Zed 2.0

I test drove an SQ5 today and while I really liked most of the car, it had a surprising lack of power under 2k RPMs. It felt a little bit like turbo lag from an old school 90s turbo car, and was much more noticeable than on any other modern turbo car I've driven (including various 2.0T cars and the C43 V6TT). Can anybody comment on what is going on here? Is it a programmed throttle delay or is the turbo really that laggy--weird since it is supposed to be making full torque by 1400 rpms.

ibu11et

Were you in 'D' or 'S'? 'D' keeps you about a gear too low and once you tell the car you want to go, it has to shift back down to get it the correct gear. 'S' keeps the car sprung and ready to go. This has been discussed ad nauseam throughout this forum.

Zed 2.0

Both dynamic and auto via drive select. I didn't even notice if there was a "S" selection for the transmission.

markcincinnati

The key would be if the letter S was front and center on the screen directly in front of you.

It matters NOT what you choose in ADS -- the system DEFAULTS every time to D which keeps the revs a couple+ hundred RPM too low for any performance you might want.

In S mode the thing is poised to do your bidding.

I have driven a 2014 S4 for nearly 54,000 miles in S and a 2018 S4 for over 3,500 miles in S; my wife has driven her 2018 SQ5 in S mode -- she thinks there is a "delay" when driven in D.

The thing is D is meant to keep the RPMs low for mileage reasons. S doesn't race the engine, it just gives a couple hundred more RPMs for performance.

Audi's choice to do this is typical.

James Cole

Two solutions:

1. To make the problem less drastic by 20% drive in S mode.

2. To make the problem almost dissapear involves "light" surgery; 3.0T has two catalytic converters you need to remove the downpipe and carefully hollow out the first one which is the most dense. I will say this, I have installed aftermarket downpipes in about 8 cars (bmw & vag) and have never seen such a gain in the low end turbo spool and high end power.

Exhaust noise is about 20% more, unfortunately the shift farts remain about the same volume.

You will get a cel and it can be prevented with a 42dd spacer but am still experimenting a bit on that part.

JC

seven-six-two

There is, but for a while, you don't shift from a D position to S position, you just pull the shift lever to the rear and let it return on the spring.

Coming from a B7 S4, I have learned to accept that off the line in D, I am driving a normally aspirated 3.0 with a lethargic "gas mileage oriented" shift pattern. Now I am past the 1000 mile mark, I find myself instinctively shifting to S at a stop, to make sure I have enough "go".

But I do then have to be careful as the delivery is not as linear as the old V8, but it does have far more top end. So I'll adapt.

njspeedfreak

'D' means "D"ont burn any more fuel than is absolutely necessary to get the car moving. The nice thing about the ZF transmission is that is is very easy to change from D to S, almost exactly the same as if you were driving it in manual mode. Just a quick flick of the stick. Normally I'm driving in S mode, but on occasion when I'm driving in a more relaxed style I'll flick to D instead. If I anticipate I'll need some additional throttle response, a quick flick back to "S". It's almost become instinctual now.

I'll also do when I'm driving in town a lot. In S mode the downshifts can be a little aggressive, so flick to D as I'm slowing down, flick back to S when it's time to get on the throttle.

AceS4

I recently bought a B9 S4 P+ and while I absolutely love the car, this is one of the very few gripes I have with it.

It's been most noticeable when I'm driving to my office early in the morning. The roads are empty and my route goes through several 4-way stops where I take a very brief (almost rolling) stop before hitting the gas and the throttle delay is brutal when in "D". Is it that the transmission is actually in 2nd when making a brief stop and has to downshift to 1st before it will go?

I find myself driving in "S" for the most part to get rid of the delay but it would be nice to just leave it in "D" for the lazy early morning commutes...