Hello,

In the past week my A6 has exhibited an odd shift problem twice. Both times it happened as I was starting from a standstill and turning (exiting a parking lot and turning at an intersection). It starts normally and as I complete the turn, I feel the car shift and then I have no throttle response. The second time I pushed the pedal down halfway and nothing happens. I try to accelerate for about 5 seconds with no response. The RPMS sit at around 1500 and the car almost seems like it’s stalled. If I take my foot off the gas or brake then re-apply pressure to the gas pedal the car returns to normal. It happened one time before I had it serviced yesterday and then did it again last night. I never thought to mention it to the dealership when I had it serviced as it was icy when it happened the 1st time and I put it down to the Quattro trying to get some footing. They did full inspection and system scan as part of the maintenance and found no errors recorded. The roads are dry now and it did it again last night. My best guess is that the transmission shifted up way too soon hence little throttle response and the low rpms. It's quite uncomfortable as it almost seem as if I lose all power. Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

The first thing you may try is maybe a throttle (re)calibration?
I've seen it mentioned before in cases like yours.

 

I was thinking about that...is that the procedure where you press down on the pedal and turn the ignition on for 30 seconds or something? Do you know the reset procedure for the 2004 A6? Sorry, I googled and searched the forums but could not find it for some reason...I think I have seen it before here somewhere

Thanks!

 

https://www.audiforums.com/forum/sho...73&postcount=7

 

Perfect! Thanks!

 

Well that was a no go. I did it again twice yesterday. Very odd. This time I actually slammed the pedal all the way to the floor and held it there for 5 seconds. Nothing, no response at all from the engine. I shifted to neutral with the pedal about half-way...nothing. No response at all until I took my foot off the throttle, counted to 2, then re-applied the throttle. Then it started to respond again. Weird.

 

I could just be making this up in my head, but I thought there was a recall/tsb on some years of the A6 throttle body. The symptoms were cars would appear to stall when taking off from a stop. I remember this because people were complaining that they almost got killed when they started to pull into traffic only to have the problem occur. But alas it's been a long time and I have a terrible memory.

EDIT:

Found this: http://www.aboutautomobile.com/Compl...c+Transmission

4 Complaint Number: 10114623 Incident Date: March 1, 2005 Date Added to File: March 24, 2005
Description of the Complaint:
Car hesitates when pulling from a stop. Hesitation appears to be transmission related. Transmission is audi/zf tiptronic automatic. Hesitation is unpredictable, and can last for several seconds. I have had a number of near misses as I pulled into traffic and have had to quickly shift to reverse and get out of the way of oncoming vehicles. Audi states that their transmission is working as designed. I believe this because my research indicates this to be a know behavior of the tiptronic transmission as used in audi and some volkswagen vehicles. VW/audi needs to fix this problem before someone gets seriously injured or killed.

DetailsDiscuss It in Forum
5 Complaint Number: 10042925 Incident Date: June 15, 2003 Date Added to File: October 15, 2003
Description of the Complaint:
Vehicle exhibits delay from a stop when depressing the gas pedal. Very dangerous when crossing oncoming traffic.

DetailsDiscuss It in Forum
6 Complaint Number: 762529 Incident Date: n/a Date Added to File: June 3, 2002
Description of the Complaint:
Transmission/automatic - no response from gas pedal when attempting to accelerate from rolling stop. Car then high-revs and finally jerks forward, after an approximate 1-2 second delay.

https://www.audiforums.com/forum/arc.../t-133519.html

I'm pretty sure you can have the dealer reflash your transmission ECU to remove the hesitation if it's not throttle body related. But it's gonna cost you.

 

Thanks for the info. I don't think its the same hesitation caused by the ECU program...that I am familier with. This is more "doing nothing at all" rather than a hesitation. Holding the pedal down to the floor does nothing (no revs at all) and the only way to get the car to respond is to completely release the throttle then hit it again...the car seems to wake up after that. What seems to make sense to me is a dirty throttle body/butterfly valve. If the valve was dirty and gunked up, would that cause no engine rev even with the throttle pinned? And would removing my foot from the throttle and re-applying it would be akin to "jiggling" the butterfly valve loose so it opens up again?

 

Seems to make sense to me.

 

Well, at least is worth a shot as the throttle body is not that difficult to pull out. Clean that sucker out good. And since you're in the area (if they didn't change much the design), you can also clean the Idle Control Valve, as you'll have a good access to it. (MAF Sensor Cleaner works good)