Mobilehavoc

Hi all,

I had a 2009 A4 and since then ended up through various circumstances of owning BMWs (2012 535Xi and a 2014 740xli). Recently came back to Audi with a S5 Sportback and I love it.

However having been away from Audi for almost 5 years I have some questions I hope some of you can help me with...thanks in advance!

1. Audi MMI app on Android:
a. When I use the app all the features appear to work fine and things refresh. I can't get the lock/unlock to work - it keeps saying technical error?! Everything else works fine. Is it just finicky or should I call Audi?
b. After I finish using the app there's a notification that Audi MMI is running as a background process? WTF? I have the option to stop it and I usually do but I have no clue what it's doing or thinks it's doing? Any ideas?

2. I have the 19" summer performance tires (Hankook?) but I negotiated with the dealer to throw in all-seasons for free as well. It's documented in the paperwork as IOU so I feel comfortable but when is the right time to change them out? They want me to tell them when to order and then they'll order them and I think will even swap them out for me. Also where do you all store any spare tires? I don't really have space in my garage and I've never had a car with two sets of tires before. I live in the NYC metro area so I'm thinking Oct-Nov to swap

3. I think as part of the new car thing I get Audi LTE for free for 6 months or something. It all works right now (haven't tried WiFi yet). Does anything still work if you stop subscribing after the trial? I mainly use Google Earth for navigation and send destinations using the app. It's unclear online what if anything works for free or you have to pay for something

4. Does Audi not have TPMS that shows pressure in tires? Maybe because I'm coming from 2 BMWs but I always loved being able to see PSI for each tire at any time. In the Audi will it just notify you when it's below a certain amount? Does it tell you an individual tire or just some tire?

5. Is Dynamic steering (I have the option) always on or only when you have the car in Dynamic mode? I leave it in Auto sadly because most of my driving is rush hour commuting and it's pointless to run it in Dynamic.

6. For the B&O 3D sound system what is the difference between the 3D sound and effects settings? I played around a bit but then ended leaving them as default - Medium Medium. Not clear what the best settings are to people

7. Sometimes I see an icon on the HUD and virtual cockpit of a green foot lifting off pedal - from my research I think this is some efficiency thing to tell you to let off the gas so you get better MPG. Any idea what this is based on? Some places it happens all the time and sometimes it feels random. Is it when it thinks you're going downhill? When there's a slower speed zone up ahead?

8. My Auto start/stop engages only when I press the brake pedal in a little harder. i.e. I press it to stop the car and engine runs, I press a little deeper and engine shuts off. is this normal? Also a lot of times the engine only remains off for a few seconds and others over a minute. Assume that's normal too - the temps are very high right now so I guess that might be a part of the reason

9. Is there anyway to turn up the audible alerts for things like Audi Presense or distance warning, etc.? I do granted play music a little loud but I swear I've never heard the alerts for these systems just the visual warnings and I would think there should a loud alert when you're about to crash into something. I did one time have Audi Presense kick in and break hard when it thought (wrongly) I was going to hit something which is both cool and annoying. I looked in Sound settings and only relevant thing I saw was MMI touch volume which I turned way up


Sorry for all the questions but any that you can help with will really be useful. Loving the car btw.

synergize

Why not go back and ask your SA (Dealer) all those questions?

Mobilehavoc

Hey I asked them some but for example my SA has iPhone and couldn't speak to Android app. Also this was one of their first 2018 S5 SB and he didn't seem super knowledgeable on it.

Also I wanted to hear from other owners since that's where you usually get honest answers.

njspeedfreak

I usually have a complete set of winter wheels and tires and do the swap at Thanksgiving and late March, depending on how bad pothole season is in New Jersey. With the extra set of wheels I can do the swap myself right in garage, takes less then 30 minutes. I have plenty of space to stack the 4 wheels that are not in use. They double as a place to store my hockey sticks. Just curious, if you are planning on running 2 sets of rubber, why are you going with all season tires for the winter instead of real real winter tires? I understand that NYC winters aren't especially bad when it comes to snow, but when we do get the hit with a winter storm you absolutely can not beat the performance of a true winter tire. You may want to consider that before placing your order. I'd imagine the dealer wouldn't have an issue as long as the tires are comparably priced.


The B9 no longer uses an in tire air pressure sensor. It relies on the traction control system to detect a wheel that has lower pressure due to it's smaller rolling diameter. I suspect this is a cost saving measure. My preference would be for real pressure sensors and the ability to read the pressure right from the dash. The B8 had the sensors, but there was no way to see the individual pressures. It would just tell you which wheel was low.

