EddyS

Recently got a Premium Plus S5 SB. I've been driving the cars a few days. I noticed a few things. Need answers...

Q1. Interior light.
I understand there's a difference in the interior lighting between P+ and Prestige. Is P+ stuck with the white interior lighting? My car seems stuck with white interior light regardless of the drive mode. The only exception is when there is another car in my blindspot, the bit on the door will turn red. I heard that the interior light would turn red once in Dynamic mode. Is it true for P+?

Q2. Isn't Auto Hold standard?
Not quite sure about the term. (stops at red light, the car would stay without holding the brake or shifting into P). I looked it up, some threads say this feature is no longer available in the US market?

Juanguillermor

I have a 2018 S5 Prestige in the US and autohold never was standard (The button next to the e-brake is blank). While ACC is enabled autohold is also enabled.

Odo Ital

Answering your question regarding the lighting: The different colored lights are only available on the Prestige trim. The information explaining that is buried incredibly deep in the Audi site, and even then it is not explained well.

It's a cool feature to show off or mess around with when sitting in traffic, but if it's any consolation, it's really not that great and the white light looks pretty good. You're not missing out on too much!

plat27265

The last generation's S5 never received this feature either. I never understood why this button is needed in the first place when you can do the same thing using the parking brake button. My understanding is that the Auto Hold button engages the ABS unit and holds the brakes for a short while. When the ABS unit's temp goes up to a certain point, it will activate the parking brake to hold the car so it won't overheat. But, in the absence of this button, the electronic parking brake does this same thing. So, in my opinion, this seems to be a redundant button.

Glisse

Hold Assist is not an option available in North America. The advantage of using it is that, when selected via the switch, it is always on, so no need to use the elctonic parking brake.

I have it on both B9 S5's, and never use it. It is a useless function much of the time, and an irritating one when reverse parallel parking into a small space on a steep hill. Which I do frequently. The amount of throttle input to release the function is way too much when there is about 30cm/ 1' between your bumper and the cars you are parking between.

I am shallow, and paid the $100 or so to have a nice looking switch rather than a blank


Source: Audi-MediaCenter.com Audi Lexicon

Slides

Looks like Audi botched the implementation of a hold assist. It can be useful if done right.

plat27265

Glisse, very good explanation from a user. Not sure how it relates to Auto Hill Hold that is available in my B8.5 S5 and most likely on B9 cars, too. The ABS keeps the brakes engaged when it senses the car stopped (one has to apply the foot brake for this feature to activate) on an incline. When it senses that you are ready to move forward, it will automatically disengage the brakes. All this happens on an upward incline without the need for a button. Does not work on downward inclines. I'll need to engage the parking brake manually for that one.

What I gathered from reading the definition of the AUTO HOLD SWITCH and your explanation, it auto holds the brakes via the ABS on any situation (flat or upward /downward inclne) when the car is stopped after having to apply the brakes. Obviously, this is much preferred to the Parking Brake Switch because take off will be much smoother.

BTW, I am also the same as you. I hate blank buttons and I would have spent the extra $ to get this feature.

Glisse

There has been confusion on terminology for several years, and lots of threads. I'm sure you and I have been in similar threads a couple of years or so back

The original German for the switch based option is Anfahrassistent. A quick Google translation to English will read this as Start-up assistant. But Fahr is driving, and An is to commence, so the exact literal translation is the assistant to commence driving. In French (how I order my cars), the word is démarrage, which is very close to the German in meaning. In English, there is no single word with that degree of precision, because if Start-Up assistant was used, it would be misunderstood by most, and I guess the Commence Driving Off switch sounds a bit clumsy.

So how this has been expressed in English is all over the place. Not just with forum posters, but within Audi themselves. What I posted is from Audi's official English language Lexicon. But Audi UK refer to this as Hill Start Assist in their own Audi Glossary.

As you pointed out in your post, there is a hold assist function with S tronic and Tiptronic (the ZF8HP releases the drive shaft, so doesn't "creep") that will hold the brakes via the ABS system on an incline for a short duration (2 seconds, IIRC). But only on an incline, and only for 2 seconds or so. But this function is seldom mentioned anywhere, and doesn't really have an official description AFAIK.

The switch system does the same, except transitions to the electronic parking brake when the ABS releases, works regardless of the car's angle (Incline, decline, flat), and is always on. So Hold Assist is probably the best choice of name.

I never force the car off the parking brake via the accelerator, because it seems to need a decent lurch to do so. Whilst the Hold Assist seems a bit smoother, to me there is a noticeable resistance to the initial throttle application when it is on. I accidentally press the switch now and then, and know almost instantly that the switch is on at the first stop. I don't like that resistance either!

The German site does imply that the Hold Assist option is particularly useful if you are towing something. That makes more sense.