do seem in these vehicle fires.  That's 5 now isn't it ?

Anyway, you might want to approach a Solicitor to assist you with your case, ideally one well versed in Consumer Protection law.  The thing about the Consumer Protection Act is, I am told, that you do not have to prove that there was a defect in the product.  You might want to have a read of it (if you have insomnia) to see what's involved in bringing a claim. I think it's especially important to engage a lawyer as you may have to issue Court proceedings out of the jurisdiction of England and Wales.

[Sand.and]

OMG - another one. !!!! Emma I'm so sorry to hear of your situation.

I've never attached any photo's are anything - but now I will.

Firstly our home the morning after the night of all nights, we were asleep in the bedroom above the garage and drive - the explosions was like a bird scarer going off in the bedroom, and yes - I still hear it, over 12 months on.

Although our home is repaired now - (it was finished in september 15, when the "incident" was 14the December 14 - it took all that time to repair) it dosen't feel the same anymore, even though I have lived here since 1988. We don't sleep in that bedroom anymore, and neither does ANY car go on our drive anymore.

I've attached a copy of the fire report showing "electrical", Audi and the insurers have received the full report (My personal details are on other pages show excuse me for not showing everyone everything!!) (our local CID also said they were in agreement with the Fire officer - NOT ARSON)

The fire officer said from looking at the remains of the car (which he did at length) there was no accelerant used, and the source was definitely under the dash - you can see from the other attached photo the remains of the steering column etc, and the wiring.

all of this and Audi still didn't want to know - I offered them to visit us at home to speak face to face and see the damage to our home, but they just weren't interested. I did actually receive a letter from Andre Konsbruck, via peter Morrell - he didn't even have the decency to send it himself.

As far as Audi are concerned, they had a free run with our car, our Insurance company destroyed it without our consent, and before Audi could look at it, we only have the fire officers report and photo's to go with. However their customer service is diabolical - I complained about Peter Morrell's attitude to Andre Konsbruck and Rupert Stadler (Audi AG) and all they did was get peter Morrell to contact me!! 

Yes they did "loan" us a car for a few weeks, but only due to my perseverance with my emails. Their argument is with our situation "no evidence" and they "kept us mobile" - sod the fact we could've died had the car not exploded and woke us (smoke was already in our bedroom when we woke up), and that our home ended up having over £50k worth of building repairs.

I did complete an online form with Watchdog when the Vauxhall's were going up but never heard anything back. I would gladly help pursue anyone who wants to go for it, but I only have evidence to fight as per above, and of course my sheer determination to prove Audi are so very wrong with this issue. I had been prescribed anti depressants in September as by the time the house was completed I was just a wreck - but better now thankfully.

Fire Officers Report page 5.pdf

[James]

Looks like we have a few on here. Perhaps it's more widespread than we first thought?

[fdm]

Clearly, it's not an isolated incident.

[Sand.and]

I hope that anyone who may have a fire related issue with the A5, or in fact another Audi sees my first post and comments on their's - although I don't wish what has happened to us, on anyone, Audi MUST start taking these "incidents" seriously.!!

[James]

16 hours ago, Sand.and said:

I hope that anyone who may have a fire related issue with the A5, or in fact another Audi sees my first post and comments on their's - although I don't wish what has happened to us, on anyone, Audi MUST start taking these "incidents" seriously.!!

It would certainly be useful to have a record of all known incidents on this thread and hopefully useful to all of you that have been affected. 

[Emmagine]

I was in this a few mins earlier ! 

IMG_6583.mp4

[James]

14 hours ago, Emmagine said:

I was in this a few mins earlier ! 

IMG_6583.mp4

Wow, looks like you had a lucky escape! 

I'm surprised Audi haven't done anything about this yet. I wonder how many it will take?

Didn't Vauxhall have something similar recently with the Zafira and it was something to do with the dashboard or behind it?