2005 Audi S4 problems
NHTSA has received 54 complaints about the 2005 Audi S4, and 63% of them involve lighting. After that come electrical system (9%) and air bags (7%).
At a glance
- Complaints
- 54 filed with NHTSA
- Most reported
- Lighting 63% of complaints
- Crashes and fires
- 4 and 0
- Injuries and deaths
- 1 and 0
- Typical mileage
- 53,000 miles 44 complaints with mileage
Source: NHTSA owner complaints
Where the complaints are
Share of this model year's complaints by the part of the car involved. One complaint can name more than one part, so the shares can add up to more than 100%.
When problems show up
View the numbers
| Mileage | Complaints |
|---|---|
| 0k to 20k miles | 4 |
| 20k to 40k miles | 5 |
| 40k to 60k miles | 15 |
| 60k to 80k miles | 11 |
| 80k to 100k miles | 4 |
| 100k to 120k miles | 5 |
| 120k to 140k miles | 0 |
| 140k to 160k miles | 0 |
| 160k to 180k miles | 0 |
| 180k to 200k miles | 0 |
| 200k+ miles | 0 |
What the data shows
Among the 44 complaints that report mileage, the typical (median) problem appeared at about 52,000 miles. For lighting specifically, the median reported mileage is about 55,000 miles (27 complaints with mileage).
Safety-related details: 4 complaints mention a crash; 1 injury reported.
Looking only at complaints filed within five years of the model year (so older and newer years are comparable), the 2005 ranks 5th most-complained-about out of 11 model years of the Audi S4 with enough data (30 complaints in that window). It is also covered by 2 safety recall campaigns.
What owners wrote
A few complaints as filed, shortened and with personal details removed. The first ones are among the most serious reports for this model year; the rest are typical.
Failure of the driver's side airbag during a front end collision while the passenger side airbag deployed-no one was occupying the passenger seat. The point of impact was center between the two headlights.
In august 2006 while driving my 2005 audi s4 convertible on a busy street in bloomington, indiana at 45-50 MPH, my car died without warning...I.e. No power steering, brakes. I was able to navigate it off-road and then towed to royal audi in bloomington, in. They kept the car over a month thinking maybe I needed a new engine. However, eventually they said it was a fuse which was replaced and the car drove fine.
"intermittent headlight malfunction. Over the course of ownership, the right headlight has malfunctioned (turned off), with no consistent cause apparent. The specific error message that appears in the driver information screen is "right headlight dipped". This condition is both unsafe, and illegal - as many states will issue a traffic violation for driving with a non-functioning headlight.
Heated seat element burned or melted the seat while the car was off overnight. Passenger seat leather is now separated, shriveled (hard as a rock) and would have burned the passenger if they had been in the seat.