Audis or VWs 4Life

ZURICH (Reuters) - Pull this wire to go and speed up. Insert plug here for car fan operation.
One Swiss do-it-yourself car repairman was left stranded on Monday after Swiss police decided his replacement for a broken accelerator -- a wire feeding straight into the engine block -- was too innovative to meet road-worthiness standards.

A direct socket and plug connection between the ventilator and car battery also failed to pass their roadside inspection which culminated in the vehicle being impounded.<ul><li><a href="http://news.excite.com/odd/article/id/298469|oddlyenough|01-28-2003::08:16|reuters.html">Link</a></li></ul>

JimR

But I know Paul's ultimate solution to "how do I control this" will be effective.

Xialater

Paul, you might be one of the most remarkable members of this forum.....How many people who drive a car would do something like this?? I can only hope you are careful when playing with the nuclear reactors you sell parts for!!!!!

On a serious note, I'm not sure how possible it is, but do you think you could reverse engineer the tip shifter from the real part?? If the electronics are there, maybe you can just get a replacement part from your Audi dealer, and have it look like it was a tip out of ther factory.....you'd probably have to open the area where the stock shifter is, and see if the shift lever can slide to the right and drop into the tip shift area as needed........If not, I'd try to come up with some kind of a rocker switch you could put on the dash (like the Garage door opener mod) to put it into tip mode, then maybe you can come up with some way to put the tip controls on the steering wheel......the newer models have the tip *and* radio controls, maybe you can pull off your radio controls, and replace them with the stock ones from a newer A8/S8......or maybe replace the wheel.....now that you have the wires, you can run them pretty much anywhere......

No matter what you decide, I'm guessing it will look like a VERY Clean install, and I can't wait to see the final results. When do you find the time to work when you play so much with your car?? Labor of love I guess!!!!!!

Greg66

I've got a 2000 UK spec A8 sport. This has a tip gearbox and shift buttons on the steering wheel.

One thing I can tell you about the operation of the tip box is this: the gearbox will *not* shift up unless you tell it to (so you can redline it/hit the rev limiter/blow the engine if you're so inclined), but it *will* override you on downshifts (in a particular way). It will let you drop to 2 for corners, &amp; so on, but it will also drop down the gears to avoid labouring the engine. So, if you choose to pull to a halt in 4, you'll find that the box will have dropped down to 1 by the time you've stopped.

Does the wiring solution you've got going replicate this behaviour?

BTW, although I realise that you want to keep costs down, I'd recommend looking at the costs and feasibility of swapping out your existing gear stick and putting in the tip version. I very rarely use the steering wheel buttons to shift, and tend to find the "flicky-sticky" more natural for shifting. Also,I think that the steering shifters take a lot more getting used to, especially when you've got a car with more than 1 turn lock to lock - when the wheel's upside down I find myself checking which button to press. The flciky-sticky, otoh, is a lot more intuitive.

KjellA

Is there any way to find out what type/model number the gearbox is?

As you probably know, '97 year model (produced from september '96 onwards) was the first A8 made with a 5-speed tiptronic. The earlier ones had a 4-speed.

Now, normally you get the cars and updates later in the US than we do here, so I find it very interesting that your car actually has a 5-speed tiptronic as early as '97. Could it be that you have the same box we got here in the '97 model? If so, why didn't they sell it as a tiptronic? Would be nice to know, do you think AoA would answer this? Maybe April could find out?

I have got the impression from this forum that the '97's also had more gearbox problems than the later ones. This is not the case in Europe as far as I know (but most A8 owners I communicate with are in america, that might be a reason too).

PaulW

I was thinking about the tip mod using the 98 and later components, if the 97 shifter moves to the right with the new "gate" installed, I would do it.

However, I want to do just as you mentioned, a switch in the dash to energize tip, then hook the two lower radio buttons on the wheel to shift the car using a RF transmitter or getting a new canceling ring from a later car that has two more slip rings and run across that....still thinking about it.

PaulW

Like yours, if I'm going along in 3rd and come to a stop, it shifts down to 1st at less than 5 mph (or I can do it manually using the buttons once I'm below the redline for 1st gear).

On upshift mode, it will run to redline and shift automatically, just like it is in drive.

1st gear holds until redline, then it shifts.

If I'm in 4th in tip and give it full throttle, it will downshift automatically to the lowest gear without redlining to give me the power without having to shift it.

So a little different than yours, but I think the same as all US bound A8's (99 and older, would be 98 and older in the UK) with the 00011 coding.

pw

PaulW

The US bound 97 gearboxes were three different types, all non tiptronic. Then in 98 they all got tiptronic and a different tranny code and it has remained constant for a few years after that.

They hydraulic circuit used to shift the unit is exactly the same for 97 and 98, that's why I thought it might work.

I know the 97's were suppose to come to the US with tiptronic, but they didn't and a lot of people cancelled their orders for their cars (they also didn't have 17" wheels, except for a few).

I've been wondering if the transmission type of the 97's aren't exactly like the 98's and newer cars, and they can't take the load or the pump inside is different or something.

That's why I hooked up the switch assembly and doing the "shake down" on the tranny. So far, so good.

It is just so awesome, I see now why you said I shouldn't of done the 6 speed conversion, having the tip is a lot of fun.

BTW, today on the way to a customers, did an indicated 115 MPH, 3,200 RPM in 5th, now that's tall gearing!

pw

JimR

Any of you guys working around the steering wheel should take read this post and see the vids.

Be careful and follow procedure out there.<ul><li><a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/s4/msgs/1116570.phtml">A couple of videos from the Audi Tech Center visit (airbag vids)</a></li></ul>