Another Gearbox Issue...

bluebarchetta

bluebarchetta

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Unfortunately, my S tronic played up yesterday.

Pulling away from a T junction it came up with a gearbox fault message and it would not move.

A couple of restarts didn't clear things but leaving it for a couple of minutes and then trying again did clear the message and it pulled away cleanly. Not happy, it was a quiet road so I was lucky but it could have been a lot worse...

About 20 fault codes (No comms with ECM and missing messages etc ) all at the same mileage inc:

Address 02: Auto Trans (J217)
  • 21019 - No Communication with Engine Control Module
  • 21025 - No Communication with Engine Control Module
Address 81: Gear Shift (J587)
  • 33174 - ROD - Unknown Error Code
A trip to the dealer as soon as I can find the time...
 
Im getting very worried about all these faults - my car is sitting in the dealers right now, a 190 Tdi Stronic.

Is this gearbox pretty flaky in general?
 
Not sure... Trying to keep an open mind.

Will provide an update when I have spoken to the garage.
 
bluebarchetta said:
Not sure... Trying to keep an open mind.

Will provide an update when I have spoken to the garage.
Click to expand...

Hope you get it resolved soon! I originally lamented the absence of an STronic in my S4 but I'm feeling a little grateful for the auto now!


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AidenL said:
Im getting very worried about all these faults - my car is sitting in the dealers right now, a 190 Tdi Stronic.

Is this gearbox pretty flaky in general?
Click to expand...

I would keep things in perspective. How many faults have we seen on here. 3 maybe 4.
I've seen 3 new A4's within 10 miles on my house in the past day. If only everyone in a new A4 who hasn't had a problem could chime in. That would show the actual state of affairs. ( I jest with this as I mean everyone on or not on this forum) there must be 1000+ by now ??
 
AidenL said:
Im getting very worried about all these faults - my car is sitting in the dealers right now, a 190 Tdi Stronic.

Is this gearbox pretty flaky in general?
Click to expand...
Right now maybe we should keep an open mind however should we expect this for a prestige car costing the amount that it does? As far as I know this is the first gearbox that is assembled away from the usual factory and maybe Audi need to be looking at the quality control of this Chinese production line...
 
I'm not collecting it till the 10th of February, so will watch with interest.

Guess it's finger crossed time!
 
My s tronic has been fine so far reliability wise but I'm very disappointed by the lag in anything other than dynamic mode or when using paddles.

I've nearly had accidents due to the lag where I pull out but the delay in power kicking in leaves me a bit stranded. I'm getting used to it but it's really poor. I don't know if the engine I have is to blame or if it's solely down to the gearbox. I'm hopeful future software updates may improve it but I would be reluctant to buy another s tonic unless it can be sorted.
 
I agree with you 100% regarding the lag. To be honest it was the same in my last car (Mazda6). I got used to it eventually and I'm sure I will in this car.
When approaching a busy roundabout or suchlike, I usually pull the lever back into `dynamic` as it looks like you do. Once the `obstacle` is passed I move it back to normal.
 
Glad it's not just me! It is a bit of a hassle though.
 
audi upgrades
I've not felt any issues with lag - unless you count the - try to pull away, no forward motion, switch off, wait two minutes, start, pull away...

I do sometimes pull it back to sport since the 45E3 update but that's only when I don't want the stop-start to kick in.

Car is going in on Monday. I'll report back when I find out more.
 
rich_16 said:
My s tronic has been fine so far reliability wise but I'm very disappointed by the lag in anything other than dynamic mode or when using paddles.

I've nearly had accidents due to the lag where I pull out but the delay in power kicking in leaves me a bit stranded. I'm getting used to it but it's really poor. I don't know if the engine I have is to blame or if it's solely down to the gearbox. I'm hopeful future software updates may improve it but I would be reluctant to buy another s tonic unless it can be sorted.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately this a a dsg gearbix trait, not necessarily one down to Audi's implimentation. Probably why ford have dropped them and gone over to automatic gearboxes...
 
Well I know mine's a different car but there is certainly no lag in my s-tronic gearbox. The issue described when pulling away from standstill is typically due to turbo lag. And yes this will be worse in D than S because the 'box will change up sooner, not taking advantage of peak boost.
 
DSG's tend to exaggerate any turbo lag but I wouldn't say it is turbo lag on my car in the slightest. The turbo's are designed to reduce that to a minimum so it is definitely the gearbox. I have driven cars with the same engine design and they don't have the huge lag my present one has..
 
Hopefully without tempting fate, if it's any consolation I picked up my A4 about a week before @cuke2u (October), and no issues after 8000 miles / 3 months.


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I'm also watching any gearbox thread closely, while keeping an open mind about the number on S-tronic B9's sold vs number of faults appearing.
Again without tempting fate, our car has had no gearbox issues and is just about to break 10k miles since mid May 2016.

@bluebarchetta hope you get it sorted successfully and swiftly.
 
I don't care about a small lag.... it's the dangerous auto stop which kicks in fractions of a second before setting off at a junction that bothers me. Twice now I've almost had a serious accident because of it.
 
