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I put my 2014 Q5 up on ramps for the first time in 13 years and it was extremely scary as the Hill Assist kept engaging/releasing with a jerk as I applied throttle to where I thought I would overshoot the ramps.
Anyone know where and how in VCDS to temporary disable Hill Assist so I can climb ramps smoothly.
Last edited by Bob Petruska; Jun 6, 2026 at 07:35 PM.
The hill descent assist? Doesn't the Q5 have a button for that? Right end of the button row above the climate controls for MMI. Upper right below the shifter for Concert. Has a downward pointed vehicle icon.
The auto hold assist is the A button that's part of the EPB button. But I think that's only on manual transmission vehicles, normally. So doesn't apply to any US Q5 vehicles.
The hill descent assist? Doesn't the Q5 have a button for that? Right end of the button row above the climate controls for MMI. Upper right below the shifter for Concert. Has a downward pointed vehicle icon.
The auto hold assist is the A button that's part of the EPB button. But I think that's only on manual transmission vehicles, normally. So doesn't apply to any US Q5 vehicles.
I’m talking about the hill hold assist. When you stop on a steep grade the ABS sets the brakes. When you apply throttle to pull out it isn’t quite smooth with a release jerk and takes some throttle to do so. It’s hard to climb up ramps safely with this jerk/release.
Thus why I was asking which "hill ... assist" was being referenced. Descent or Hold.
Because hill hold assist would only be present from the factory with the correct button unit to be able to toggle it.
You must have turned the function on in the coding at some point without actually retrofitting the control button.
See the button picture on the first page of that retrofit project: https://audienthusiasts.com/Project_HillHold.html
Thus why I was asking which "hill ... assist" was being referenced. Descent or Hold.
Because hill hold assist would only be present from the factory with the correct button unit to be able to toggle it.
You must have turned the function on in the coding at some point without actually retrofitting the control button.
See the button picture on the first page of that retrofit project: https://audienthusiasts.com/Project_HillHold.html
Looks like I’m using the wrong words.
It’s the Hill Start Assist that I want to temporary disable, no button(too bad). It’s always on need to deactivate with VCDS.
Hill Start Assist
How it works: When stopped on a steep incline, release the brake pedal and the system holds the car in place for roughly 1 to 2 seconds. This gives you enough time to move your foot to the accelerator without rolling back.
Disengaging: Gently press the gas pedal to drive forward.
Last edited by Bob Petruska; Jun 8, 2026 at 07:24 AM.
So there's two basic functions, both introduced to Audi with the MLB platform. We'll stick to the names Audi uses: (auto) hold assist, and (hill) start assist. Hill descent assist rounding out the trio of functions typically associated with hills. These functions by any other names is no different than "blind spot monitor" vs "lane change assist" vs "rear side assist", which are three names for the exact same thing.
Auto hold assist is a function of the ESP and EPB systems (ESP being the brake management system, ie "ABS", etc). This is engaged by using the Auto Hold button ("A") on the EPB switch. If the ESP unit is overtaxed holding the vehicle, it passes the torch to the EPB system. This is when the dash icon changes from green to red. The system is detailed in SSP 394, pages 37-38. Vehicles are either PR UH1, EPB without hold assist, or PR UH2, EPB with hold assist. As hold assist was not permitted for NAR (no idea why), no US B8 is going to be UH2.
Hill start assist is just a function that permits the EPB to automatically release when sufficient engine output is available to ensure the vehicle will move forward. If we look at the 2015 Q5 owner's manual, pages 89-91 cover this under "Starting from rest" and "Starting off with a trailer".
In addition to the normal functions of a traditional hand brake, the electromechanical parking brake provides various convenience and safety functions. When starting from rest:
- The integral starting assist helps you when driving by automatically releasing the parking brake: page 90, Starting from rest.
- When starting on inclines, the starting assist prevents the vehicle from unintentionally rolling back. The braking force of the parking brake is not released until sufficient driving force has been built up at the wheels.
Neither auto hold assist nor hill start assist is automatic; both require activation by operating one of the two buttons on the EPB switch, depending on what you're trying to engage. I find nothing from Audi themselves to imply any manner of default, automatic hold engagement on the MLB vehicles.
A note in the manual, "For safety reasons, the parking brake is released automatically only when the driver's safety belt is engaged in the buckle."
