1999 Audi A8Q - Possible Tranny Problems
 

I just bought a '99 A8 from my fathier in law. The car is a real creampuff...well maintained, garage kept (most of the time), only 112k miles...etc etc.

When we picked it up, he mentioned that there was a slight leak under the car that was dripping on the manifold emitting a burning type smell...said he has never run low on fluids, said he had it to the dealership several times to repair but it always kept coming back. Other than that, the only thing I noticed was that it would make a whining sound while it was moving...I just chalked it up to that being the sund the car made after 14 years.

Anyway, I was on the highway today....doing about 65, I got off the highway and as I was slowing down, the car made a loud clunking sound.....a few miles later, it did it again....then the whining stopped. Now the problem is that the acceleration from a stop is basically non existant. It seems to take a while for it to get going...once your moving, it's fine, car accelerates with no issues, seems to shift fine...it's just the acceleration from a dead stop. I got no warning lights...the only thing I did notice is on the dash, where the gear indicator lights up the gear it is in...rather than just having the D highlighted....they are all highlighted.

Has anyone ever experienced something like this?

Thanks for your help.

What you describe is "limp mode". [search this and other forums for it]
Transmission was likely leaking and/or close to failure.

Possibly a clutch basket, but it's not going to be cheap to fix I'm afraid.
Review some of TozoM8's posts on the subject here and other forums.