Jim Clark

The car was at the dealer Mon-Tues for the CEL and I THOUGHT further diagnosis of my intermittent "no torque mode" problem. When I picked it up they had replaced a purge valve which is what triggered the CEL. They had not done additional dignosis of the torque problem. The shop foremen said they hadn't planned to do additional diagnosis of intermittent torque problem until they heard back from the regional service rep who was supposed to be researching the issue.

To re-summarize: the car will often not deliver expected torque even though the engine revs will climb to as much as 4.5k. It happens when starting out from a stop with light to moderate pedal inputs. When starting out, I lightly depress the pedal and when I'm not getting the acceleration I want, I gradually depress it further. The engine revs climb as expected but the acceleration isn't there. Other times I'll get what I consider to be normal torque and the car knocks me back in the seat as it should in the 2.5-4k rev range. If I stomp on it, I get expected results and excellent acceleration. But, I SHOULDN'T have to stomp on it, I should get great acceleration EVERY time in the 2.5-4.5k rev range.

The 3 different service people who've driven the car think it software related. That's the shop foreman, regional Audi service rep, and my indy mech.

I CAN'T believe this is normal, especially because it's intermittent.

Have any other S6 owners experienced anything like this?

paulroad

What you are describing sound like the TC is slipping. But with today's software controls its hard to determin.

My wif had an 01 A4 and at 17K one evening it was locked in 3 and 4 (tip) It was in safe mode. You would step on the gas and the rpms would climb as the TC would slip due to the higher gear selection. The next day all was fine. Within a few hours of driving around town it came back.. the TCU safe mode. I had it towed to the dealer and within hours they called us. "A new Tranny is being ordered from Germany." we were told. I asked why? and I was simply told. "AoA specs are that the dealer is not to open a tranny to diagnose. If the TCU codes show its locked up in Safe mode..we just replace it."

The tech also said.."do you really want us inside one of these transmissions?" We both chuckled.

My drawn out point is that you shouldnot be waiting around.. make a bit of noise and get the job taken care of as it soubnd like the tcu safe mode is turning on.

JimtheDentist

Nothing like that so far, '02 S6 w/ 64k miles

Gerry

I have not experienced RPM without torque as you describe. I have been disappointed with the throttle linearity since new, particularly when compared to the drive by wire on my Infiniti or RX8, but once there are reasonable RPMs with the the S6 there has always been power.

Jim Clark

I thought it was torque converter slippage when I first noticed it. My indy mech, the dealer shop foreman, and the AoA regional service guy all think it's software related.

I asked the AoA guy how difficult it was to just re-flash all the software, thinking to myself that would be an easy thing to try. Unfortunately, he said it's very difficult. Way to go Audi engineers, make a car totally software dependent and make it very difficult to update the software, absofrigginlutely brilliant.

I'm staying on it but trying to work with them politely so I can keep their cooperation and keep them working on a fix.

I REALLY need to drive one or more other S6's and have their owner(s) drive mine so I can build a better case that I'm not crazy and that a problem really does exist.

Ledergeist

I just quickly back off the pedal and get right back on it, and things proceed as they should. I always thought this might be caused by the Tip sorting thru the 200 or so shift programs and "out-thinking" itself. I find it to be annoying at times, but more of a quirk, not a problem. It has not gone into safe mode or had any other issues.

Jim Clark

The worst problem is the infamous brake throttle lag (BTL). The ECU gives priority to braking, apparently they think that's safer. But when braking to a "near" stop and then hitting the gas, nothings there for a second while the ECU takes its sweet time figuring out that you now want to go and not stop. This can be especially dangerous when braking for a left turn and then hitting the gas to get through an opening in traffic.

My '01 BMW 330Cic throttle has perfect linearity, I don't know if it's drive-by-wire. It's Steptronic (Tip) transmission is also much more responsive. I use Sport mode all the time and it's great. Sport mode on the S6 is more like "track mode", holds the RPMs too high for daily driving.

Jim Clark

Everyone seems to agree that it's a software problem, I just can't believe it's normal. To me, it is incredibly annoying, enough so that I'd rather they bought the car back than have to live with it.

I can NOT believe that the 1500 S6 owners in this country would put up with this.

rally

Same response here. Typical tip quirk.

rally

if you roll on the gas too quickly after applying the brake the computer reacts improperly and retards power.
Easy test is to release the gas pedal and reapply.
Lots of Audi's do this.