PghRich

Given the extremes to which car companies go to improve fuel economy by a tenth of an MPG, this is indeed quite far-fetched.

SkiingInABlueDream

I disagree. Cars need to "demo" well on the test drive, otherwise people won't buy them. Cars like the A/S4 are positioned as "sporty" but throttle lag hurts that aspect of the driving experience. I think we agree that throttle delay exists in these cars, and that it exists to improve fuel economy and/or emissions, but I'm still betting that Audi implemented a short term throttle mode to make new cars test drive better. If it lasts for, say the duration of the break in period before transitioning to normal/laggy/"efficiency" mode, that's a drop in the bucket over the life of the car. Plus, Audi could rationalize it as temporary behavior for optimizing engine break in. People thought the diesel emissions cheating was farfetched at first too.

SkiingInABlueDream

Nope. I'm just living with it as is. Use M mode, keep the rpms above 2k at the absolute minimum and the car has a semblance of responsiveness. S mode is fine for "distracted driver" stuff like talking on the phone. D mode shouldn't even exist. It is a complete mystery to me how anyone can find this car's D mode to be serviceable.

jpz79

I thought I was the only one who noticed it with my B9 on making highway passes. I owned a 2014 A4 Quattro and now a 2018 A4 B9 Quattro, and in my experience the B9 does not feel as smooth or fast, as previous generations drivetrain. I understand on paper, the 2018 is more powerful/faster, but , since I got it at 37K miles, it feels very 'heavy' compared to the 2014, - as if the transmission was programmed to be 1 gear lower than it should be (whether I'm in Sport mode or Drive). The throttle doesn't get you much results - unless you smash it, which I'm not going to do. The 2014 had very linear in it's acceleration. Just gently advancing the tip of the pedal forward through 2 inches, brought a smooth rush of continuous acceleration from 2500- 4500 RPM, without any jumps. Going from 50 to 70mph, on a highway pass, felt so effortless, and was the greatest experience with the car; no delays, or violent upshifts, and constant torquiness, without the feeling of dragging your transmission. The B9 doesn't give you the same acceleration, unless you drive the car like you stole it (which isn't practical for most folks), and still, with nowhere near the same finesse.

I was really hoping there was some general solution to this; Transmission reset or something else.

SkiingInABlueDream

@jpz79 I suspect you mean 1 gear higher, not lower? Meaning for example the car will go to 4th when you think it should (still) be in 3rd? At least that's my observation. And that's in S mode. In D mode the tranny goes *at least* one gear too far if not 2 (ie it's 6th when i think it should in 4th). D mode is 110% programmed to placate the fuel-mileage tyrants. S mode, is less bad. Maybe 50%, LOL. (And that's coming from someone who generally *does* sympathize with the goal of economy. Just not at the expense of drivability.)

I would be curious what's your impression of M mode? I've said this before but I find the car feels much more responsive in M when you keep the RPMs over 2k. (Basically, choose gears as if it were a traditional MT.)

One point about throttle response. I have noticed that this car does not respond well to big and fast increases of throttle input. So for example, if you're at half throttle and you floor the pedal quickly. Or, if you're completely off the throttle and you quickly press to half throttle. The car won't respond instantly to that. Especially the "zero throttle to some throttle" transition. The car is always laggy there. It's almost as if the computer is taken by surprise - "wait, what just happened, what'd you do?" LOL. Even in M mode and at "good" RPMs (say, 3k+). Always some throttle lag(**). In my experience the car responds much better to gradual increases in throttle. By "gradual" I don't necessarily mean "slow" but rather just rolling smoothly onto, or further into, the throttle. Just my 2 cents.

(**)Yes there's always some throttle lag even in M mode, BUT I will also say that said throttle lag is less than the turbo lag of my previous car (the WRX). So... there's that.

Maybe I'm making excuses and/or I just live in a vacuum but I have really come to enjoy driving this car in M mode.

Void20

You describe the problem perfectly.

The huge delay when heavy throttle/kickdown in auto mode (including S mode) it's because the transmission goes 2 gears down, even if you have more than 2k rpm (when theoretically you have full torque).
Then there is the noticeable throttle lag in M when you're about less than 4k rpm
That's the default car behavior unfortunately.

2.0 252 tfsi btw.

jpz79

Yes, I actually meant to say that the B9 feels like it's always 1 gear HIGHER than it should be. I did try M-Mode last night and I felt that I was able to get very close to emulating the shifting character of my B8.5. I just wish S-mode would actually do it all for me. M-Mode takes a little practice, and a couple times the paddles quirk and fail to register my shifts, and I had the engine hanging near redline for a couple seconds before I caught it. And even though M-Mode is better, aside from the shifting behavior, I am suspect that the stock ECU is programmed to under-boost the engine, until the driver really asks for it (mashes the throttle).

jpz79

I posted a review on the Unitronic Stage 2 DL382 TCU tune (No ECU Tune yet). In short, the tune helped eliminate a lot of the feeling of 'lag'. When accelerating anywhere under 60MPH, there is virtually no lag anymore - and the car will not surge forward much quicker, and in a more linear fashion. Above 60-65 MPH there is still some lag, and I am hoping that more power and better ECU program can compensate for it. I will upgrading to Unitronic Stage 1+ ECU on Monday.

elhalisf

I also got the Unitronic TCU flash about a week ago and can report quicker responsiveness from the Trans shifts. For example, It the trans will now shift to 1st gear when you slow down and hit10mph whereas it was previously around 3-4mph. That makes rolling stops much smoother.
I have it in conjunction with the IE ecu tune.

A4Audi4Fun

6MT so have avoided all this S-tronic learning stuff - taught the right hand to always shift to the correct gear and right foot to quickly but smoothly press throttle down when needed.