Recently purchased a 01 allroad TIP w/ 90K miles. Trans fluid has not been flushed. When I take off from a stop by slowly pushing the gas pedal, there's almost no movement and If I press just a hair more, the car wants to take off like an ape. It's not very smooth.

Once past the initial "jerk" the car has no issues shifting through gears whether I drive slowly or beat on it. The only other thing that I can possibly relate to trans. is when the revs hit ~ 4.5K, there's a sense of vibration that follows all the way to the redline. The vibration is minimal and is usually only felt by the right foot. It feels as if you hit a rough patch of road on the HW (by rough I mean a flat road that hasn't yet been coated with tar).

Finally, this initial jerk is minimized to an extent if I use TIP mode. Also, I can avoid the jerk if I take off very slowly until the revs hit 2K, after which I can push for more or just let the car shift into 2nd.

I've heard that this is a common thing on our cars, but I hate it. I hate DBW so to speak. My same year Maxima w/ 220hp pulls so much smoother it's not even a contest.

I have full VCDS. Can the trans be flashed somehow to correct my 1st gear woes? Btw, there's no slip. I can beat on the gearbox all day long it pulls hard. It's just the stupid take-off "jerk" I'm worried about. This jerk is not from take the foot off the brake, but apparent only if I push on the gas like I would on most cars. Weird...

 

I have a similar vehicle but I can't say that I have ever experienced exactly what you describe. I have, on occasion, noticed that sometimes when I am accelerating, a bit aggressively, from a stop I get inconsistent boosting. Not on the same "pull" but along the lines of, on Monday I accelerated to speed in 8 seconds and on Tuesday, with what in my mind was the same amount of throttle, I could really feel the boost kick in and I accelerated to speed in 6 seconds. It seems more of a throttle position sensor issue to me than a transmission issue, in my case.

as far as VCDS coding, there is a transmission code that can be adjusted. I want to say it is called "sport mode" or something similar. I'm too lazy to look for it right now, but it does exist. from your description it sounds like your trans may already be in sport mode. perhaps "non sport" mode would be more consistent with your driving style.

good luck

post back on what you get figured. it might help me out too.

 

accept the jerk because you will not get ride of it. But you can minimize it. Look up throttle body adaption for your vag-com. It will help. Also make sure your transmission mounts are good and the snub engine mount. They can make a big difference as well. On I believe 01 models, there is a reflash of the trans ecu that is suppose to help. It hasn't been discussed in probably 5 years so I don't remember much about it. Just that I could never find any info out about it. Just guys talking about how a TSB came out and after the dealer flashed their ecu, the hesitation was improved. It was a non warranty flash, so expect to pay, that's if you can find it.

 

I've performed TBA already, it hasn't and has never helped me in any of my DBW cars. The positioning sensor could be a possibility because the initial throttle press is very slow. I've heard about a sprint-booster device which should take care of slow throttle but it's not worth the price. I will flash my trans. with 01032 or 00032 code on Monday and report back.

While we're on this subject, what have you guys done to improve the initial throttle response? Is there a cheap DIY mod? (assume I don't want to spend $200 on sprint booster).

 

Well well well. I didn't flash the trans yet but let me add to my woes. The reverse gear can be a PITA to get into for the last few days. I'm having to fight with it and it goes in fairly rough, almost like grinding. Happens 1/3 of the time, and is usually apparent when going from P to R, specially if I parked the car on an incline (even my driveway). So I did my oil change today as routine and found my trans pan sort of wet. Yikes!!! It must have been a very slow leak because I didn't find anything drips. On the contrary, my shifts from 2nd-5th are smooth as butter. Down-shifts can be a hard sometimes but it's mostly the reverse gear that's bothering me. I will VAG my car tomorrow. In the meantime, any wise words from you guys?

 

common. transmission mounts letting the trans shift in it's mounts, putting too much pressure on the parking pawl. That makes it difficult to shift out of park. To test. apply the emergency brake fully, then put car in park. Now try and shift our of park, if it's easy, you need mounts.

changing the fluid is always a good idea. Change don't flush.

 

^ That's correct. Using the handbrake to leverage the load off of the trans in P helps a lot. I also re-coded the trans to sport-mode. It now reads "00032" vs "00002" from factory.

Speaking of coding, there's 2 more possible codes I can burn in:

1. xx1xx (VAG says it's the new strategy, not sure if it's any good)
2. xxx2x (this was listed in VAG as sports mode).

The forums I've been reading say to put "32" as last digits but VAG instructions only show "22" as sports coding. Does anyone have any idea what's up? I felt my shifts much smoother now anyhow. It better not be placebo effect. It's easy to re-code. I just want to know the "32" does something as opposed to "22". Do I make any sense?