Took a ride with an Audi Technician about 2 weeks ago. I was able to point out some of my issues, the main one did not occur on the drive as severely as before. The tech said that some of the issues were not supposed to happen and some were by design ( the throttle lag and the quick upshifting ). Also he said my car was 2 software updates behind. I asked how that could be because I just had the car in less than a month before. He had no answer for that. Anyway, they updated the software and did an adaptation. The car does drive better than before, the shifting seems to be smoother but it is still noticeable. I can live with it I suppose. The next thing is to chip it to get rid of the throttle lag.

So I guess the moral of the story would be to make sure that you have the updated software ( not actually sure how to accomplish this ). I had asked the dealer, and they told me it was up to date the first two times. Maybe they messed up, maybe it was poor timing but 2 updates behind seems to be odd.

 

I picked mine up in December noticed the throttle lags sometimes off the line if you are light on the gas. what were the things the tech pointed out and is there a way for me to check to see what version of software im on?

Thanks

 

It would be nice to find a chip that the dealership would support and not kill the warranty. I thought I read somewhere that there was such an animal but haven't called my dealership to research yet. It probably would reduce mpg's some which would hurt my primary purpose of a daily driver but would be nice to clean up the occasional bog.

 

It already exists and its a Stasis ECU upgrade. You pay about twice the cost ($1200) as a competing upgrade, but you keep your warranty intact.

AFAIK, only quattros are eligible for Stasis upgrades. No CVT.

Also, upgrades are marketed as not affecting fuel economy. That assumes you never use the extra power (boost) though. If you maintain a feather foot, you should hold onto your MPG.

 

Slee Stack is dead on. Stasis is warranty supported. I had the ECU upgrade installed on my 08 (they call it a "flash" program) just over a year ago by my dealer. Other items installed were exhaust and a suspension kit. Car is totally different. Defintely better. Handling is dramatically better. Much stiffer than stock. Quickness is also dramatically better. It is not quite an S4 but I have had several Quattro nuts drive it and they loved it. Exhaust is a little more audible inside the car but not obnoxious at all. Gas mileage is not really affected. I do not really pay much attention to city driving because of variability of conditions (Minneapolis) and the changes from day to day in the way I drive. Some days easy, some days aggressive. When I have measured city I get low 20's in mpg. City mileage is better than my wife's 2010 A3. Multiple carefully measured highway trips had me consistently over 30 mpg. Best results came on trips over 400 miles and that was 32 mpg plus.One downside to the package on my car is that the suspension kit brings the car much lower. Awesome as long as the snow does not get to deep. Here of course it does but that is just something I live with. Lastly, you get more out of the chip/ECU/flash program by getting the exhaust with it. You want to check this but I think you can add an after market cat-back exhaust without invalidating the warranty. If true you can use another brand if you wish. That said the Satsis unit is competively priced vs. others. You can get pricing for Stasis materials on the website for Continental Audi in Naperville Illinois. Pricing for B7 (2008 and earlier) and B8 (2009 and later) bodies is available.

 

Glad I found this thread. Just picked up my new A4 Quattro Premium Plus, Black/Black. This car looks like sex on wheels I went from a BMW 3 Coupe (manual) to a Nissan w/ CVT to this Audi. The Bimmer and cvt were butter smooth in their own ways. So this new audi 8spd tranny took me by surprise, and it seems i'm not the only one. Although I haven't experience any of the violent jolts, the most annoying thing for me is when the car hesitates when I stop and go right away as if it's confused. I really hope this tranny sort itself out in time as some of you indicated, I hate for this to be my first and only audi. This is one of the best looking sedans out there!

 

FWIW, my car has 12k miles on it and the trans is significantly smoother than when I started this thread.

 

I just took mine in for the first scheduled service, this time I did not bother complaining about the rough shifting, figured they would just think I was crying wolf again. I did mention the throttle lag. When the car was finished the service manager told me there was nothing wrong the throttle ( did find a fault with the camshaft though, have to order a part for that ), however the tech who worked on it was standing right there. I asked him, he said no throttle lag, but "sometimes the transmission is trying to figure out which gear it should be in and that sometimes provides some hesitation" <-- isn't that throttle lag just by another definition? Maybe it is not exactly the same thing, but the results feel the same to me.

I am slowly getting used to the more frequent shifting, I don't like it, but I have to deal with it. A lot of times when I am going 40 or below I throw it over and shift it myself. It provides me a better response on the throttle when I keep it in the gear I want ( I like the rpms to hover around 2k, not the 1.7k-1.8k the car likes to keep it at ), but while it is not a full manual, there is a reason I purchased an automatic and that is so I won't have to worry about the shifting. If I want to shift, I'll drive my Porsche or my motorcycle.

 

I'm also happy I found this thread... I don't have an A4 but I took delivery of my new A5 a few days ago. Yesterday I noticed the car would downshift very hard and shudder when coming to a stop. I haven't experienced some of the issues others have mentioned but the shudder is prominent enough my wife noticed and she doesn't notice things like that. I'm going to call the dealership in the morning and see what they have to say, maybe there's a software update or maybe it just needs to learn my driving habits. Either way, I'm hoping I won't be disappointed with this car...

 

Update... I called the dealer this morning and spoke with the service manager. I told him about the hard dowwnshift, he was familiar with the complaint. I asked him about a software update and he said it's dependent on the VIN whether you need it or not. I gave it to him over the phone and unfortunately my car has the most current software. He said all the 2.0L 8 speeds do this to provide the best fuel economy.

I have to say I'm very disappointed, a car of this caliber should have smooth gear shifts. I'm hoping it imporves over time but at this point I'm thinking I should've gone with the E class coupe.