Audi A3 Cabriolet, Audi Rs 3, Volkswagen E-Golf, Volkswagen Golf R, model year 2018. Filed by Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. and reported to NHTSA on 14 November 2018. 169 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain 2018 Volkswagen e-Golf and Golf R vehicles, and Audi A3 Sedan and RS3 vehicles. The rear seat frame head restraint guide sleeves may be incorrectly welded to the seat frame.
Is your vehicle included? Check with your VIN at NHTSA, or ask a dealer. This page is an independent copy of the notice, kept so you can see what changed after it was published. It is not the authority, and the authority’s own text is the one to act on.
Volkswagen's own number for this recall: VW 72H8 / AUDI 72H9. That is the number on the owner letter and on the dealer paperwork. 18V803 is the number NHTSA gave the same campaign, and the number this page is filed under. They are one recall, written two ways.
What owners ask about this recall
- Which vehicles does recall 18V803 cover?
- Audi A3 Cabriolet, Audi RS 3, Volkswagen E-Golf, Volkswagen Golf R, model year 2018.
- What is wrong with them?
- Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Volkswagen) is recalling certain 2018 Volkswagen e-Golf and Golf R vehicles, and Audi A3 Sedan and RS3 vehicles. The rear seat frame head restraint guide sleeves may be incorrectly welded to the seat frame.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- If the guide sleeves are incorrectly welded, in the event of a crash, the rear seat head restraints may have reduced stability, increasing the risk of injury.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. Volkswagen and Audi will notify their owners, and dealers will inspect the guide sleeves for incorrect welds, replacing the rear seat frame, as necessary, free of charge. The recall began December 28, 2018.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on. Volkswagen calls this recall VW 72H8 / AUDI 72H9, which is the number on the owner letter and the dealer paperwork.
Answered from the register this site holds. NHTSA is the record to act on.
What the authority says can happen if this is not fixed: “If the guide sleeves are incorrectly welded, in the event of a crash, the rear seat head restraints may have reduced stability, increasing the risk of injury.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 18V803 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. |
| System at fault | Seats:Mid/Rear Assembly |
| Reported to NHTSA | 14 November 2018 |
| Model years | 2018-2018 |
| Vehicles named | AUDI A3 CABRIOLET, AUDI RS 3, VOLKSWAGEN E-GOLF, VOLKSWAGEN GOLF R |
What the notice says today
The consequence
If the guide sleeves are incorrectly welded, in the event of a crash, the rear seat head restraints may have reduced stability, increasing the risk of injury.
The remedy
Volkswagen and Audi will notify their owners, and dealers will inspect the guide sleeves for incorrect welds, replacing the rear seat frame, as necessary, free of charge. The recall began December 28, 2018. Owners may contact Volkswagen customer service at 1-800-893-5298 or Audi customer service at 1-800-253-2834. Volkswagen's numbers for this recall are 72H8 (VW) and 72H9(Audi).
What it said before
This campaign is in the register but not yet in the dated wording archive, so we cannot yet say whether its text has moved. It enters the archive on the next pass.
This is one of 459 notices in the record whose component field names seats. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 44 days.
Last checked . No change has been recorded in the wording.
The models named here, across their whole recall history
- Audi A3 Cabriolet recalls: 11 US campaigns
- Audi RS 3 recalls: 7 US campaigns
- Volkswagen E-Golf recalls: 8 US campaigns
- Volkswagen Golf R recalls: 16 US campaigns
How to cite this record
Quoting the wording on this page means quoting a version, so the date belongs in the citation:
CarsMultiverse, recall 18V803, wording as read on 16 September 2026. https://carsmultiverse.com/recall/18v803/
The cross-border matches used on this site are deposited as a citable dataset: doi:10.5281/zenodo.22087136. The recall wording itself is published by the national authority named above and is theirs, not ours.
The recall record and its wording are published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and are US Government public domain. The dated archive, the comparison and any before-and-after above are CarsMultiverse. How fresh every engine behind this page is, is public on the status page. To check a specific vehicle, use NHTSA’s own VIN lookup.
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All 272 Volkswagen campaigns we hold · Every manufacturer in the record
The fingerprint of this notice
We take a SHA-256 of each of the three blocks of text the authority publishes and keep the first eight characters. As we last read campaign 18V803 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
661bdd57 - Consequence
d4e220f8 - Remedy
3ed342e3
We first read this notice on 21 August 2026. It has not moved since. If it ever does, these characters will not match, and the change will be dated here.
The wording we hold for 18V803 · how the whole register is watched
This notice names one vehicle among several registers that have written about it. Every notice this site holds for the Volkswagen E-Golf, in all seven, is kept on that vehicle's own page, with the newest in each.
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Owners of these cars
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