2012 Audi S4 problems, complaints & recalls
Most-reported problem areas: Power Train (12) · Fuel/Propulsion System (5) · Vehicle Speed Control (1)
🧭 Reliability snapshot
Compared against other Audi S4 model years — complaint volume vs the model's median year, recalls and severity. How we score →
Safety recalls (1)
Fuel System, Gasoline:fuel Injection System:fuel Rail 2015-01-20 · campaign 15V019000 · 26,008 vehicles
Defect: Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain model year 2011-2012 Audi S4, S5, Q7, 2012 Audi A6, Volkswagen Touareg Hybrid, and 2012-2013 Audi A7 vehicles. In the affected vehicles the fuel injection system may experience a fuel leak.
Risk: A fuel leak in the injection system in the presence of an ignition source, increases the risk of a fire.
Fix: Volkswagen will notify owners, and dealers will replace the fuel rails and corresponding seals, free of charge. The recall began on March 17, 2015. Owners may contact Audi customer service at 1-800-822-2834 or Volkswagen customer service at 1-800-893-5298. Volkswagen's numbers for this recall are 24AP for Audi customers and 24BK for Volkswagen customers.
Service bulletins (796)
Technical service bulletins are repair instructions manufacturers send dealers for known issues. Unlike recalls, the fix is not automatically free — but naming the bulletin at the service desk can save diagnosis time and support goodwill repairs.
Power Train:automatic Transmission 2913-04-01 · 35 13 09 2028085 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
speed s-tronic, leaks from transmission
Unknown Or Other 2026-09-25 · TSB_2083409_1 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
this bulletin states that technicians are required to report to the manufacturer when a vehicle has flooded, and specify the height to which the vehicle has been flooded.
Unknown Or Other 2026-09-25 · TSB_2052680_2 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
this bulletin provides information for reporting safety related information to the manufacturer.
Steering 2026-09-22 · TSB_2074846_5 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
this bulletin provides information about vibrations and rotational steering vibrations.
Unknown Or Other 2026-09-15 · TSB_2030471_9 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
this bulletin provides information when the license plate mounting bracket threded inserts are stripped.
Unknown Or Other 2026-08-26 · TSB_2074436_3 · Service Bulletin/Repair Instructions
this bulletin provides information when the horn sound quality is poor.
Showing the 6 most recent of 796 bulletins. Search all of them free at nhtsa.gov.
What owners report
2019-09-27 · Power Train · 98,000 mi“circuit board on the mechatronics unit failed and car is under 100k miles. sudden shaking and banging on the highway when giving it gas above 30. frequent jolts, dangerous to drive...…”
2019-08-24 · Power Train · 64,000 mi“the dsg transmission in my audi s4 experiences abrupt jerking from 2nd to 1st great while decelerating. it also jerks and feels like it is being hit while shifting from 1st to 2nd when accelerating normally.…”
2019-07-31 · Fuel/Propulsion System · 105,000 mi“fuel injector leaking and needs replaced. my car was never on the recall list. sitting at audi dealer now.…”
2019-01-29 · Power Train · 107,592 mi“the gearbox malfunction screen on the dash showed up out of nowhere then followed by a parking brake malfunction then the car goes into neutral and just sits there revving the engine. i try to put it in neutral then drive but the lever gets stuck and i cant move to drive. this first happen in the highway and i couldn't do anything about it and i kn…”
2018-09-17 · Power Train · 102,000 mi“while driving today on the highway my 2012 audi s4 experienced the common dsg gearbox malfunction alert along woth the tpms fault light. on the highway loosing all power and causing the vehicle slow drastically while in traffic nearly causing an accident. the amount of complaints on this same issue is astonishing that audi has not taking care if th…”
2018-09-06 · Fuel/Propulsion System · 70,000 mi · 🔥 fire“coolant pump blew out causing the engine to overheat.…”
2018-05-18 · Unknown Or Other · 67,000 mi“while driving in traffic, my car dropped into lower gears and stopped moving, and two error codes popped up "gearbox malfunction" and "tpms malfunction". looking this up online and discussing with my mechanic, this is something happening in a lot of the cars that are this make & model and have the same transmission.…”
2018-05-09 · Fuel/Propulsion System · 60,000 mi · 🔥 fire“my coolant pump went out and overheated the car. the coolant leaked out. my car only has 60k miles on it. audi recently recalled coolant pumps for this very reason on the a4, a5, a6 but havent made the recall for the s class. please be advised this is a serious issue and placed me and family in harms way.…”
2018-04-08 · Power Train · 61,000 mi“at ~61,000 miles the 2012 audi s4 started driving rough in low gears. the car has hesitation issues followed by & jerky acceleration/deceleration in low gears out of & into a stop. the reverse gear has similar hesitation & jerky acceleration. car then started periodically displaying the message: gearbox malfunction: you can continue driving …”
2018-01-03 · Power Train · 86,000 mi“"takata recall" i was driving my car when i got the 'gearbox malfunction" on my dash and a check engine light. it then said that reverse was not available. the car went limp and when shifting into 2nd gear from 1st gear would rev to very high rpms and then finally shift. i would not go above 40 mph and was slow to move from a stop. i took it to t…”
Excerpts of consumer complaints filed with NHTSA, lightly truncated. They are owner statements, not verified findings.