Civuck

There appears to be a performance difference in the manual shift mode depending on whether you transition to it from "D" versus from "S".

Can anyone elaborate more on this? As best I can tell, throttle response and idling speed are different - anything else

s3burgh

It should be whatever the differences are when driving in automatic D or S.

Diztek

my guess on the difference between manual s and manual d would be the throttle response and maybe soundaktor might be louder.

superswiss

Yes there is a difference. In D the engine is in comfort/auto mode and in S it is in dynamic mode, so that carries over to the manual mode. You will have a different throttle map in effect, depending on whether you came from D or S. The transmission itself is affected, too. Each shift will be more aggressive if you came from S vs D.

Timmay

Having it in S mode doesn't necessarily mean it's in Dynamic mode, does it?

superswiss

Depends on what you are asking exactly. Having it in S mode doesn't necessarily mean that the steering, suspension and quattro system are in Dynamic mode, however it does mean that the engine and transmission are in Dynamic mode. Conversely, if the transmission is in D, it means that engine and transmission are in Comfort/Auto mode, but it doesn't mean that steering, suspension and quattro system also are in Comfort or Auto mode. Further note that the engine and transmission don't actually have three modes. Comfort and Auto mode are the same. The engine only has two throttle maps. One map is used for both Comfort and Auto mode and the other map is used for Dynamic mode. Same thing for the transmission. The transmission only has two modes D and S. In markets where the Efficiency mode is offered there are three modes, D, S and E and the engine has a third throttle map for the efficiency mode. The manual mode is not really a separate mode. All it does is disable the automatic gear selection.

BTW, if you ever have the opportunity to drive an R8, you will notice that the virtual cockpit in the R8 makes the above very clear. If you go to manual mode from S, the gear display will say M<current gear>S, as in M1S, M2S etc. whereas if you go to manual mode from D it will only say M<current gear> as in M1, M2 etc. Below is a picture that shows this. I'm not sure why Audi chooses to dumb down the information that is displayed in lesser models. At least the current RS models finally display the current gear in D and S from the factory.

Timmay

That's a very good explanation, thank you. Yes I definitely like the R8 VC.

s3burgh

What is your source for this information? If what you're saying were true, then why even have drive select settings for engine/trans if the actual determining factor for engine/trans settings are whether or not you are in D or S?

s3burgh

Also, there is certainly a difference between Dynamic Trans D, and Comfort Trans D. If what you are saying were true, there shouldn't be.

Civuck

Haven't checked this yet myself but if "D" = "Comfort" and "S" = Dynamic, does that Engine/Trans. checkmark in the Individual Drive Select settings change when you toggle with the gearshifter?

D/S selection with the gearshifter obviously has priority over all the Drive Select modes.