I don't have dynamic steering on mine but from what I've read, "dynamic" mode locks the steering ratio so that it operates like a traditional rack. Comfort allows the ratio to adjust based on the speed of the vehicle. Auto toggles between these 2 modes based on the way you are driving.


This confused the hell out of me the first time I saw it too. It's an efficiency hint. Based on GPS data, the car knows you are coming up on a stop sign, a lower speed limit or about to crest a hill and it's letting you know you can get off the gas and start coasting. Pretty much useless in my opinion, especially since I already know where the hills and stop signs are on my daily drive. I've learned to ignore it pretty quickly.

I find start/stop to be the most frustrating thing on the car. It does sometime appear to be random, but there is a rhyme and reason to when it decides to shut down. Obviously it won't shut off if you disable it on the dash. It's also disabled if the trans is in 'S' mode. It will also not typically turn off if the AC is running at full bore on a hot day because the AC compressor is driven by the engine. There does appear to be some correlation between how hard you press the brake and how quickly the engine ****s off, but I haven't spent enough time in 'D' with the AC off to really figure that out yet. One thing I noticed is that when you put the transmission into 'P'ark the engine will also shut off. This really screws me up because it always takes me a second to process and to decide if I still need to hit the start/stop button before getting out of the car. Ideally I just need to get in the habit of hitting start/stop when parking because that automatically engages 'P'ark in the transmission.

Eventually I'll use ODBeleven to disable auto stop by default. Based on my typically daily drive, it's not saving me any gas anyway.

Mobilehavoc

​​​​​​Thanks for taking the time to answer. Much appreciated.

I'm pretty bummed there's no true tpms that reads pressure. Any idea how reliable or accurate the B9 method is?

Thanks for the winter tires advice will look into that. Rationale for all seasons was if I get lazy can leave them on year round and maybe even sell the summers? Not sure.

Both my last two BMWs had auto start stop and so I'm quite used to it now. More than gas savings it is nice to sit at a traffic light or stop sign in complete silence or listen to music without any engine noise. One thing I miss from BMW which is minor is they had auto hold so if you turned it on when you hit brake the car would remain with brake engaged until you hit gas. This was great in traffic because you don't have to continuously press down on the brake pedal for long periods. Oh well.

Stankia

I have uninstalled the MMI app because it's crazy on the battery, my phone becomes very hot even when I'm not using the app. As for the HUD icon you can turn that off, it's buried somewhere in the settings. For Start/Stop I have this disabled permanently with OBD11, it's a stupid feature to have on a sports car.

ppdix

Hi, the TPMS is not on the wheels anymore, It's on the suspension. So there is no way to tell u what pressure you are running. Kinda sucks to tell u the truth. I also have a BMW 435 and it tells you pressure of each tire, even color coded.
Cheers

ppdix

@njspeedfreak. Hi! I have an S5 coming in 2 weeks. I already have a 2016 TT and have done a lot of VagCom mods on it.
You mentioned ODBeleven, I don't have a PC so I can't test the mods but I do have a friend with one... They mods should be pretty much the same. Can you let me know if the ODBeleven is better or different than vag com?
Also is there a list of codes that I can check out for the new S5?
Thanx in advance! CHeers

njspeedfreak

I've never used VagCom (aka VCDS) so I can't really compare. ODBeleven works great. It requires an Android device but it's wireless and the interface is very easy to navigate. As far as I can tell, the mods will work no matter which tool you use. The codes are the same. ODB11 also has a lot of "shortcuts" that allow you to do mods without complex long coding. Really can't beat it for the price.

There are lots of codes floating around - it's probably easier to look in the B9-A4 forums. Same codes for both cars but since there are more A4's than S5's you will find more info looking there.

GCyr42

I also have a 2018 A5 that came with 19" summer tires I didn't want, so I negotiated all-season tires with the deal. Instead of the dealer providing me with the A-S tires separately, they told me to provide the cost and tax/shipping of the A-S tires I wanted from Tirerack and that cost was discounted at the final sale. My A5 19" summer tires are Continental ContiSportContact 5P and I'll keep them on until maybe Oct or Nov.

I was going to get Continental ExtremeContact DWS 06 A-S tires as my Winter replacements, but Costco has Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+ tires on sale, so I got those instead. When the tires came in, I loaded all 4 tires easily in my SB and have them on a rack in my garage. I just need to return to Costco for the installation which is already paid for. And, I'll swap the summer tires back in the Spring if they're still good.