avignon

I've been having an intermittent problem for the past few months which I wasn't concerned about because it wasn't keeping me from driving my A4. I assumed it was a faulty sensor. However, my car is with the dealer for its first year service and they haven't been able to replicate the problem, although they did see that I had been having an issue when reading off the computer. I would have posted this in a technical forum, but there isn't one for transmissions, just engines and other things.

Anyway, here is the problem in case anyone has any insight:

I get this yellow warning icon when I start the car:

It's yellow, not red.

I get this error message:
"Transmission: malfunction! Please stop vehicle and shift to P. Do not continue driving. Select the “P” selector lever position and contact your Audi dealer for assistance."

This has only been happening on a cold start. It goes away when if turn the car off and on 2 or 3 times and/or shift (without moving the car) into drive or reverse, then turn off the car, then start it again. It never happens when driving the car.

According the Owner's Manual, that message should be associated with a red (not yellow) warning icon.

As I said, the dealer hasn't been able to reproduce the problem, but they acknowledge there appears to be a problem. They're going to keep it for another day to check. The biggest issue is I live 1-1/2 hours away from them and if they give it back unresolved and it reappears, it will be a pain to take it back in to them.

Does anyone have any ideas what might be going on?

cuke2u

I had something similar however in the end I couldn't select any gears and had to release the 'P' mode manually through the cup holders to get it onto a flatbed. Turned out to be the parking solenoid...

jnigro7

hi Cuke2u. I just had the same issue 2 days ago happen twice over the weekend. I took a video and the car is at the dealership. The dealer said based on my video there is clearly an issue but Audi technical said they need to duplicate it. Audi technical also complained that I was shifting to hard and fast and they didn’t like the way I was treating it. Well my car was stuck and it was by all means not hard or fast.

Did you bring your car to the dealer?

MDAudi

I can't say that I have had this problem, but I do agree with the comment above that getting a photo or a video of the display error message really puts a fire under them to fix the problem. They will insist on replicating the problem, but when I had a different strange problem with a brake error message that occurred intermittently, having a picture with a date/time stamp seemed to help and prompted them to keep the car until they figured out what to do (in my case it was some sort of computer fix).

I hope you get it all sorted out quickly!

avignon

Thanks. I realized after they couldn't replicate the problem that's what I should have done, but this was my first "modern" car after 18 years with a Ford Focus.

I assumed that they would be able to see the fault if I told them about it and they ran the diagnostics. They did see something was going on, but not specifically what I was describing. To be fair, they've been really great about it and they gave me a loaner in the meantime. They're going to keep it another day and try a cold start tomorrow. If nothing goes wrong, I'll take the car back and wait to see if the problem reappears and document it.

cuke2u

Shifting a gear change with an stronic so fast it causes an error is just BS in my opinion...

daniel manoliu

Hello, I have exactly the same problem with the car.
Please tell me how you solved this problem?

avignon

Because the problem could not be reproduced by the service department, it took 3 annual service trips to get it fixed (I hope). The issue only comes up in cold weather and only on first start in the morning. Anyway, I took pictures with my phone when it did happen and here's the history:

In March 2020, I took it in for annual service, showed them the pictures, and they thought it was a back-up battery ("T100 diagnosed and replaced back-up battery - 4MO-907-486 Battery"), but that wasn't it, because the problem reoccurred this past winter (the battery didn't actually get replaced until August because of the virus).

In March 2021, I took it in again for annual service and told them I was still having the problem and showed them the pictures again, plus they had the prior service history. Here's what they said this time:

"Warning light unable to verify concern. GFF scan show fault P17F900 parking lock mechanical malfunction. Test plan tested park lock release and concluded not completely seated closed. Cleared faults and unable to verify warning light at this time."

As I said, because the problem only shows up in cold weather, it won't be until November or so that I will know if it's actually fixed. Crossing my fingers.