Atrocious throttle response
10-24-2018, 05:17 PM
#11
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10-24-2018, 05:31 PM
#12
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Hello, I have a 2017 A4 Quattro 2.0T TFSI DCT. It has the worst throttle response of any vehicle I've ever driven. The throttle is like the shutter on a 15 year old digital camera; you hit it and get a response a second or so later. It was the first thing I noticed when I test drove the car. However since my previous car was a Corvette z06 I thought this was largely due to the contrast of going from essentially a street-legal race car to a sedan. Between that, the very positive Consumer Reports review, and the fact that I didn't have a lot of time to spend test driving cars, I bought the A4. I've been regretting that decision for the past two years and I'm at the point of simply cutting my losses and selling the car. I've brought it to the dealer several times only to be told there's nothing wrong with the car. For comparison, here's a list of a few vehicles I've recently driven with orders-of-magnitude better throttle response:
- My wife's 2005 Honda Civic LX (wtf???)
- A 2015 SEAT Leon Turbodiesel I4 I rented in Spain a couple months ago
- A 2018 Ford F150 pickup with a 2.7 liter turbocharged V6
I want to stress that the throttle response on these vehicles isn't just slightly better. It's literally an order of magnitude better, I'm talking say 100ms latency versus a full second or more for the A4 under certain conditions.
I've tried the throttle body reset procedure and driving in sport (S) mode. The two of these together seem to make it less bad, but the car still feels totally unresponsive. This results in an insane driving style where I'm constantly accelerating in bursts because small throttle adjustments produce absolutely no change in engine response for seconds. I'm pretty much at the end of the line and am counting down the days to get rid of this car. But I figured I'd post here and see if anyone has any suggestions; I'm willing to try just about anything at this point. I have an obdeleven, but haven't been able to find anything that makes an appreciable difference. I've also reviewed other threads regarding this topic but haven't found anything that addresses the issue.
Thank you!
- Eric
- My wife's 2005 Honda Civic LX (wtf???)
- A 2015 SEAT Leon Turbodiesel I4 I rented in Spain a couple months ago
- A 2018 Ford F150 pickup with a 2.7 liter turbocharged V6
I want to stress that the throttle response on these vehicles isn't just slightly better. It's literally an order of magnitude better, I'm talking say 100ms latency versus a full second or more for the A4 under certain conditions.
I've tried the throttle body reset procedure and driving in sport (S) mode. The two of these together seem to make it less bad, but the car still feels totally unresponsive. This results in an insane driving style where I'm constantly accelerating in bursts because small throttle adjustments produce absolutely no change in engine response for seconds. I'm pretty much at the end of the line and am counting down the days to get rid of this car. But I figured I'd post here and see if anyone has any suggestions; I'm willing to try just about anything at this point. I have an obdeleven, but haven't been able to find anything that makes an appreciable difference. I've also reviewed other threads regarding this topic but haven't found anything that addresses the issue.
Thank you!
- Eric
Foxx312 thanks for the generous offer to drive your car but unfortunately I'm in the San Francisco area.
From the responses so far it seems APR is probably the way to go. I really don't want changes to the shift points, jerkiness, etc. I'm not even interested in additional power, just removal of the latency and overall smooth and balanced performance (I'm actually a relatively conservative driver). If I can get this to respond somewhat like my 2003 BMW 328i I'd be thrilled.
- Eric
10-24-2018, 05:38 PM
#13
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Apologies for the multiple posts of this, the behavior "Quick Reply" and quoting was a little counterintuitive to me.
10-24-2018, 05:41 PM
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The thing that would make me hesitate about an APR tune is California smog laws. I know it's technically illegal to do this in CA, but I don't know how much lasting evidence or repercussions there would be to doing it anyway. Can you just revert to stock, pass smog, and get the tune re-applied? Would you also have to revert to stock before taking it in to the service department? I'd like to hear what other people have experienced in CA, and also if you decide to go ahead and do it, what your experience is like.
10-25-2018, 01:54 AM
#15
Audi service will know it is there even if you have reverted back to the stock tune. Every time you write to the ECU there is a signature that it has been done. If you have any drive train issues with your car Audi will flag it as TD1 and the warranty will probably be void. No matter what you are told, Audi can tell you have have or have had a tune.
10-25-2018, 06:55 AM
#16
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Never known a tuning box and a TCU tune to be detected by Audi. In fact mine has just had its second service, for which I removed the box, and nothing untoward came back..
10-25-2018, 06:56 AM
#17
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Same. I've been to 3 different dealers a total of ~10 times and only once did the adviser state that it "could" violate the warranty, but he told me he basically had to tell me that.
10-25-2018, 09:28 AM
#18
The thing that would make me hesitate about an APR tune is California smog laws. I know it's technically illegal to do this in CA, but I don't know how much lasting evidence or repercussions there would be to doing it anyway. Can you just revert to stock, pass smog, and get the tune re-applied? Would you also have to revert to stock before taking it in to the service department? I'd like to hear what other people have experienced in CA, and also if you decide to go ahead and do it, what your experience is like.
10-26-2018, 09:56 AM
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The thing that would make me hesitate about an APR tune is California smog laws. I know it's technically illegal to do this in CA, but I don't know how much lasting evidence or repercussions there would be to doing it anyway. Can you just revert to stock, pass smog, and get the tune re-applied? Would you also have to revert to stock before taking it in to the service department? I'd like to hear what other people have experienced in CA, and also if you decide to go ahead and do it, what your experience is like.
Looking through all the posts here APR does seem to be the most sophisticated solution. I'm going to schedule an appointment and see what they have to say. If anyone wants specific questions answered post them and I'll try to ask and reply with the answers.
10-26-2018, 12:42 PM
#20
I've been stage 1 APR for a while now and want to give a bit of insight. Take it with a grain of salt as it's only one person's opinion.
I love the tune. But I didn't do it to get rid of the horrible throttle response, although it is somewhat improved. I'm of the opinion that an ECU tune almost requires a TCU tune with it (Audi designed the two to work together, and when you mess with one, you negate all of the work they did to harmonize them). With just APR, power delivery can be a little choppy and uncomfortable for passengers, but I'll admit I'm a little aggressive on the accelerator. I haven't seen a software TCU tune yet, so I ordered the Pedalbox from Chiptuning.com. It should be here early next week, and after playing around with it, I'll report back.
I love the tune. But I didn't do it to get rid of the horrible throttle response, although it is somewhat improved. I'm of the opinion that an ECU tune almost requires a TCU tune with it (Audi designed the two to work together, and when you mess with one, you negate all of the work they did to harmonize them). With just APR, power delivery can be a little choppy and uncomfortable for passengers, but I'll admit I'm a little aggressive on the accelerator. I haven't seen a software TCU tune yet, so I ordered the Pedalbox from Chiptuning.com. It should be here early next week, and after playing around with it, I'll report back.