NHTSA Complaint #11523553 — 2017 AUDI Q7

On my way to drop my child off at school, I stopped to refuel my Audi Q7. Upon inserting the nozzle to refuel the car, gasoline immediately began jetting out of the fuel door before the auto-shutoff kicked in, covering myself as well as my vehicle. Thankfully, the hot exhaust did not ignite the liquid or fuel vapor potentially causing a deadly fire. Despite having no fuel remaining, I was able to take the vehicle to our local mechanic where they discovered a TSB denoting this specific issue. The TSB was initially released 04/28/2016 for Model Year 2017 Audi Q7s. It was subsequently updated to include Model Year 2018 Q7s as well. This is a documented factory safety defect that denotes if this issue is to occur, to replace the whole fuel tank. Further research shows that a valve inside the non-wear, non-serviceable fuel filler neck can become dislodged and nearly completely block the filler neck from accepting fuel. This can cause a potential safety issue as the result of this blockage, the vehicle as well as driver can become doused in gasoline before a pump's auto-shutoff can kick in due to the shallow depth of the fault. The problem is known and documented as being an issue nearly immediately after the Model Year 2017 Q7 line was released. There was no prior warning or indication that this could occur at any time filling the vehicle.