I have a 2002 A4 1.8T Quattro with a Tiptronic. There are two situations where the car's throttle response is strange and I'm wondering if this is normal:

1) When trying to accelerate hard from a stop, if I give the car full throttle or near full throttle, all I get is very slow acceleration through the rpm range and minimal boost once the engine hits ~2000rpm. In order to accelerate quickly I have to baby it to 2000rpm and then mash the gas pedal. Is this a typical throttle response?

2) When accelerating through the gears, the boost does not feel constant while in a particular gear. And it's not just that it's not constant, it feels like the boost is changing drastically very fast (surging). It feels almost as if the car is changing gears, although it's not. Is this a typical throttle response?

The car's been in to the dealership lots since I bought it 8 months ago (trying to get my warranty's worth) so it's probably not throwing any related codes.

 

hmmm don't like them tiptronic things same as automatic but more problems, try flooring the peddle in tip mode see if it uses 1st gear (most only ever get 2nd then up gears (you don't have one of them winter modes on the gear box a little button with a snow flake on it???) if you do ensure its switched off because it there to help you out of snow situations or boggy ground so lose of power will be very noticeable

 

yes the first bit you mentioned is normal. Its called lag. With the auto there is no way to rev it so it is spooling from a stop..

and the second bit you mention is just you not liking how slow your tip 1.8t is . are you stock ?

tip = sux

[:'(]

 

Are you saying that there is lag at low RPMs or are you saying the more throttle I give it a low RPMs, the more lag I get? I know what turbo lag is. What I meant to say for situation 1 is that I get better acceleration if I do 1/2 throttle to 2k then step on it as opposed to just stepping on it from a stop (if I step on it from a stop it won't boost even at the higher RPMs). If it is the case that giving it full throttle from a stop gives worse acceleration, is that normal? I would think that they would map the throttle input to give maximum response if it's opened up all the way.

Can you not spool from a stop doing a brake-stand?

Yes, I am stock and I realize that automatics suck. I've always had a manual until I got this car. But when you share with someone who can't drive stick... but this isn't a case of the automatic being slow. Either the computer is controlling the boost funny or the torque converter is slipping. If I accelerate in one gear in manual-shift mode, I get large boost fluctuations in that one gear.

I'm pretty sure there is no winter mode on this car. Although I could be wrong because I still haven't discovered all the features. As far as flooring it in 1st in manual-shift mode, I'll try it, but I don't think it will make a difference. Now that I think about it, it's not just from a stop that it bogs at full throttle. At low RPMs in any gear, if I put the pedal to the floor it will bog. Most of the time it won't even down-shift if I put the pedal to the floor (although this may be to keep it from over-revving I guess). Basically if I want better acceleration at low RPMs then I need to take it easy on the gas.

 

my moms 1.8 lags a bit too, do the airbox mod on here and it might help a bit, unless you're on warranty, then that might be bad

 

Yeah, I'm still under warranty, so I'm not doing any mods until that's up.

Basically I want to know if I should get the car checked out for these "problems", if they are problems, before the warranty is up.

 

This could be complete bullshit but i heard when u floor the pedal from a stop the ecu just dumps fuel into the engine so it doesnt have the correct fuel/air ratio. My 00 eclipse was the same way it accelerated quicker if you start out half throttle than go WOT. but again this could be bs

 

That's exactly the type of thing I'd like to know for sure. If there's some stupid control algorithm that causes the car to bog down in certain situations.

 

automatics/tiptronic rarely see first gear so the only way to get it there is either the standard mode or the tip mode by flooring the peddle (same as when going up a very high incline or towing a caravan), and no it doesnt just dump loads of fuel in there but I do agree on the turbo bit and not as quick in response as the manual tranny

 

When your warranty runs out get an intake or do the airbox mod. That helps with throttle response. As for the surging, mine does that too, but i have mods and i think it's because of overboost or something. but alot of things can cause surges. It might be as simple as a boost leak. Might be worth getting it checked for boost leaks.