AtWhatMileage
Body · 4 owner reports

Other body or interior problem on the 2002 Audi A6

Only 2 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.

Reports of this failure 4
With an odometer reading 2
Reports per 1,000 built 0.4 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 0%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $200–$2,000
What it means when it happens Moderate
Rank among this year's problems 11th

When other body or interior problem gets reported

There are 4 reports of other body or interior problem on the 2002 Audi A6, 2 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 88,000 miles. It is the 11th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 2 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 77,382 miles — —

Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.

What a percentile can and cannot tell you here

These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.

What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.

Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.

What happens, and what it costs

Putting it right typically runs $200–$2,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.

The same failure on other years

The same failure is reported on 10 model years of this car. It shows up earliest on the 2014, at a median of 10,000 miles, and latest on the 2001 at 100,000 miles.

By volume the 1999 carries the most reports, with 16; the 2002 has 4. A mode that appears across most years of a model is usually a design choice rather than a bad batch.

If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

Tl* the contact owns a 2002 audi a6. The vehicle was recently purchased used and taken to a local repair facility for routine maintenance. The mechanic advised the contact that the vehicle was previously involved in a crash and that the rear cross member was fractured and had been re-welded in four different locations. The mechanic also advised that one of the fractures was only partially welded and the vehicle was not safe to drive. The mechanic stated that if the weld was to fracture again, it would potentially cause a crash and the contact would not be able to maintain control of the vehicle. The vehicle was not repaired and left with the dealer. The failure and current mileage was 92,764.

92,764 miles NHTSA complaint 813798 filed 2010-09-13

Driving from nj to upstate ny for ski trip to hunter mountain. Heavy rain during drive up on friday evening, rain all day saturday. Got in the car to go skiing on sunday morning and noticed several inches of water in rear passenger footwell. I was able to bale out some of the water but interior carpeting was soaked. While going to hunter, water was sloshing between passenger footwell and rear. After dropping off the skiers I decided to head home on the ny state thruway. After approx 50 miles - digital dash display disappeared, car started to jerk around and buck. Speed was dropped down to 20 MPH, I was able to make it to a rest stop. Anyway - remainder of ski party picked me up and I had the car towed back to nj - $700. Mechanic states that tcu unit was under water. Rain water apparently came in through the pollen filter housing and flooded the car. Total damage to the car $2300. There are a number of complaints throughout the internet and various forums detailing this exact problem. I believe this is a design flaw and audi should be held responsible for this problem. I'd like to get reimbursed for my cost. Individuals with this…

62,000 miles NHTSA complaint 661682 filed 2008-03-15

Also reported on the 2002 Audi A6

Other engine problem

10 reports median 76k

Other electrical problem

9 reports median 62k

Other speed control problem

7 reports median 6k

Misfire or rough idle

6 reports median 99k

Fuel leak or fuel odor

6 reports median 76k

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 4 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.

Complaints are voluntary, so 4 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.

Questions this page answers

At what mileage does other body or interior problem happen on the 2002 Audi A6?

Across 2 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 75,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other body or interior problem on the 2002 Audi A6?

4 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.4 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.

What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars

Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed