I have a 1999 Audi A4 1.8T that I am trying to sell. For the past couple of weeks the car has been acting up a little. Everytime I floor it or give it more throttle to go faster, the car kind of stays stucks at whatever gear its on. When it happens I've learned to just decelerate and give it throttle and its seems to be fine again. What can this be? I'm selling the car and I had some people look at it and when they test drove it same thing happens. It feels like its lagging. Please help, Any feedback will be appreciated thanks. If I wasn't clear just let me know and I'll try to be more clear.

 

Do you have a check engine light? Does it ever flash? Have you ever ran the fault codes to see if there are any? So is the problem that the car feels sluggish or that is will stay in gear or both?

 

I bet it's just the 'kick down device' shifting into the lowest gear with best performance... Look it up.

Have you ever red lined it? Did it shift at that point? Are you scared it'll blow up if it doesn't shift?

 

No check engine light on or flashing. I haven't ran any fault codes yet but that will be my next step. The car feels fine if driven like an old person would, but once you pedal to the metal it the lagging starts and it stays in whatever gear its in until I decelerate or take my foot off the gas pedal. What can this be? Thanks for the response. Much appreciated.

 

Never red lined it but are you suggesting I leave it neutral to redline it? It's an automatic. I don't think it'll blow i just don't like that it does that. I have to drive with ease now because every time my foot gets a little heavy it lags. Almost as if it was a manual tranny and i left it on first to drive around. Someone said it might be the torque converter and some said it might not be getting enough fuel delivery from the injectors. What can this be? I really don't know what it is. Thanks for the response.

 

Um no don't leave it in neutral and red line it; I was just wondering if you were just scared because it down shifted and let off the gas. I was thinking that maybe nothing was wrong with the car - That's probably not the case, but I will explain it further:

In the B5 A4, at least, there is a device that when you step on the pedal PAST full throttle, the transmission will shift to the lowest gear with best performance. This is called the 'kick down device,' and it will take you to much higher RPMs until you let off the gas and start driving like an old person again. I was asking you:

When this happens, do you always let off the gas, or have you ever waited for it to shift? The auto tranny isn't afraid to shift at 6.5k RPM by any means... It may be that you are afraid of your car haha.

I didn't notice that you said it had just started acting like this, so I can really only think of another thing here. I think sometimes solenoids can go bad in automatic transmissions, causing it to stick in gear because the EM field isn't strong enough to shift at the right time... It's like a magnet that doesn't work well anymore. At least it can happen with some jeeps.

 

Try your fuel filter as it's simple and cheap if you do it your self...... I have also experienced this in my father's F-550 but our's wasn't a tranny problem it was a fuel problem in which the tank's filter's were so clogged up that they were pure black and they were supposed to be white so we took them out and cleaned them in diesel and TADA it worked like a charm well i think it was the fact that my dad has that freaking truck on steroids with a racing diesel pump and DIABLO stage 3 tune and we talked to some ford mechanic's and they said that the tank filter's dont get so dirty that they stop fuel from being delivered but in our case it was dirty lol

 

^^^^ makes 0 sense to me...

OP I'm not saying this is your issue but we did just have to have similar work done on an SUV you would step on it and it would rev up and wouldn't shift until you let off the gas. It was a tranny issue and was roughly $500 repair. I can't remember off the top of my head what it was but it basically comes from romping on the gas all the time and making the car shift hard.

 

I think it's a fuel problem.

 

[QUOTE=BrianJanice;1227121]Um no don't leave it in neutral and red line it; I was just wondering if you were just scared because it down shifted and let off the gas. I was thinking that maybe nothing was wrong with the car - That's probably not the case, but I will explain it further:

In the B5 A4, at least, there is a device that when you step on the pedal PAST full throttle, the transmission will shift to the lowest gear with best performance. This is called the 'kick down device,' and it will take you to much higher RPMs until you let off the gas and start driving like an old person again. I was asking you:

When this happens, do you always let off the gas, or have you ever waited for it to shift? The auto tranny isn't afraid to shift at 6.5k RPM by any means... It may be that you are afraid of your car haha.

I didn't notice that you said it had just started acting like this, so I can really only think of another thing here. I think sometimes solenoids can go bad in automatic transmissions, causing it to stick in gear because the EM field isn't strong enough to shift at the right time... It's like a magnet that doesn't work well anymore. At least it can happen with some jeeps.[/QUOTE

Thanks for the reply, yea it just started to happen. I floor it and it doesn't get passed 4 grand RPM, but when I let off it does.