The VW SSPs tend to be a bit more illustrated. SSP 374, a VW SSP, lays out hill descent assist, hill start assist, and auto hold in more detail, on pages 62-73. But if you read carefully, you see the "hill start assist" on pages 64-68 is for the foot operated parking brake Touareg. EPB vehicles get the Auto Hold (69-71) and "dynamic starting assist" (72-73). Yeah, be nice if everyone would just use the same term for the same function, and have clearly different terms for different functions.
The Audi SSP on the subject, SSP 475, confirms the above, with "hill start assistant" on pages 44-46 not being a MLB / EPB thing, but a VW clones platform thing, and a Q7 (Touareg) thing. Why the Audi SSP calls (auto) hold assist the "startup wizard", who knows. It says to look at SSP 394, which we already know to be the original B8 A5 SSP on the subject. And the "dynamic starting assist" function of the EPB is not in that SSP, as it says: ". The "Start Assistant EPB" is exclusively carried out on the parking brake electro vehicles (EPB) EPB and uses the function [where do they get these translators]. We will not discuss this system further, because it works without the intervention of active braking."
So there should be no brake or EPB intervention occurring if your foot is off the brake pedal and the EPB light is not red on a US B8 Q5 vehicle. If you had the coding changes for auto hold turned on without retrofitting the UH2 version of the EPB switch, no idea how that would play out.
Sorry but I have no buttons and I never changed the coding. i think US models have the Hill Start Assist allways on. Ithers have reported this is the case. Drives manual trans A4 owners nuts.
i was on my favorite very steep city hill today that has a traffic light on the top of the hill thus we creep for 5 blocks up this hill. Every time I stopped on this hill today it automatically set the brakes with the the Hill Start Assist feature and released the brakes when more than normal throttle was applied. You can hear and feel the brake release.
So after doing this about ten times I had my foot in the brake, I engaged the EPB switch and immediately disengaged it. I pulled out slowly with light throttle without the brake release noise and jerk. This seemed to deactivate Hill Start Assist. Unfortunately I was now at the top of the hill with traffic moving to try it again.
This may be the simple solution to climb the ramps. i will try at the edge of the ramps to engage/disengage the EPB switch and climb the ramps to see if the Hill Start Assist is disengaged.
I'm not letting it go, but the info from VW/Audi is so badly inconsistent, it's taking a lot of time to sort out an intelligent summation of the info.
I took the car out this morning for breakfast and played with the stopping on a hill (we got "hills" here in north GA), and it didn't roll back, but it was super easy to inch forward too. No grabbing, no fighting a drag. But I'm not B8.5, and I'm not a Q5. I also have the 6-speed ZF, not the 8-speed. It's possible there's more than just the torque converter holding the car at bay. But all the info implies HSA/HHC/whatever is limited to 1.5-2.0 seconds, after which the brakes release. Is that after touching the accel pedal, or after releasing the brake pedal? If I just released the brake pedal, the car didn't roll back even after several seconds.
What is your long coding string for 03-brakes, if you have VCDS or such? I would say, if you have VCDS, what do you see in Long Coding Helper for the bit meanings? I wonder if it's any different than what Ross-Tech has documented for B8.0. Appears MY14 introduced a fourth byte as well, which appears to be 01 for A4/A5 and 03 for Q5. Curiously, it appears the RS5 stuck with a 3-byte string. Was your byte 01 (second byte) bit 6 set or unset? Where I'm at currently:
The one I'm curious about currently is byte 01, bit 4. Appears to be 0 for B8.0 A4/A5, 1 for B8.0 Q5, and 1 for all B8.5, except the RS, which is 0. So far byte 01 bit 2-0 is 101 for all B8. Byte 00 is a random variable. Byte 03, when present, seems to simply be 01 for A4/A5 and 03 for Q5.
"automatically set the brakes", you mean the brakes or the parking brake (icon on dash lit)? I was trying to find some measuring block value to monitor to see if I could see the ESP holding the brake pressure beyond my holding the brake pedal, but that's going to take a lot more playing around, if it's even possible. Being a KW-2000 protocol unit, the values have units, but no label unless Ross-Tech just happened to stick one in a label file at some point. So lots of blind numbers.
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How to disable Hill Assist with VCDS?
