Dr.Aronis

So today my wife needed the A4 so I let my son drive to school in the A8L (other choice was RS6) and he did great.

But he immediately noticed and commented on the lag between pushing the gas and something happening.

So it's not just the imagination of us old cantankerous drivers....

AUDI FIX IT...

Mike

HouTexAudi

I am pleased to report that this is not the case with the S8, but it certainly was with the A8L I drove for 7 months before I got the S8. Don't know why Audi can't figure this out because it was quite annoying.

dbbogey

I have had them (Audi)admit there is a problem there is no fix. It can almost be dangerous as you try not to yank your passengers heads off and you end up easing into traffic to avoid the surge.

Lazydog

I can see this as a safety issue when trying to avoid an accident.

Seaclav

Is this all turbo lag? I notice all the respondents complained about the 4.0.
I don't notice anything in particular on my 4.2 - wonder if any of the 3.0 drivers see it?


On another note - I completely agree with the safety portion of this thread. My last car (different brand) had horrible lag and surge problems, to the point where I was never confident of what would happen when I pushed the throttle - sometimes it'd lag, others it'd take off like a scalded cat. Aside from occasionally looking stupid, the lack of predictability turned several routine incidents into dangerous ones as merge speeds etc., were inappropriate for the circumstances.

dbbogey

It is not so much a turbo lag at speed - the 4.0 will haul *** if you punch it - from a stop or at speed. From a stop it is nearly impossible to accelerate smoothly without being passed up by a Grand Marquis driven by an 85 yr old.

HouTexAudi

It is not turbo lag--just a throttle calibration issue so I don't know why Audi can't just reprogram it (when I had my A8L my dealer also told me there was no fix even though many customers with the 4.0 engine had complained about it). However, it is non-existant in my S8--go figure.

In the A8L if I was traveling at highway speeds and lifted my foot off the gas and then punched it to pass the hesitation was definitely dangerous if I was trying to get into a lane quickly as oncoming traffic was approaching. I sometimes had to jump back in my lane quickly to avoid an accident.

Popoemt

Anybody ever try and use a "pedal box"in the Audi? The 7 series guys are having great results with this system...