1998 Audi A4 — reported problems

What owners report: issue areas

Owner complaints are classified by the system they concern: 319 classifications in all. One complaint can concern several systems, so these add up to more than the number of complaints.

• Brakes140 (43.9%)Official recall records for this system: 1, covering model years 1997–1999.
• Engine31 (9.7%)Official recall records for this system: 5, covering model years 1998–2022.
• Suspension27 (8.5%)Official recall records for this system: 6, covering model years 2020–2021.
• Electrical system24 (7.5%)Official recall records for this system: 8, covering model years 1996–2016.
• Steering23 (7.2%)Official recall records for this system: 5, covering model years 1996–1999.
• Air bags (restraint system)17 (5.3%)Official recall records for this system: 29, covering model years 1996–2023.

Other / uncategorized: 2 classifications (0.6%) were not assigned to a specific system by the source. They are counted but not treated as an issue area.

These are counts of records held by CarFaultIQ, not a failure rate. More records can simply mean more vehicles were sold or more owners reported. No vehicles-in-service figure exists in this data, so no reliability or risk score can be derived from it.

What the records are about, by source

Each source is kept separate: owner complaints, recalls, manufacturer communications and investigations are different kinds of record and are never added together. All model years.

• Owner complaints (5,902 records, model years 1996–2024) are most frequently classified under: air bags (restraint system), engine and electrical system.
• Safety recalls (103 records, model years 1996–2022) are most frequently classified under: air bags (restraint system), electrical system and lights.
• Transport Canada recalls (108 records, model years 1996–2023) are most frequently classified under: air bags (restraint system), visibility (glass, wipers, mirrors) and electrical system.
• Manufacturer communications (18,946 records, model years 1996–2025) are most frequently classified under: electrical system, equipment & accessories and engine.

"Most frequently classified under" reports how the records are filed by the source. It is not a finding about causes, and a record can be filed under more than one system. Read the individual records

Mileage reported when the issue occurred

• 104reports included a mileage
• 90,469average of those mileages

This is the mileage owners recorded at the time they reported, not an expected failure mileage and not a prediction for any individual vehicle. The lowest and highest figures on record are not shown: they are unverified odometer entries that include zeros and implausibly high readings, so they would not describe a real range. A median is not shown either, because the stored figures are group totals and a median cannot be recovered from them.

Evidence by model year

Records held per model year. Select a year to narrow this page to it.

1. 1996 153 records for 1996 153
2. 1997 180 records for 1997 180
3. 1998 357 records for 1998 357
4. 1999 278 records for 1999 278
5. 2000 207 records for 2000 207
6. 2001 241 records for 2001 241
7. 2002 332 records for 2002 332
8. 2003 380 records for 2003 380
9. 2004 366 records for 2004 366
10. 2005 557 records for 2005 557
11. 2006 657 records for 2006 657
12. 2007 572 records for 2007 572
13. 2008 636 records for 2008 636
14. 2009 904 records for 2009 904
15. 2010 972 records for 2010 972
16. 2011 1,084 records for 2011 1,084
17. 2012 1,180 records for 2012 1,180
18. 2013 678 records for 2013 678
19. 2014 582 records for 2014 582
20. 2015 514 records for 2015 514
21. 2016 462 records for 2016 462
22. 2017 790 records for 2017 790
23. 2018 796 records for 2018 796
24. 2019 843 records for 2019 843
25. 2020 1,173 records for 2020 1,173
26. 2021 1,042 records for 2021 1,042
27. 2022 889 records for 2022 889
28. 2023 842 records for 2023 842
29. 2024 734 records for 2024 734
30. 2025 458 records for 2025 458

Counts are not adjusted for how many vehicles were sold in each year, so a taller year is not necessarily a worse year.

Reports mentioning outcomes

• 6mention a crash
• 2mention a fire
• 11mention an injury

These are counts of records whose report mentioned the outcome. They are not a severity rating and not a safety assessment of this vehicle.

Official records held

• Safety recalls NHTSA 6
• Manufacturer communications NHTSA 85
• Investigations NHTSA 5
• Transport Canada recalls Transport Canada 3
• Owner complaints NHTSA 258

Explore the underlying evidence records