A6 Avant 50 TDI Quattro sluggish at times

[Tommo 1]

Thank you Very much Grant. I will see how I get on. Where do I find photos ?

I will even drive to Sussex to have this done if need be !

Myself and a colleague bought two identical cars and we both have the same complaint - our previous cars were the V6 bi turbo’s (320bhp) which was a fantastic engine/drivetrain.

[Wooks63]

27 minutes ago, Tommo 1 said:

My Audi dealership is saying they are unaware of this problem and/or any fixes.

Unbelievable! It’s almost as if Audi /your dealership are scared of a lawsuit against them for selling a car that’s not fit for purpose, and so don’t want to admit there are any issues. Do write to them as you say you will and hopefully they’ll find the update.

I’m just wondering if there is an organisation who can do independent checks on these cars and put pressure on Audi to get them running as they should do?

[Jenna]

Tommo1,

Wookes63 and I have added photos earlier in the thread so you should see the software loadings as described above, If you get no Joy with your dealer, speak to Luis at Five Oaks Audi (Harwoods) he will sort you out. He knows all about it, just reference me (Grant) and he will mirror my update for you!

Go well

[Tommo 1]

Got them ! For some reason they were not appearing on my iPad. 
 

Many thanks to both for help and let us see where I end up !  My workshop manager at Dundee Audi is being very helpful so hopefully the steer I am now able to give him will get the job sorted. Fingers crossed !

[MartinLHW]

Audi recently advertised a summer 20% off service plans and was advertised till 31st July 2020.
Was meant to buy it but had other priorities then knowing it was ending at the end of the month I still had time.
However, the promotion was pulled last week already. I tweet Audi and they just said to contact Volkswagen Finance Services but nobody has gotten back to me....Pretty poor or false advertising especially from a big company if you ask me.

Just wondering if you guys know if this was a one off or do they do these offers all the time/annually?

Thanks in advance.

[Jinxit]

3 hours ago, MartinLHW said:

Audi recently advertised a summer 20% off service plans and was advertised till 31st July 2020.
Was meant to buy it but had other priorities then knowing it was ending at the end of the month I still had time.
However, the promotion was pulled last week already. I tweet Audi and they just said to contact Volkswagen Finance Services but nobody has gotten back to me....Pretty poor or false advertising especially from a big company if you ask me.

Just wondering if you guys know if this was a one off or do they do these offers all the time/annually?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Martin,

I tried to buy this at the beginning of July (first week). I tried online first where money was taken and then refunded due to "a problem setting up the plan". I then tried via the dealer and had the same issue. I am still waiting for a resolution. Not sure if this is a regular offering,

[MartinLHW]

Thanks @Jinxit.

VW Finance never got back to me so i asked emailed the service manager at my local Audi. He's one holiday but when he gets back the promotion will have defo ended. The irony is i got an email reminder from them saying my car was due it's service when it's not.

Have you had an luck with your dealer since?

[MartinLHW]

On 7/22/2020 at 8:35 AM, Wooks63 said:

Unbelievable! It’s almost as if Audi /your dealership are scared of a lawsuit against them for selling a car that’s not fit for purpose, and so don’t want to admit there are any issues. Do write to them as you say you will and hopefully they’ll find the update.

I’m just wondering if there is an organisation who can do independent checks on these cars and put pressure on Audi to get them running as they should do?

I'm sure i saw videos on YouTube where the lag issue was mentioned in the reviews for this car. Will try and find it again and post here.

In terms of organisations, I'm sure if you start tweeting on Twitter tagging the likes of Top Gear, What Car etc...it would get some attention. Get members on here to retweet too otherwise they just ignore you like how VW Finance has done when i asked them about the Summer 20% off Service Plans.

[Jinxit]

On 7/29/2020 at 3:37 AM, MartinLHW said:

Thanks @Jinxit.

VW Finance never got back to me so i asked emailed the service manager at my local Audi. He's one holiday but when he gets back the promotion will have defo ended. The irony is i got an email reminder from them saying my car was due it's service when it's not.

