Hello,

I've been driving my audi a4 97 1.8T and notice that going from first to second is very rough. Sometimes it even misses the shift point and goes up to high RPM and if I don't back off fast enough, it slams into gear with a bad jolt and thunk. It's even more pronounced at slow acceleration and seems to behave better with a quicker steady acceleration or a warmed up car.

What potential problems come with age on the VW transmission? Is this going to get worse and is it something that can be addressed now or do I just have to have a lot of finesse with these cars. Never owned german before. This car seems to like to accel and go fast, easy on the pedal seems to have problems.

Also, since I have D, and 2,3,4 gears is this the 'tiptronic' everyone talks about? Should I even bother to use it, and how would I in everyday driving?

Any comments?

 

For the shifting, i had a 97 benz c230 auto. with age, these cars begin to shift harder, and sometimes it would feel like it was thrown into teh next gear without any neutral time. This was because the vaccume that was used to smoothly transfer from one gear to another started to go. Now i would imagine that this is wqhats happening to your car. for me, it didnt really get worse, but then again i got t-boned and the car was totald 6 months or so after this started. it shouldnt be a huge problem, unless it gets or is an excessive drain on your driving/smothness. then i suggest bringing it in to someone qualified to check it out. REMEMBER. if something is intermittantly wrong, it will never happen when a car guy test drives it. itsw just a curse i guess. lol

and the tip, i may be mistaking, but i believe it is different (mine is a stick so...) but form what i know, the tip is like in an Audi, where it has P, R, N, D, and to the right of D, there is a slot where you cna move the stick to and bump it up adn down to change gears, like a manu-matic.

 

what am I going to use it for though, isn't the auto going to do a much better job shifting that I would?

 

The point of that is for more control. and for more personalized shift points, like on a drag race, or if you are driving hard on a windy road or autocross track. also, i may be mistaken, but in TIP mode, it may shift faster when you tell it to. but i may be wrong. its basically becomming as close to the benefits of a manual, without being a manual.

it is also good for say going down a mountain like tahoe. you can put it in a lower gear so you dont ride your breaks the whole way down if you are in traffic. if ur not intraffic. you do what i so.. HAUL A$$

 

You may benefit from a transmission fluid change. Find an independent Audi mechanic
to do the job. Special transmission fluid is required.