— Audi and Volkswagen tire pressure monitoring system problems have caused a recall of more than 224,000 vehicles for dealerships to update the monitoring system software.
VW says the tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) may not detect an air pressure loss in adequate time when deflating occurs, but only when all four tires simultaneously deflate at the same rate and the same time.
According to federal regulations, a tire pressure monitoring system must detect an air pressure loss in a specific period of time.
However, no matter how many tires deflate or lose pressure, drivers of these recalled vehicles will still receive air pressure warnings.
- 2019 Volkswagen Tiguan LWB
- 2019 Volkswagen Golf Sportwagen
- 2019 Volkswagen Golf Alltrack
- 2019 Volkswagen Golf R
- 2020-2021 Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport
- 2021 Volkswagen Atlas FL
- 2019-2020 Volkswagen Jetta
- 2019-2020 Volkswagen Jetta GLI
- 2019-2020 Volkswagen Golf GTI
- 2019-2020 Volkswagen Atlas
- 2019-2020 Volkswagen Golf A7
- 2019 Audi Q3
- 2019 Audi A3 Cabriolet
- 2019-2020 Audi A3
In May 2020, Volkswagen contacted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration about filing forms to avoid a recall because VW didn't believe the TPMS problem caused a safety danger.
Audi and VW blame the problems on a change to the brake control unit hardware, but the module software should have also been changed but wasn't.
"The behavior does not pose an unreasonable safety risk, as every puncture (meaning a rapid tire pressure loss), as well as a diffusion (meaning a long term pressure loss on multiple tires), will be detected. A pressure loss on less than four tires at the same time and rate will be detected and indicated to the driver. Warning for the driver will still occur in all cases before a potential safety-relevant tire pressure is reached." — Volkswagen
VW filed the petition for inconsequential non-compliance with NHTSA but the petition was denied.
Audi and Volkswagen are not aware of any warranty claims, field reports, incidents or injuries.
Audi and VW owner recall letters are expected to be mailed December 30, 2022.
Owners may contact Volkswagen at 800-893-5298 or Audi at 800-253-2834.
Volkswagen's TPMS recall numbers are 45J6 and 45J8, and the TPMS recall number for Audi is 45J7.