Have you had an luck with your dealer since?

No Luck yet and its been a week since I last contacted them. I will try to get time to call today or tomorrow. At least they know I tried before the promo ends so that should help me. I would contact anyone in your local service department anyway despite the manager being away today or tomorrow denying knowledge of the offer ending early. they may be able to do something outside the offer. If you leave it until after the published end date you won't have any leverage.

[Tommo 1]

Wooks/Jenna - below is a response from my Audi main dealer following my email with photo attachments of the software fixes........looks like I may have to travel south to have this sorted......

 

Were your fixes carried out under warranty or charged ?

 

Main dealer response :

 

Sorry for the delayed response.

 

I have been checking through the information available from Audi and so far not found anything to correspond with the TPI number you provided.

There are TPI's which are for foreign markets only and we don't have access to them.

 

I have spoken to a couple of colleagues in other branches and no luck there either.

 

At the moment I'm sorry to say we are not aware of a fix for the issue you are experiencing.

 

I will keep checking for any new information and will update you if/when we find anything else which may help.

 

Kind regards

[Wooks63]

Tommo,

That is ridiculous! Can I suggest you give your dealer the email address of the technician who helped me at my Audi Dealer? His address is:

FrankThomas@chingford-audi.co.uk 

Hopefully he’ll be able to point your dealer in the right direction.

[MartinLHW]

I managed to get the software updated by my local Audi dealership after emailing the service department the TPI number I got from this thread.

Since, the car defo runs better but do agree with @Wooks63 that there is room for improvement but due to covid-19 still not back out in the car nearly half as much as before.

However I don't know if its just me or after the software update, most times when I switch off the car...the fan continues to blow for about 15 minutes before switching off itself.

At present, I could maybe make 3-4 short trips per day and after each time i switch off the car, i notice the fan hurling away as if it's trying to cool the car down or perhaps 'self clean the dpf'. It's not like during these short trips I'm thrashing/booting the car and putting it under load. I did manage to take it for a longer run (40 mins this evening) doing a mixture of rural and urban roads and when i switched it off after that, not a peep.

Anyone else got similiar problems? Is it normal?

#MyFirstDieselCar

Thanks in advance.

[Tommo 1]

Martin - at least your service dept recognised the Tpi code ! As you can see from above response that I received the John Clark group (which is a major dealership throughout Scotland) do not appear to know anything about it !

As to fan run on.....Yes mine does this intermittently and sometimes it seems more often than others. I have not been concerned at this as my previous Bi turbo A6 was fairly similar. Like you mention, I put it down to the dpf cleaning.

Can you tell me which Audi centre did your tpi update ? Just so I can build a dossier as to who seems to be doing something about this problem....thanks

 

MT

[AlexR]

Hi - my 50TDI C8 A6 dies the same from time to time. I am not concerned.

[Jenna]

My fan does the same, go out for even a short drive and there it goes spinning away, think it is the DPF doing its thing so the fan keeps every thing cool. Went night fishing last night, positioned the car along side my bivy, once the bite alarms went off, landed the fish and hit unlock on the remote and those wonderful headlights lit up the whole lake, hit the unlock a couple more times, just enough to turn the carp around and let her go! Must be the best leds out there!

[MartinLHW]

@Jenna lol....newest fishing essential! Totally agree that these must be the best LEDs on the market. It still needs getting used to when the Matrix LED flickers abouts to avoid dazzling oncoming cars or lighting up the road ahead but yeah brilliant lights!

Aye, the fan just seems to be coming on all the time lately....just wondering if it'll deteriorate the battery in the long term as it does blow for a good 15 mins each time.

[Tommo 1]

Martin (wooks) / Grant (Jenna),

Action at last ! 
I contacted Frank Thomas at Chingford Audi who claimed little/no knowledge of the problem or update. He did say one of his technicians may have knowledge however he was on holiday last week and he would ask him to phone me this week. He phoned today and gave me more details.

