Does anyone know of any alternative transmission codes for the D3 A8? Only ones shown in VCDS are USA 0002 or RoW 0001. I tried the RoW coding and it took it, but appeared to operate in limp mode only. Switched back to USA and it was back to normal. Do you need to do an adaption to get it to work in RoW mode?

Anyone know what the difference is between the two codes/modes? Is the USA coding very lethargic like it was on the D2 and switching to RoW or sport coding wakes it up a ton? What other codes are there?

Is anyone with an S8 able to tell us what their transmission coding is as I'm sure that will have a more lively shift pattern over standard.

 

So, I'm scratching my head some on this. First, I'm thinking simply, if you don't like the responsiveness, how about just putting the shifter in "S" and calling it good?

The reason I paused here is I own a 2000 A6 4.2 and I know about the 002 (or 022/032) coding for the older 5HP24 that both my car and the D2 shared. That got it into sport mode (plus tweaked the display when in manual mode); I think it may have also overridden the fuzzy logic learning mode those apparently had, which then had you "adapt" it if you wanted it to learn again. But a lot of why I did it was back then the car had no "S" mode--at least on my 2000--and mine didn't have paddle shifters back then either. Of course the D3 has "S" mode, and at least some like mine have paddles too. Answering your question more directly and also knowing the old D2/C5 five speed coding trick, I don't think there is such a concept for the D3/six speed ZF.

At a level deeper with D3s, your post is a bit interesting/curious to me because another oft poster (Brozee) just reported he found his throttle responsiveness kind of slow on his W12 relative to his 4.2 (he owned both in the family for a while). You don't have a W12, but on mine it always seemed fine and not at all like the way my A6 4.2 (akin to your D2) seemed before recoding.

The other thing you might want to check or play with is any coding available by country for the driveline. Admittedly kind of third hand and with the "who knows if you can trust the internet" sourcing, my sense is Audi was (is?) coding the USA ones with some throttle delay, having been burned so badly with the Audi 5000 throttle fiasco in the mid 80's. And I do notice some throttle lag if I essentially punch it spontaneously. There is also an interlock of sorts between the brake and the throttle where if you try stepping on both for more than about a second, the throttle starts cutting back. It defeats the old power braking trick of trying to start faster off the line, though apparently just applies at a certain RPM level or greater (1800-2000??). Some of this stuff might be in the tranny coding, but it could be more generic if it's in the country related selection. I would have to look at VAG COM to see if something like that is embedded when you use the long coding helper. If it's in that TCU maybe you can get to it. But if it's in the throttle--more my suspicion here--I expect that really rolls up to the ECU. At least for a W12 (and probably an S8) the ECU can't really be dealt with because of the twinned ECU's that have to be sync'ed simultaneously; impossible to do w/ VAG COM. On my C5 4.2, I could access the ECU so maybe the same on the D3 4.2's. Again, you could look for things like if country coding is accessible on the 4.2 that ties to the ECU.

BTW, Mishar also posted the neat tweak in the last month or so that allows you to engage the parking brake in gear and then just hit the gas to release it--in case you didn't see that one and something about performance off the line w/ brake release is on your mind.

Another suggestion would be to look at other boards where the 4.2 was used in higher volumes with the six speed ZF for info about this. Those would include the C6 (A6/S6) board, the S5 related board, the S4 related board for the relevant era (B7; maybe part of B8??), and the Q7 board before they dropped the 4.2 option and six speed with it.

Last, AFAIK this is a very unexplored area on the D3 4.2, so before touching anything I would do a complete scan of your D3 and capture all the current coding if it is functioning right. I always figure "I'll remember," but a few steps later and it can be hard to back track accurately if something starts to go wrong.

Not an answer for you, but maybe some backgrounder info, and of some use.

 

The S mode is one thing, but its too aggressive and largely useless as a result. I'd just like the tranny to be more responsive when in D as sometimes it just seems to take an age to make a decision. For example, it's very poor at dealing with demands for quick bursts of acceleration round town. And by the time it does swap a few cogs it's often too late. Having to consciously shift it into S is not really viable in this situation.

Given that on the D2, the RoW coding made a big difference to the standard level of responsiveness over the emissions driven and consequently leisurely US programming, it makes me think similar is likely with the D3.

However changing the coding to RoW seems to make the gearbox go into limp mode. Would doing an adaption drive with the RoW coding enabled sort it out?

No info on this seems forthcoming from the a4/A6 section with the same trans either?

 

It sounds like you are just looking at the tranny coding. I suspect your issue starts w/ the gas pedal responsiveness. The gas pedal, electronic throttle (plate), MAF, motor, tranny and related control units are all tied together. As I mentioned, coding on the twinned ECU's on the bigger motors like mine is off limits as a practical matter so I haven't explored, but with a single ECU you might look there, look for Euro/RoW settings, etc. Likely a locked unit generally, but you would have to look w/ VAG COM.

 

Well I've done some SSP reading on the topic and it would seem that the dynamic shift programs (DSP) are likely universal regardless of USA or RoW coding, and are automatically selected depending on driving style. I think I just need to be a bit more aggressive with how quickly I depress the gas pedal to force the box into "SESP" mode (Spontaneous increase in sportiness rating). Kind of goes against my instincts though having spent years driving high powered lightweight rwd sportscars with no driver aids. Sudden throttle increases with these is a surefire way to find yourself heading backwards into a ditch! I guess not with Audi :

Anyway, some in depth reading on the ZF 6HP26 (09E) gearbox and its logic for those interested (note: some docuent titles are wrong but the content is correct). SSP 284 part 2 contains the shift logic details
Audi A8 D3 SSP 284 Part 1: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...53760139,d.aWM
Audi A8 D3 SSP 283 Part 2: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...53760139,d.aWM
Audi A8 D3 SSP 284 Part 1: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...53760139,d.aWM
Audi A8 D3 SSP 284 Part 2: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...53760139,d.aWM

Happy reading....I find these SSP's like wikipedia. I just can't stop reading them and following the links/references :geek:

 

I haven't explored this area yet, but when I first got my vcds and started making some changes a friend told me that the shift points can be adjusted. He didn't really have any specific advice, just go in and change some things around. Write down original values of course. I'm sure this can be done, but you will have to experiment with it until you are happy with the changes.
Good luck!

 

Having read up extensively on the gearbox and it's operation, I very much doubt that anything such as shift points are adjustable via VCDS. You would have to get access to the transmission ECU to be able to adjust anything like that. And then it would an extensive table of values as it's a dynamic map so you'd really need to know what you were doing. VCDS can't do this.