Audi is recalling nearly 46,000 cars to address inaccurate fuel readings brought on by faulty sensors in their gas tanks. The recall covers the 2021 Audi RS6 Avant, 2021 RS7, 2020-2021 A6 Allroad, 2020-2021 S6 Sedan, 2020-2021S7, 2019-2021 A6 Sedan, and 2019-2021 A7.
The issue was reportedly caused by sensors on the fuel level sending units in the tanks themselves. Audi says a number of them were built outside of tolerance, causing them to sit too close to a ventilation hose inside the tank. If it's close enough, the two can make contact, causing the sensor to stick and report an incorrect fuel level to the gauge. This sensor also supplies data to the range indicator, so both may end up being inaccurate.
"Due to tolerance deviations, the distance between the fuel level sender and a ventilation pipe in the tank may be too small. As a result, the fuel level sender may get stuck on the ventilation pipe which will lead to a drop in the fuel level not being detected and therefore to an incorrect fuel level and remaining range being displayed in the instrument cluster," Audi said in its defect report. "This may cause the vehicle to run out of fuel even though the indicator shows that there is still fuel in the tank."
Audi says that the tolerances specified for the sensor were too broad, so some sensors fit fine and others foul on the ventilation hose. Owners who notice what Audi describes as "implausible" remaining distances or the fuel level seemingly getting stuck for long periods of time likely have the bad fuel level sending sensor. Dealers will replace the defective sensors with smaller units that won't cause the problem to resurface.
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