rons3

Hey guys
I need a second opinion from someone who is knowledgeable about the S Tronic gear shifter in a 2015 S3.

A few months ago, I had my daughter's apple juice in a leakproof/vacuum sealed bottle explode inside the car due to a momentary mistake of leaving it inside my S3 for a few hours during a warm Chicago day (bad combo of pressure/vaccum+hot air+juice)
Most of it stained the floor and only a bit fell around the cup holder and the gearknob, all of which was cleaned up.
However last night my S3 threw a transmission error and my car wouldn't budge. It braked while I was driving at 40mph and wouldn't move from the 'Park' gear or allow me drive the vehicle to the side of the road. So after several hours, I managed to get it towed to my dealer who found out that I had juice underneath the gear module (is that the gear knobshifter?) that prevented the vehicle from changing gears after they ran some extensive diagnosis.

Do you guys think there is any truth to this? How would stained juice affect gear shifts or the transmission?
Is there some chip underneath the gear shifter that could have shorted out?

I'm basically trying to see if the dealer is trying to scam me out of my warranty coverage for an actual transmission issue probably not related to the juice leak or if he's actually telling the truth.

What do you guys think?

Jnjrowland

My information is anecdotal based on some things I heard about the older Audi A4's, specifically the B6 automatic models. They had what was laughably called a cup holder up on the dashboard positioned above both the radio and the transmission shift lever. There were instances when cups launched out of this "holder" and the resulting spills were know to cause both radio and transmission shifting problems.

I suspect that there may be some validity to what the dealer is saying in this instance. If you do a search in the older A4 forums you may gain some insight from those threads.

rons3

Holy Cow. My dealer is saying that I have to replace the entire gear shift assembly unit ($1700 USD) since they can't clean out the freaking juice! That's just seems a tad bit overboard.

arU4ic

Given the electronic nature of the shifter, it makes sense, but there should be some grounds for at least splitting the cost, a freakin' transmission shifter should be a bit hardier than that - take the other half out of your daughter's college fund... she should know better than to drink liquids, sheesh.

Send an email to AOA, CC your dealer - I'm thinking they will work with you.

Fixeroh

^Agree with what arU4ic wrote. Contact everyone in the chain of command to try to minimize that cost. Holy cow.

Rons3, was the drink in the cup holder went it exploded? I find it hard to believe that with the cup holder location in relation to the gear selector in our cars that Audi didn't foresee someone spilling some liquid at some point that might land in the gear selector area. If a little juice can disable the car, wonder what a cup of hot coffee would do. The engineers at Audi are brilliant but a drink holder near an electronic assembly which is not fully sealed, well, that's just inviting trouble. Good luck with getting this resolved. Go Cubbies!!

rons3

Update:
The cost of taking apart the entire shifter or replacing it was significant and the dealer wasn't willing to negotiate to cover any of the cost-which is understandable.
Since the liquid seems to have dried up and my transmission is working normally now, I've decided to drive it till it dies again. At that point, I'll consider replacing the entire shifter.
For now, cross my fingers and hope it drives.

Lesson learned: Don't use the cup holder for any liquids unless you want to disable the car with the smallest leak. I have no idea why Audi couldn't seal the shifter properly!!

a2oc

Not only audi has this problem, My previous car a 2009 Mini has the same problem too (or even worst) In their 2007-13 cars, their cupholder are the same location as the ones in the A3, but the different thing is there is 2 exposed screwheads that water (or condensation) can get into the actual shifter mechanism and throwing up fault codes........... but that shifter was cheaper than the ones in the a3.

949

hey guys, i know this is an old post. i am having something similar to this issue right now. i read this post years ago when you posted it, and now i just remembered it since I'm also having issues like this.




i spilled coffee in the center console area, and my car is acting up randomly. i can only assume at this point it's the console area where i would control the MMI.
a bunch of random symptoms are showing i couldn't figure out why and what's causing it. nothing happened right away, and it wasn't a massive spill.
i scanned it with vcds and most of the car's modules lit up like a Christmas tree. none of these modules are bad. I never had any issues with them.
the main issue was that the car would stall out when i would put the car into neutral at a stop light. i would need to restart the car. then my car's reverse camera would flicker. like the cable was damaged or the camera wasn't getting enough power, similar to a shortage.
modules that showed as having issues were just random and i knew they had no problems.
HVAC,
ABS system,
mmi infotainment,
rear camera,
etc...
but after a while, i remembered this post.
the shifting was the most significant signal that made me remember this post. i thought, why would spilling a drink affect shifting?

i think my affected part is the MMI controller, where the wheel scroller is located at. it's connected to the area where our arm would rest. if you take it out, it's not a small part. it seems to hold a few electrical components.
what is your update and how did you exactly fix it?
what parts were replaced?
is it the same part I'm speaking of?