I have had my '98 A8 for about 6 weeks. I love it. It has 105,000 miles. I have two questions, first is the "jumpiness" of the transmission around 40 miles per hour. Especially when going up a slight grade, the transmission just can't seem to decide which gear to choose. I typically change it to the "tip" and manually choose the gear myself. This works, but I'm sure it should not be necessary. Has anyone had a similar problem and what solution did you find?

Secondly, I cannot program my remote key to the presets. I have gone through the directions from the manual many times and have replaced the batteries in the remote, but it still does not work. Any ideas?


Thanks for your help.

 

first off going up a hill at 40mph will overwork the engine in high gear so go at a higher speed the other has been covered many time that's why there is a search

 

welcome to ownership of a zf transmission.

That is what we call hunting. I believe it's a bad valve body.

You'll also experience some thumping, which is the torque converter dropping into closed mode. This usually happens on the expressway in fourth or fifth gear.

 

At 74K, my 99 4.2 only exhibits hunting only when going up and down hills at around 40-50mph. I have learned to try to circumvent this problem by giving it plenty of throttle for a few seconds when going up hill - car selects higher gear and stays in it.

Downhill is a different story, I normally choose to take it slower by applying the brakes a little rather than accelerating, but it's still not a perfect solution.

(Having said that, I dont use Tiptronic at all, as even though the box is pretty clunky, I still trust it more than I do myself, especially downhill)

 

Thanks. I'll try this.

Any ideas about how I can get my key to program to the presets -- so that the seat, mirrors, etc adjust to the correct position when I unlock the car with the remote?

 

if you find a way to do it please let me know . the only way i know how is to use the memory botton and it works once the key is in