greebs

I am brand new to this forum and wanted to say thank you -- you guys rock. I took delivery of my S4 last Sunday. I now have 500 miles on it. After ~200 miles I noticed a behavior that has been discussed in several B8 S4 threads -- hesitation, then jerky or jolting engagement of the transmission when stopping at an intersection and then trying to make a turn. Twice this happened with on-coming traffic when I figured I had plenty of time to safely enter -- a lag and nothing and then "wham!" like a guy slammed into me from behind. Scary and annoying and not an experience I expect from a $50K automobile.

After reading some of you guys' posts last night, I went to the dealership today armed for battle. I told them straight up I would not be able to reproduce this (it's very intermittent) but insisted they check it out. Service manager over phone (prior to my research here) had said he was not familiar with any issues with S4 (sales guy told me tons of similar issues with 8spd DSG on Q5 but not S4). When I showed up in person, I said "look, maybe you guys cringe when you hear this but I spent 3 hours on Audi forums last night and I know this is out there happening to some owners." Well, the service manager pulled in a tech he said is familiar with this and this guy laid out the exact steps I've seen in some threads from last night -- check for DSG s/w update (none available). Next step is to try adaptation (or is it adaption? - I think he said the latter), then check the mechatronics unit. He said they have some unofficial test of the mechatronics unit by easing it onto the alignment lift (I could be getting this part wrong) -- basically doing exactly what you do when you ease the car into the garage - and seeing if it is jerky or how many times it inches forward in a certain timeframe.

I have to fly out to LA tomorrow for work, but they are taking the car for a couple days starting Monday to check all this out. The tech said they've had to replace mechatronics on at least 1 2013 recently. Bottom line, I just wanted to say thanks to all you contributors on this forum because I thought I was nutz when I experienced this and my first reaction from Audi service, but felt better going over there armed with some information I learned here.

I'll let you know how it goes.

greebs

Oh, I also have to give props to the dealership where I brought it - they put me right in front of the line and listened to my complaints and were just awesome. I just have my fingers crossed that there is something apparent and fixable and this does not become a saga of return trips to the dealership. I have been down that road before.

greebs

And one final thing -- I can't remember the guys handle, but I know there's a guy who is adamant about hard break ins. I am at 500 miles and I have been following that philosophy to the letter.

rkdiddy

Let us know how it turns out. Mines been in the shop for 30 days (hopefully getting it back tomorrow). I have a Stasis tune and they're basically saying it is due to the tune - they've exhausted their ideas of how to fix it. I'm beyond frustrated with the whole situation. As you mentioned a $50K car shouldn't be doing this. They fixed a check engine light (misfire in cylinder 5) and then sent my ECU back to Stasis to be flashed with the updated tune.

I'm kicking around the idea of trading in the car on something else.

ZCD2.7T

I have 40K miles on my 2011, and can confirm that the DSG can be a bit tricky when ALMOST but not COMPLETELY stopping.

It's worth remembering that the DSG is an automated manual transmission, complete with clutches, and not a torque-converter automatic. If you think about how tricky that "not quite stopping" situation is in a car with a manual transmission, it might help you understand how the DSG is likely to respond.

While it's true that there have been a few truly defective mechatronics units, that's the exception, rather than the rule.

You might consider giving yourself more than 500 miles to learn how the DSG responds before demanding that Audi fix something that's probably not broken...

My $0.02.

CharlieG

I agree with the above ... have had my 13 for about a month and a half and have found the S Tronic to be one of the smoothest transmissions I've ever experienced. I found it helps to know where the transmission is, especially when slowing down/stopping and enabling the gear indicator via VAG-COM is helpful when you're not in manual mode. That said, I think certain modes are smoother than others, especially in the stop/go situation ... Comfort mode, for example, works pretty darn well in those situations and is definitely less abrupt than Dynamic mode.

greebs

thanks ZCD. I hear what you are saying. However, I have been able to duplicate the issue (not consistently of course) when coming to a COMPLETE stop and then continuing. Ironically, I have had MTs for 15 years now, but got sold on the DSG after test driving it because it shifts so incredibly smoothly.

My rationale for having Audi check it out now is because it's brand new. I'd rather know early if there is some issue with a component in this car vs. causing potential harm to the tranny by waiting another a couple months. If it turns out they can't find anything (and therefore it's just my driving), I'll accept that.

greebs

Charlie -- actually I have the opposite problem. I cannot EVER get this problem to happen in dynamic mode. I have tried and tired. It only happens in comfort/auto mode.

kostas_os

I'm very skeptical about the "hard break-in" claim, it is supposed to break-in the engine for very low oil consumption on the long run, but says nothing about the other components like DSG, sports differential etc. which do require a proper break-in, I always follow the manufacturer's procedure (which is based on thousands of samples not just a few personal claims), never had any problems with any of my cars so far.

ZCD2.7T

Question: Why not work on learning how to drive the car so that this DOESN'T happen, rather than trying to replicate an undesirable trait?

The DSG also slips the clutch extensively in certain situations, which feels odd, but my guess is that the TCU knows more about maximizing the transmission's performance and longevity than I do, so I don't worry about it.

Bottom line: You've only had the car for 500 miles. Give yourself some time to adjust to its traits.

(I'm guessing that the dealer's final answer will be that the "DSG is operating within its normal parameters" or something like that...)