Benzie

Well I'm a bit confused too about why Audi felt it necessary to change the button from U.S. to Canada, but I'm just going by what the manual says. I've since uploaded the picture in my previous answer if you want to check it for yourself. I agree it's redundant since all you need to do for hill hold assist is to apply the emergency/parking brake which already has its own button. And in the cockpit that little black button is further away and harder to see and find than the emergency/parking brake lever/button.

Peter John

Exactly...I have always done this on any hill where the car would tend to roll backwards.

Benzie

You know what? Maybe it's a typo on our manual because right there it references page 142, and on page 142 we find this, and nothing about hill hold assist.

Peter John

I get the impression that people are talking at cross purposes here and some are getting completely confused between Hill Descent and the use of the Parking Brake for Hill Hold.

Hill Descent
If I read it correctly, and very briefly, the Hill Descent is only used for to keep the car moving slowly during a descent on a road that has a slope of 6% to 60% and uses all the car's brakes. Speed is limited to minimum 19 mph with a maximum 37 mph. The vehicle's speed can be controlled by using the brake or accelerator. Pages 172 & 173 in the UK manual. Same as post #13 above.

Hill Hold
This function is useful if you are sitting a stationary queue of traffic, but for me on a backward slope. It can be used on forwards slopes also. You would be in gear, but the slope is such that if you took your foot off the foot brake the vehicle would role backwards or forwards. This is where you would use the electronic parking brake and sit and wait for a very short of time. All you do is accelerate away and the parking brake comes off automatically with the light also going off automatically. Also there is the automatic function, where if you have had your foot on the brake for more than 2 seconds then the car is held on the brakes for a short period of time. All described in the UK manual pages 95 and 96. Also according to my manual there is another button (numbered 35) next to the parking brake to switch, to switch the hold assist on/off.

carkarl

For what it's worth, the full description in the earlier post sounds the same as in our 2017 Q3. It only manages speed at very low speeds up to 19 MPH. If you exceed that, it is in a standby mode where the light is on but it is NOT managing your speed. If you go beyond the higher limit around 37 MPH it turns off the light and won't reactivate without pressing the button again. While the light is still on, if you brake back down below 19 MPH it will start managing your speed again.

I did verify that it works as described in this low speed range in a campground once. However, I find the feature almost useless since so little of my sustained driving is below 25 MPH. At such low speeds, I don't see how it is any better than using manual shifting and braking to control my speed. It is at higher speeds where I would like it to automatically downshift to manage speed as the steepness of a grade changes. Even in "S" mode, our transmission will not maintain a low enough gear when descending variable grades, so I have to put it in manual mode there too.

I don't mind manual shifting but wonder at the strange choice of speed ranges for this silly convenience feature...

spindlewood

I agree with you. The discussions I read were specific to short very icy slopes where going over 2-3 mph equated to losing control. The argument was that if braking wasn't the same on all 4 wheels, the set of wheels not receiving braking would slide out - plus any engine braking would continue to draw the car down the hill. These weren't specific to Audi.

Not having gone through a winter with the SQ5, I was curious if anyone had tested Hill Descent versus manually braking in neutral on steep icy hills. By the end of this winter, I should be an expert I've already felt my SQ5 slipping on the flat icy roads to work. It reacts so differently from my Sienna that it's hard to tell if it is better or worse. My OEM Winter Package tires are not rated on ice as well the old Sienna's Blizzaks so I need to be extra cautious. It's been cool to feel the Quattro kick in on ice - but the real test will be my driveway in February and March where the effect is more hair raising than cool.

nikv

Were you able to test it on icy slopes? The OEM contis did not seem good enough for me in seattle snow last winter. Anyways, I was trying to use this feature last week going down on a hill but it never worked. I think i was going too fast for it to work.

spindlewood

This was the least icy spring in a long time, but still enough ice on the driveway to slip and fracture my thumb 2 months ago lol.

Yes, I did test the Hill Descent Assist and it worked as advertised. With a 300 foot driveway it is slow going, so I only tested once or twice since it wasn't needed. I think a lot of the value is in having it automated so you don't accidentally pick up too much steam - which is then impossible to recover from. Guess I'll need another winter/ spring to do more testing.

The Michelin Pilot Sport A/S 3+ did reasonably well on the ice (there was still 1 patch left on the driveway when I swapped out the winters), but I wouldn't trust any A/S for daily driving on snow / ice.

The car does need to be going slowly for Hill Descent Assist to work. As I understand it, you can switch on Hill Descent Assist when under 37mph but won't actually do anything above 19mph.

nikv

ahh. I hope you are healing well. Thanks for the update. I would swap contis with Michelin A/S 3+ when time comes.

Jambo21

My wife's 2015 Q5 has the Audi Hill Descent Control in addition to the Hill Decent Assist. For anyone that regularly drives through mountains with >=6% grades, the hill descent control is automatically set with the speed control and, unlike the decent assist is made for highway speeds. This is very useful when trying to keep your car from accelerating rapidly while descending steep grades and makes driving through mountain passes much more relaxing. I never even knew the car had the feature but stumbled upon it. The question I have is is this feature only relying on the transmission or am I burning through brake pads rapidly while this is activated?