When you say `sport` do you mean `dynamic`...or am I missing something?
 
basegreen said:
I don't care about a small lag.... it's the dangerous auto stop which kicks in fractions of a second before setting off at a junction that bothers me. Twice now I've almost had a serious accident because of it.
Click to expand...

Completely agree with this. On my 2015 A3 Saloon it would only kick in once you came to a complete stop and I also felt I had complete control over the stop start using the pressure of the brake so very rarely if ever did it activate when I didn't want it to - usually only when I had to brake hard and stop unexpectedly. As a result I just left it on all the time. However the stop start on my A4 Avant is completely different and the thing kicks in as your slowing down towards a junction or roundabout (obviously assuming your going to stop) and then you find yourself with the engine cutting out just as your about to accelerate out. Does it in very slow moving traffic too. Just seems dangerous to me. As a result I'm switching it off on pretty much any journey now.

Aside from that absolutely loving the A4 and its a amazing upgrade on the A3 in all other aspects!
 
robw77 said:
Completely agree with this. On my 2015 A3 Saloon it would only kick in once you came to a complete stop and I also felt I had complete control over the stop start using the pressure of the brake so very rarely if ever did it activate when I didn't want it to - usually only when I had to brake hard and stop unexpectedly. As a result I just left it on all the time. However the stop start on my A4 Avant is completely different and the thing kicks in as your slowing down towards a junction or roundabout (obviously assuming your going to stop) and then you find yourself with the engine cutting out just as your about to accelerate out. Does it in very slow moving traffic too. Just seems dangerous to me. As a result I'm switching it off on pretty much any journey now.

Aside from that absolutely loving the A4 and its a amazing upgrade on the A3 in all other aspects!
Click to expand...

Seems this varies from car to car - as we've only ever experienced Start/Stop being over zealous in switching off maybe two or three tims, ours is pretty much as you describe your previous A3 to be, we can modulate pressure on the brake pedal to engage or not when coming to a complete stop.

Not sure if its relevant to Start/Stop (according to documentation it isn't) but we've had the 45E3 software update on our B9.
 
I picked up my A4 mid November so I was kind of assuming it would be up to date software wise but thats interesting. I was also wondering if maybe it behaves differently depending on petrol vs diesel or some other difference. Although having said that my A3 was a petrol too...
 
Possibly the start/stops behaves differently from a stronic gearbox, which has freewheeling, to a manual, which doesn't.
 
Maybe although my A3 Saloon was an stronic as well and didn't behave that way. Maybe I was just lucky with it....
 
The A3 uses the start/stop in a different way and this is model specific. The A4 owners manual actually states this 'feature', the A3 prefacelift doesn't and the A3 doesn't have freewheeling either. Both the A3 and the A4 have different gearboxes.
 
Last edited:
I also noted that the stop/start would activate before the car was at a complete stop when I test drive the S4...

That said, in my experience of it I narrowed the issue down to being in the economy drive select mode. If it was in any other mode it would work like my B8.5 did and you could choose pedal pressure to activate it once stopped.

Worth a try to stop you wondering whether it's going to kick in before a complete stop or not!


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Cheers for the replies folks. I'll have a play about with the other drive select modes to see if any of them make a difference on the A4. Failing that i'll just have to drive everywhere in "S" mode... :racer:
 
Yeah, it does it in Economy and Auto. Basically try and remember to press a button every time you drive anywhere, or lose economy in Dynamic.

Kinda prefer to spend an extra tenner on diesel. So much for a "green" feature.
 
I don't lose any economy by driving in sport mode, in fact it gains a little. Just depends upon how you drive it, dynamic doesn't necessarily mean hooligan mode. After all tuning boxes can improve the mpg and they just boost the power and torque...
 
Driving the same route, in the same way in Economy versus Dynamic is a 8-9mpg difference for me.
 
basegreen said:
Driving the same route, in the same way in Economy versus Dynamic is a 8-9mpg difference for me.
Click to expand...

We tend to stick with Comfort for general driving, using the paddles if need be for extra oomph for overtaking or junctions, Dynamic / Paddles when pressing on and only ever really use Efficency on long M-Way runs with cruise control.

MPG wise can only look overall and we average around 40mpg in general use (A-B roads) long run across the summer from UK into Spain, Italy and back we averaged 50+mpg, thats actual measured from litres added and distance covered, rather than the DIS calculations, which on ours are between 2-4mpg optimistic.
 
****** stop start kicked in while slowing down on a hill in traffic, making me nearly **** myself as I thought I was going to roll backwards into the car behind
 
Which is why I chose hill hold, but with all the vehicles I have owned with this technology, including my present one, I don't really find start/stop a issue..
 
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I have the hill hold but that doesn't (as far as I'm aware) come into play unless you come to a standstill
 
Stops you from rolling backwards though because if you are going forwards the car has to stop before going backwards. So I can't understand your dilemma really, sorry not meant to be in anyway critical...
 
Mine kicks in on DYNAMIC as well, as I found out this morning. I have HHA.
 
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