B8 / 8.5 S4 - How do you drive yours?

[Mantio]

Bit random but just curious how people drive theirs.....

1 month in i can't help but put it in manual mode a lot as i find S mode either holds a low gear too long when driving around town or changes up to early on B roads. Drive is fine for pootling, but when i want to drive hard i always stick it in manual.... however.. having not had a dsg/tiptronic before i find downshifts weird in manual.

Just interested how u guys drive most of the time or when doing spirited B road thrashes.... which i'm sure most of u do.... otherwise why bother owning an S4!!!!! lol

 

[Tobe]

Wife- Comfort only if wife's in the car.

Commuting and normal driving - Auto on ads and auto/d gearbox most of the time for normal driving. I would call this 50% fun

75% fun - Individual set to auto on everything apart from engine/gearbox in dynamic and use manual mode, when having a little fun.

Flat out - just dynamic on ads and manual gearbox when wanting 100% fun.

Personally I never use the car as an auto in s or dynamic engine gearbox, for the reasons you mentioned and don't like the rest in dynamic for normal driving as it has, sports diff, and active steering and suspension so it all gets a bit to stiff.

This question will probably vary a lot for people who don't have full options on drive select as I find the dynamic steering and suspension does make a big difference.

 

[jdp1962]

I have Sports Diff and ADS (all set to Dynamic) but no active dampers or steering. I use it in Auto D for ambling about or a busy motorway cruise, but otherwise switch to manual mode as soon as I leave town. As to @Mantio 's question of why buy an S4 if not for charging the back roads, for me what makes it such an epic car is that it rewards me whatever the conditions. Yes, it's a cracker on the B-roads (especially with Sports Diff) but I don't know of a better car to be in be when I need to get from Kent to Northumberland in five hours. Even if I'm stuck in traffic, I love the ambience of the car, such is its quality.

 

[AndrewW]

I have an early B8 so no ADS or anything fancy, most of my 40 mile a day commute is in D at normal speeds as the roads are nothing special, although I’m lucky to have very little traffic. Country roads are always manual and everything else is usually S

I really enjoy S but I guess that’s because of the improved low down throttle response which is configurable in ADS, it just feels so much nippier off the line even though it probably makes very little difference

 

[Mantio]

Yes i don't have ADS either. There seems to be very few second hand ones around with it on from sort of 2012 - 2015 which was the age i was looking at.

I've noticed that in D mode it changes up early or mid corner, which is quite annoying (lol) and in S mode is seems to change up too late almost. It's like you have to redline it all the time when if i had a manual i'd be changing up to keep it in the mid range power band. it's not that it's bad, i've just always had fully manual cars so takes a while to get used to it. I still reach for the gear shift when going into a slow corner from say 4th, expecting to be able to do a 4th to 2nd shift.

on the flip side..... i drove the old car today which is manual as it's in having the electrical gremlins fixed (see other post). completely forgot about the clutch trying to put it in reverse to go off the drive. cue lots of gearbox grinding and then i keep forgetting to dip the clutch coming up to junctions and almost stalling. ha ha. look like a rank amateur driver i'm sure. ha ha.

How many of you have had DSG/Triptronic flashes done? Reading all the stuff online people seem to say don't bother until it's at least stage 1.

 

[Dippy]

The primary benefit of a TCU remap is to raise the redline, and this is more significant for the B8.5 because Audi reduced the redline when it replaced the B8. Next is raising the torque limit which can be an issue at stage 2. Some tuners adjust the shift points so if that's your concern it might be worth investigating. However IMO if D is too take you switch to S and if that's too tame you switch to M.

 

[HertS3]

Yes i don't have ADS either. There seems to be very few second hand ones around with it on from sort of 2012 - 2015 which was the age i was looking at.

I've noticed that in D mode it changes up early or mid corner, which is quite annoying (lol) and in S mode is seems to change up too late almost. It's like you have to redline it all the time when if i had a manual i'd be changing up to keep it in the mid range power band. it's not that it's bad, i've just always had fully manual cars so takes a while to get used to it. I still reach for the gear shift when going into a slow corner from say 4th, expecting to be able to do a 4th to 2nd shift.

on the flip side..... i drove the old car today which is manual as it's in having the electrical gremlins fixed (see other post). completely forgot about the clutch trying to put it in reverse to go off the drive. cue lots of gearbox grinding and then i keep forgetting to dip the clutch coming up to junctions and almost stalling. ha ha. look like a rank amateur driver i'm sure. ha ha.

How many of you have had DSG/Triptronic flashes done? Reading all the stuff online people seem to say don't bother until it's at least stage 1.

Carista can sort this out