A6 Avant 50 TDI Quattro sluggish at times

[Wooks63]

I’ve had my new A6 Avant for about a month now and on the whole am very happy with it. I have the drive mode set to Auto, although have also tried it in sport mode, and quite often when pulling away, the engine revs quite high but the car takes a while to actually move and get up to speed, almost as if it’s struggling to actually get it into gear. I had one scary moment on a busy roundabout where I put my foot down to get away quickly, and nothing happened for the first second or so. It did eventually kick in and shot off like a rocket! But other times, like when I drove tonight, it’s really responsive.

The whole reason for getting the 3 litre model was for its performance, but there’s no point in supposedly having 0-60 in 5.7 secs when nothing happens for the first second or so.

Any ideas why this might be? Could it just be the software needs refining?

Thanks.

[David S A6]

I heard its the 8 speed tiptronic gearbox that's the problem. Apparently the 7 speed s tronic on the smaller engines is a lot better. 

[Maxi]

It's been a 'feature' of Audi gearboxes for a while. My previous A6 (2.0 TDI) and new A6 (40 TDI) both suffer from the same - it's like a delay of 0.25-0.5 seconds when you put your foot down and is very annoying. I can only think that's it's a deliberate delay (as everything is electronic) to allow something to happen - realign gears perhaps.

I'm interested to see if a remap could address this but as yet, haven't found a map that can easily revert to 'normal' before any service (company car).

[Wooks63]

I had an A6 Avant before this (2 litre) and an A5 before that and can’t say I noticed delays as dramatic as in my new car. The other cars were S tronic’s whereas this new one is a Tipronic. Could this be why?

It’s going into my dealership next month for them to look at. I really hope they are able to do something as the whole point of buying a 3 litre Quattro is to have good performance. If they tell me it’s behaving as expected, then surely I can claim that the car is not fit for purpose and get my, quite considerable amount of, money back? I’d argue that such a huge delay is dangerous.

I do wonder if there’s something wrong with the CPU as I’ve had several other issues - lost all my shortcuts the other day, and twice the cameras have failed when trying to reverse into a parking space. And today coming home, using a route I’ve used loads of times, the green triangle on the speedo which shows me what the speed limit is was wrong twice. It’s not done this before.

[Tommo 1]

I am concerned at this too. I have just ordered same car and having test driven felt it was a real problem. I currently have V6 bi turbo C7 and its pick up is excellent. I was considering new S6 but lease costs are prohibitive compared to standard models ( 8.5% more on list price to car I have ordered and 48% increase in monthly lease cost!!).

i intend to fit a DTUK box of tricks and a pedal box to assist throttle response which I am told works well.

[Magnet]

Hello Mike,

Apologies in advance, but are you really ordering a new car following ‘a real problem’ on a test drive example? If so, I guess Audi could be entitled to dismiss a claim for ‘unsuitable for purpose’ - as Wooks63 was considering to do- since you knew it’s pitfalls before ordering. 

Ref. fitting a box of tricks to overcome this issue, straight away brings to mind invalidating the warranty. None of this is where I would want to be spending  my money, in anticipation of discontents. 

Good luck if you do go ahead.

Kind regards,

Gareth. 

[Wooks63]

I took my car into my dealership. They reckoned that the car was performing how they expected it to, but they did make some adjustments to the gearbox. Since then, the changing up of gears is now very smooth (previously it was quite jerky) and pickup seems to have improved, although I’ve still had the odd occasion when I’ve floored the gas and absolutely nothing happens for what seems ages. I was told that there is a software update coming for the car to address several issues, so I’m hoping that as the software matures, the car will get better.

I’ve just got to teach myself that slowly increasing pressure on the gas rather than flooring it gets better results.

[JoeJ1984]

How are you finding it now OP? I have recently received my new A6 45 tfsi which has the S Tronic. Performance is lightly less than the 50 TDI (0-60 is 6 seconds). It also has a bit of a delay if you floor it hard like how you describe. Feels like it's just taking time to drop down a couple of gears to respond to the request for more torque. I find if I use the paddles; a couple of quick flicks on the down shift paddle to drop it down couple of gears manually, the response is much better when I want that quick burst of acceleration. Have you tried that?  Out of interest, what mpg are you getting with mixed driving? 

[Mark Solesbury]

I have also had this in my 40 tdi - I have worked around it, not ideal, but if I blip the throttle before I want to 'Go go' then it kind of moves into gear - when that small gap shows, nail it and it moves fast.

