WomboCombo

2016 a3 27,000 KM's, s-tronic (I don't know if these even come in manual)

Recently up here in my part of canada its been super cold. Yesterday it was -15c and I heard something I don't normally hear. When the car shifted down, and down only (I believe) I heard something kind of "knock" into place. This only happens until the car warms up. Today it was -30c and it did the same thing.

I tried to do a little bit of research and didn't find much information.

Is this just the transmission having a hard time pre-selecting gears? Should I have someone put in some better gear oil for the winter?

Diztek

mine does that in arizona's 80 degree weather, but only when the car is not warmed up yet. i dont use manual mode until the car is properly warmed up.

WomboCombo

I am driving it in just D, not S or manual

I accelerated just a bit faster than normal to get out of the way of someone at lunch time and it did knock ever so slightly on an upshift, still did it on the downshifts for a bit. It was -20c

I've been told by the audi dealership that I should just get in the car and drive and not let it idle to temp or anything, this is also in the owners manual. Not sure if they understand how cold it gets though? Can anyone confirm that its actually harmful to the car to let it sit for 5-15 minutes

Diztek

i dont let it warm up idling, i just drive really mellow until the car is at normal operating temps, then i get a little more spirited. if you're in drive and its doing it, definitely something wrong. altough, hopefully someone else chimes in that drives in your colder conditions.

WomboCombo

Just an update, drove home from work and absolutely no issues, it was only -12 though.

I do work right beside the Audi dealership so I'll ask them sometime soon

steve111b

Do you have quattro? Did you have the same problem last winter?

A good idea to get more heat into your engine. It will warm up faster if you do not use the heater. Best practice is to get the car to its maximum temperature before you shut it off. You may have engine oil temp. in your display somewhere. The engine oil should reach 90C even in bitter cold. Park it in the sun during the day and try to find shelter (unheated garage?) at night. Get a block heater.

The problem seems random because you are only checking the outdoor ambient air temperature. To give you an example, I drove until the engine oil was at 90C and then parked the car. With the temperature climbing from -25C to -15C the engine oil only fell from 90C to 3C.after sitting for 7 hours. It takes a long time for all the heat in the engine to disappear. So if you get the engine oil to its maximum every day, it is unlikely the engine oil will fall down anywhere near -30C in 24 hours.

WomboCombo

It is Quattro, and this is the first winter with this car.

Most of the time the engine doesn't warm up all the way when its super cold outside as my drive to work isn't very far. I am aware of this though and I do try to get it up to temp. If I leave the climate controls off it makes it to 4 bars on the temp gauge which is normal operating temp (it doesn't display an actual readout) but damn its mad cold in the car then. I did drive it a lot yesterday and I heard it clink when downshifting twice in the first 2-3 minutes of driving and nothing after that. So I'm fairly confident its just a extreme cold issue. The clinking is extremely faint, If I have the fan on 50%+ or the radio on I won't hear it.

I've researched a lot about DSG transmissions, specifically Audi/VW ones and a lot of people have this issue, some people say its normal which I'm beginning to agree with but I just want to be sure.

Unfortunately there are 0 options for a block heater on my a3. From my understanding Audi doesn't do block heaters they do oil pan heaters and my oil plan is plastic so I can't get a heater for it.

steve111b

The normal operating temperature of the coolant is 90C. However the engine oil lags this temperature by about 20C. So when the coolant is 90C the engine oil temp. is only 70C. To get the engine oil up to 90C you will need to drive the car for a longer period of time. Rough guide is if it takes 10 mins. to get the coolant up to operating temp. it will take another 10 mins. (double) for the oil to reach 90C.

Auto-camping may be able to get you a Calix in line coolant block heater. I believe Calix (Swedish) did the block heaters for Audi when they were standard equipment (in Canada) in the A3 Diesels that were sold here a few years ago.

Try driving in Sport mode after the car is warmed up. I think there were more clinks and clacks when the DSG shifted in Sport.

If you want to get rid of the noise on downshifts, try slipping the clutch when changing down. You do this by resting your foot on the throttle (just enough to move the pedal) when going down a gear. In normal operation the DSG dumps (no slipping) into a lower gear. For the upshifts, push the throttle too much and then as the revs climb up you release the throttle a little, which will force the car to shift.

It is possible that the AWD is engaging or disengaging at the same time that a shift occurs.

WomboCombo

I couldn't find a Calix block heater in NA for my specific year/model, they all seemed to end @2012. I found some DEFA engine heaters for 2015 and 2017 but no 2016.

I tried slipping the clutch as you described and it did get rid of the clunking/clinking which im guessing is also what you describe is the clutch being dumped.

In regards to sport mode when the car is warmed up it makes no odd noises, when the car is sufficiently warmed up everything is silky smooth in either D,S or manual mode

I had the opportunity to drive a brand new 2017 a3 that had been sitting outside for a good month, this car was angry when started like mine is when its -30 and found out that it makes the exact same noise so it seems to be a standard thing.

VWVW

I don't notice transmission noise when cold. However, I notice light front suspension rattle/clunk over small bumps at low speed when the temperature is <10c or so.