A3 Start/Stop software program problem
 

My wife has a 2015 A3 Cabriolet 1.4 litre turbo automatic. The car is really good except there appears to be a software program problem with the Stop/Start. It is on ALL Australian delivered A3's as far as we can tell. It may apply to yours too.


This happened when my wife retrieved the garage remote from the passenger foot well and went to drive up our driveway, only to roll backwards into the street. Not very safe. It also happened to another person in a different car when he had to reach behind the passenger seat whilst at the stop light to retrieve a toy his child had dropped just out of reach with the seatbelt on, so he undid the seatbelt temporarily but let the footbrake off before putting the belt on again.


If you stop the car THEN remove the seatbelt THEN lift your foot off the brake to press the accelerator the car instantly shuts down as soon as the foot is off the brake pedal. There are no power brakes or power steering and the car can roll away forwards or backwards and is very difficult to stop or steer. The car has to be put into N or D and key-started before going back to D and being able to move. That's not good in traffic. It doesn't matter if the seatbelt is on or off when re-starting because the car can be driven all day without the seatbelt providing the engine is started with the seatbelt undone and not used.


If you first take your foot off the brake THEN remove the seatbelt everything is OK.


If you let the car roll uncontrolled at 5kph (approx 3mph) or more and stab the brakes the engine starts even though it doesn't start if it's not rolling or rolling under 5kph.


Audi Australia says it's a safety feature but in my opinion it is an accident waiting to happen. It's nothing to do with the seatbelt not being used because nothing changes in all the other seatbelt/brake combinations.


Has anyone found out how to either default the stop/start function to OFF, or better still had the same problem so we can tell Audi that it's not just us?


Best Regards,