Hello,

I am the proud new owner of a 2007 Audi S4 with a manual transmission!

I love the car, but I'm having a bit of trouble getting used to the transmission. My previous car is a 2001.5 VW passat 2.8 v6 in manual.

My main question relates to low speed driving, say 0-40mph, so this would be in the gear range of first through third. What I am noticing is that in gears 1-3, when I stop actively accelerating, and I take my foot off the gas pedel, the car pulls back fairly hard (engine braking?), even in third gear. So when I'm cruising along at 30mph in 3rd gear, if I just want to coast and remain at the same speed, if i'm not pushing in the gas the car seems to be pulling back and slowing itself down fairly rapidly. In my VW, I felt a bit of this in first and second gear, but in third it didn't seem to pull backwards, and I could just coast along at 30mph while staying in 3rd gear.

In first gear, if I'm in stop and go traffic, I might put it into gear gently, and roll forward at 5-10 mph, and here I feel it very hard, where the second I take my foot off the gas, the car strongly pulls backward. Then when I push the clutch in to come to a stop when this is happening, the car again jerks (before I touch the brake) and this isn't smooth.

Once I shift into 4th (seems to be appropriate once I'm going faster than 40mph), then the car can coast pretty easily without this sensation of being pulled back when I'm not pushing in the gas.

So - Can anyone help give me some background as to what's going on here, and some advice how to manage these things? My wife gets motion sick easily so I want to be able to handle low speed, and stop and go as smoothly as possible.

Thanks in advance for the help! Sorry for the noob questions and noob s4 status!

 

2 things, either be in a higher gear for coasting, sooo at 30mph coasting be in 4th gear instead of 3rd or push in the clutch. the S4 is a race ready luxory car but its still track ready so its going to have a racing geared transmission. racers often down shift to slow down so they depend on engine braking. im sorry for your wife getting motion sick, thats me in the back seat of any car so i feel her pain. now i could be way wrong, ive never driven that year S4 but its my philosopy

 

yeah dude.. its the torque of that V-8.. find a higher gear to troll around in..or quit bitchen and have fun driving your track ready race car...