Audi A3, Audi A3 Etron, Audi Rs3, Audi S3, model years 2015 to 2020. Filed by Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. and reported to NHTSA on 22 March 2021. 153,152 vehicles potentially affected.
What the notice says Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Audi) is recalling certain 2015-2020 Audi S3 Sedan, A3 Sedan, 2016-2018 A3 Etron, 2017-2020 RS3 Sedan, and 2015-2019 A3 Cabriolet vehicles. The passenger occupant detection system (PODS) may malfunction and switch off the passenger air bag even when the seat is occupied.
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.
Audi's own number for this recall: 69BY. That is the number on the owner letter and on the dealer paperwork. 21V198 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 21V198 cover?
- Audi A3, Audi A3 Etron, Audi RS3, Audi S3, model years 2015-2020.
- What is wrong with them?
- Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (Audi) is recalling certain 2015-2020 Audi S3 Sedan, A3 Sedan, 2016-2018 A3 Etron, 2017-2020 RS3 Sedan, and 2015-2019 A3 Cabriolet vehicles.
- What can happen if it is not put right?
- A deactivated passenger air bag increases the risk of injury during a crash.
- Is there a fix yet?
- Yes, and it is free. Dealers will replace the PODS sensor mat and update the PODS control module, free of charge. Owners letters were mailed December 23, 2021. Owners may contact Audi customer service at 1-800-253-2834. Audi's number for this recall is 69BY.
- What should I do now?
- Check your own vehicle by its VIN with NHTSA, which is the record to act on. Audi calls this recall 69BY, 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: “A deactivated passenger air bag increases the risk of injury during a crash.”
affected
in the notice
caught
| Campaign | 21V198 |
|---|---|
| Filed by | Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. |
| System at fault | Air Bags:Sensor:Occupant Classification:Front Passenger |
| Reported to NHTSA | 22 March 2021 |
| Model years | 2015-2020 |
| Vehicles named | AUDI A3, AUDI A3 ETRON, AUDI RS3, AUDI S3 |
What the notice says today
The consequence
A deactivated passenger air bag increases the risk of injury during a crash.
The remedy
Dealers will replace the PODS sensor mat and update the PODS control module, free of charge. Owners letters were mailed December 23, 2021. Owners may contact Audi customer service at 1-800-253-2834. Audi's number for this recall is 69BY.
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 846 notices in the record whose component field names air bags. Across that group the median wait before owners were written to was 46 days.
The models named here, across their whole recall history
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.
Other Audi notices we hold
- 26V266: 2025 Q5, Q5 Sportback, SQ5, and SQ5 Sportback
- 26V240: 2019-2023 Audi E-Tron Quattro, 2020-2023 Audi E-Tron Sportback, 2024 Q8 E-Tron, Q8 Sportback E-Tron, SQ8 E-Tron, and SQ8 Sportback E-Tron
- 26V209: 2026 Q3
- 26V125: 2019 Audi Q8, Audi A7, and Audi A6
- 25V900: 2019-2026
- 25V899: 2025 SQ6 E-Tron, SQ6 Sportback E-Tron, Q6 Sportback E-Tron, A6, A5, A6 Sportback E-Tron, Q6 E-Tron, S5, and S6 Sportback E-Tron
- 25V294: 2022-2024 Q5 Quattro and Q5 Sportback Quattro
- 25V227: 2022-2023 RS E-TRON GT and E-TRON GT
All 59 Audi 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 21V198 on 23 August 2026, they were:
- Defect summary
e7e1d9b6 - Consequence
fc7d45f3 - Remedy
9249cced
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 21V198 · how the whole register is watched
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