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NHTSA campaign number

21V874000

Safety restraint issue — affecting 13 model years across Audi.

Issued
Manufacturer
Volkswagen Group of America, Inc.
Model years
2017–2020
System
Seats

Elevated severity

This campaign addresses a defect NHTSA classifies as carrying elevated crash or injury risk.

What the defect is

Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Audi) is recalling certain 2017-2020 A4 Allroad, A4 Sedan, 2018-2019 RS5 Coupe, 2019 RS5 Sportback, 2018-2020 A5 Cabriolet, A5 Coupe, A5 Sportback, S4 Sedan, S5 Cabriolet, S5 Coupe, and Audi S5 Sportback vehicles. The cable connecting the seat heater to the Passenger Occupant Detection System (PODS) may have a contact fault, causing the software to misdiagnose a malfunction and disable the passenger air bag.

Why it matters

A disabled passenger air bag increases the risk of injury in the event of a crash.

The remedy

Dealers will replace the connecting cable and either the heating mat or entire seat cover, free of charge. Owner notification letters were mailed January 7, 2022. Owners may contact Audi customer service at 1-800-253-2834. Audi's number for this recall is 74E3. This recall is an expansion of Recall 19V-547 (74D9). Vehicles previously repaired under 19V-547 will need to return for the new remedy.

What this page does not include

NHTSA's public recall feed does not supply an affected-population count, the manufacturer's own campaign number, owner-notification dates or a defect chronology for this campaign. Rather than estimate them, we omit them. Confirm whether a specific vehicle is affected — and whether the repair has already been done — using its VIN.

Check a VIN

Vehicles affected by this campaign

13 model years in our index. Coverage reflects the vehicles VerifyTheVehicle tracks, which may be narrower than the full campaign population.