2009 AUDI Q5 — Complaint #1854255
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about SERVICE BRAKES, AIR filed November 17, 2022
NHTSA complaint #1854255 (ODI reference 11493915) concerns a 2009 AUDI Q5 and was filed on November 17, 2022. The owner reports the failure occurred on May 1, 2022. The vehicle had 140,000 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to Kentucky based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as service brakes, air, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same AUDI Q5 cohort independently describe similar service brakes, air failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 2009 AUDI Q5 shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
The contact owns a 2009 Audi Q5. The contact stated that the vehicle was smoking. There was antifreeze and oil leaking from the vehicle. While driving, the accelerator pedal and brake pedal became stuck, and the vehicle stalled. There was an abnormal oil burning odor, fuel, and antifreeze. The vehicle was also consuming an excessive amount of fuel. The gear shifter button was also stuck. The gear box malfunctioned, and a message to restart vehicle was displayed. Additionally, the tailgate seized while going up and down. The vehicle was taken to an independent mechanic where additional oil was added several days. The vehicle was taken to an unknown local dealer where the antifreeze was changed. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was not contacted. The failure mileage was approximately 140,000.
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 1854255 |
| ODI Number | 11493915 |
| Date Filed | November 17, 2022 |
| Failure Date | May 1, 2022 |
| VIN | WA1KK78R59A |
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.