Markilepsy

I have a 2010 S4 Manual transmission. At about 50k miles I started to have issues with the car not starting. You had to push the clutch nearly to the floor and sometimes it would start. I had the clutch replaced as the dealer said it would be smart to do as they needed to move it to get to the pressure plate. I've never replaced a clutch before with such low miles. I am now having the same issues with the car barely able to start and having to push the pedal all the way to the floor and after 6 or so tries the car turns over. There is a new battery in the car too and I am a very light driver when it comes to pressure put on the clutch in my day to day driving. I am just wondering if anyone else has had these issues and might know more about this?

jyges

a real issue

DrGP

I believe there is a clutch position switch. Could be faulty?

Markilepsy

Thank you! I will suggest that when I take it in.

FADEC

Audizine has a lot of info on this common problem.

Audi has resigned a few of the clutch parts.
As the old parts wear a little (long before the clutch disc is worn) the last magnetic hall sensor in the master cylinder doesn't line up. This is the sensor that overrides the starter interlock, allowing you to engage the starter only when the clutch is fully depressed.

There is an way to override/fool the last sensor. It involves some wiring and installing a component that mimics the signal of a fully depressed clutch when it's only partially depressed. It may still have some bugs to work out.

Hope that helps.

Melamel

I had the same problem with my 2013 S4 at around 30k miles. I bought it used with around 28k miles. My Audi dealer said that I needed to replace the clutch and I had them install a South Bend clutch with a single mass flywheel. I figured maybe the previous owner drove it harder than he let on. This fixed the problem but now at 40k miles I am experiencing the same issue- I have to push down fairly hard on the clutch to engage the start mechanism. I really had no clutch problems the first time I replaced it and the new clutch has only around 10k miles on it so the problem is not the clutch, and probably was not the clutch the first time around. I have seen some of the fixes on the Audizine forum but have not brought it in to a mechanic yet to try them out. Interestingly, when I brought my Audi in to the dealer this past Fall they had to upgrade my software as part of a recall. This wiped out the APR tuning so I have an appointment to bring it back to a performance car shop to have the tuning software reprogrammed. I will ask them to look at the starting mechanism- my dealer was not very helpful and wants to replace the clutch again which seems ridiculous.


If anyone else has experienced the problem with the starter and successfully fixed the program please let us know!

jyges

MANY Many mt s4 HAVE THIS iSSUE. Something to do with clutch safety switch,which works off master cylinder. Older system , with clutch safety switch on clutch pedal like my BMWs had never had this issue

Melamel

I have this same issue. I have to push the clutch hard to the floor to allow the care to start. I bought a 2013 S4 used with around 28k miles on it. Around 5,000 miles into it I had to push the clutch far to the floor to engage the starter. I brought it to an Audi dealer who said I had to replace the clutch, which I found odd since the clutch seemed to work fine. But I figured the prior owner maybe abused it. I replaced it with a South Bend clutch with single mass flywheel and it worked great but the same thing happened around 8,000 miles later. I brought it in again and they said the same thing- said the South Bend clutch probably was not working well. They said the clutch had heat damage, which really does not make sense that it would change the configuration enough to affect the starter. Plus I am the only driver and have had two other manual cars with no problems ever. Regardless I had them install another OEM Audi clutch and now 5,000 miles later the same problem is happening. Obviously it's not the clutch. Any new ideas?

UKS4APR1

This is a well known issue on 6MT B8 S4 and it's made WORSE by fitting a non-standard clutch (which does not have a self-adjust mechanism in the clutch cover).
The fix is to extend the slave cylinder pushrod (cut it and sleeve/weld back together) by about 1/4". There is a member on "Audizine" currently selling slave cylinders with a modified pushrod ready fitted.
Replacing the slave cylinder is easy (1 bolt), hardest part is bleeding it.
An electrical fix has proved to be far more complicated than at first it would appear, this has so far not been forthcoming.

UKS4APR1

Here we are, I found the member "jbullin2" link for you................ Push to Start Issue? Official Extended Slave Cylinder Thread (aka Ghetto Spacer Fix))