I wanted an auto all of the time I had my C7, but I miss it a bit - This seems to be all over the gears and change up way to early for my liking

[Wooks63]

Sorry for the delay in replying.

On the whole, performance is good and a lot smoother now that the dealership made some modifications. I still get the occasional delay when flooring it. Agree that it definitely seems to be the car not dropping down gears fast enough. Will try manually dropping down next time I need to get away quickly. 

Am very pleased with the fuel consumption. Did a long journey the other day, mainly motorway driving, and was getting 50mpg. From memory, driving locally usually gives me around 30-35mpg.

[Man audi]

Have Audi resolved this issue yet?

 

 

[LEGO BOX]

hi

i have the S4 v6 tdi with triptronic gearbox -i know its not an A6 but it is the same engine only with diffrent power output

yes at times the request for power to take off appears slow but goes current mpg is 32 thats around town and motorway but on a run i get 38 to 41 mpg

i have a rattle like the oil insn't getting around the engine it appears to be the top of the engine also this rattle will appear when the engine is warm and been on auto start/stop it has been back to the dealer and a report has gone to Audi germany  who have said that it only a few engines are doing it and they don't know why. i have contacted audi uk and the brand laision manager has looked at the tech report and told me its normal for it to do that ? 

currently wait for things to get back to normal to persue this further

 

 

 

[Man audi]

Bought A6 50 TDI in March currently done 1900 miles beautiful car but blighted with this hesitancy on acceleration which as previously mentioned can be dangerous will have to wait for dealership to open up to get it sorted

wondered if fitting DTUK has improved the issue?

[Steve Q]

4 hours ago, Man audi said:

Bought A6 50 TDI in March currently done 1900 miles beautiful car but blighted with this hesitancy on acceleration which as previously mentioned can be dangerous will have to wait for dealership to open up to get it sorted

wondered if fitting DTUK has improved the issue?

Hi Paul, obviously if you fit a tuning box youll void your warranty. I'd personally wait untill Audi reopens. And if they look at it and you still feel you want an upgrade to the ECU then I'd strongly recommend a remap as it'll be better suited to the car and good remappers do it on a rolling road for best results. 

Fitting a tuning box can potentially cause issues when it is removed from the vehicle. 

Cheers

Steve

[Man audi]

Thanks for the advice you are right I will wait

 

[Steve Q]

12 hours ago, Man audi said:

Thanks for the advice you are right I will wait

 

You're welcome, glad I could help 🙂

[AlexR]

Hi. Just had the Software on my Audi TDI50 Black Edition update today (19 May 2020). There were two updates - one for the MMI and one affecting the gearbox. I have only driven the car for 30 mins or so but it seems to have - at last - fixed (or at least very much improved) the ‘step off’ delay (fingers crossed). I’ll see how it goes over time but initial impression is good and makes the car feel much nicer to drive. My Dealer is now open for Service but not sales. Social distancing in force but worked well. Contact your dealer. Hopefully this is the fix we have been waiting for.

I recommend you go for this update - you’ll be glad you did. 
Alex

Edited May 19, 2020 by AlexR
Add clarity

[Wooks63]

That’s great! I need to book it in for a Service so will mention it then, although assume they would perform any updates anyway.

I suspected (hoped?) it was just a software issue.

Thanks.

[Steve Q]

8 hours ago, Wooks63 said:

That’s great! I need to book it in for a Service so will mention it then, although assume they would perform any updates anyway.

I suspected (hoped?) it was just a software issue.

Thanks.

Yes it should be done automatically when it goes in for a service. Can't help.to mention it though. 👍

[hutchys]

This sounds good, I ordered a A6 Allroad on the back of Audi preparing a fix for this problem so hopefully this has been solved now, or the very least made it negligible.

[Wooks63]

Do we know if this update has also fixed the dash cam date and time? I’ve had to turn it off from the display as it as never kept the correct time. Was told when I mentioned it last year that it would be fixed in a future update.

[hutchys]

Not sure but it did say there was also an MMI update too so maybe?

[AlexR]

Hi Not sure about the Dash Cam as I don’t have one. I think it does improve the rear camera in some way.

Took my newly updated car out on a longish trip. It was a pleasure to drive. Quantum improvement. 
Enjoy!

[hutchys]

Thanks for that Alex, this is good to know and hopefully makes my 'punt' on the A6 allroad worthwhile.

[AlexR]

Feels like a different car now. Really good to drive and such a huge improvement. Can’t understand why it wasn’t correct to start with.