I then emailed and phoned Dundee Audi who still could not find update so I asked the workshop manager in Dundee to phone the guy in Chingford. It transpired that Dundee computer details had not been updated to my new car (my number plate is private and been swapped to new A6 last November) so as soon as new details were put in and then the chassis number checked on Audi site for available updates it came up.......

For future reference the update is called......................................................... 
 

Pulling away / acceleration characteristics V6 TDi. 

The tpi is exactly as noted earlier in this thread - 2053287/11

I am very grateful for all your info and to Alex at Chingford Audi for his guidance and to Dundee for their persistence with me breathing down their necks ! My car is now booked in for Friday morning (which is fantastically quick) so I hope that the update is worthwhile !

I’m afraid that a colleague with an identical car and problem is struggling with Perth Audi (Cameron’s) who flatly refused to talk about tpi codes etc though hopefully armed with the above additional information he will get sorted too........

 

Happy days !!
 

Ps Alex from Chingford Audi even took the trouble to text me to check I was sorted ! 

[Wooks63]

Mike (Tommo) - Glad you got it sorted in the end and that the guys at my branch were able to help.

Of course, when I say sorted, I mean improved a lot, but by no means a perfect solution 😁.

[Wooks63]

Had my first real test of how well the car can pull away from stationary the other day. I’d managed to sneak past a guy in a Porsche Cayenne at a roundabout, we then came to red traffic lights and he darted from behind me and pulled up on the inside of me, with the clear intention of getting ahead of me when the lights changed. Thought I’d see if the software update really had worked. The car was already in dynamic mode and I flicked the gears to Sport mode. When the lights changed, we both floored it. About 50 yards past the lights, the 2 lanes merged into one, with the inside lane having to merge into the outside lane, so I knew I had priority. Amazingly, the guy in the Porsche was unable to even get slightly ahead of me. If anything, I pulled away from him, and he had to concede and pull back and slot back in behind me.

To say I feel chuffed is an understatement. It felt so good to, at long last, have the car respond how I hoped it would when I bought it back in March last year.

Now if only they can fix the acceleration delay when the car is traveling around 30 - 40mph.

Just one other, unrelated note. Does anyone else’s cameras fail sometimes? Sometime, when I put the car into reverse, the screen is blank and just shows a camera icon with a line through it. Usually, the next time I use the car, it’s fine again, so it’s only intermittent. I’d hoped that maybe the latest MMI update would have fixed it, but if anything, I’d say it’s happening more now than before the update. And it’s not just the rear camera. If I switch to say the top down view, sometimes a few of the cameras around the car have failed, but maybe the front and a side camera would still be working. But it’s random as to which work and which don’t! And it’s only occasionally. It’s as if the computer has failed to fully initialise the cameras when the car is switched on.

[Tommo 1]

Martin (wooks),

I'm afraid that I am very disappointed at the update. I agree that it is smoother from standstill but that low speed acceleration lag is still hugely evident when you floor it  from say 10 to 15 mph upwards. If you slow down to approach a roundabout and see a gap and go for it you will still scare yourself at total lack of response.

I understand that Audi are calling this a “driving characteristic” and if this is how they are designing cars for the future they will most certainly loose my 30 years of brand loyalty. 

“Honest John” have recently done a road test on an A6 allroad with our engine and gearbox and it is interesting to read what they say......

best wishes,

 

MT

[Wooks63]

On 8/25/2020 at 10:02 PM, Tommo 1 said:

Martin (wooks),

I'm afraid that I am very disappointed at the update. I agree that it is smoother from standstill but that low speed acceleration lag is still hugely evident when you floor it  from say 10 to 15 mph upwards. If you slow down to approach a roundabout and see a gap and go for it you will still scare yourself at total lack of response.

Since the update, I can honestly say that I’ve no longer experienced this issue when slowing down at roundabouts. The response has been really good. What mode have you got the engine set to? I’m in Dynamic mode.

The only issue I’ve now got is when trying to accelerate quickly, for example when on a dual carriageway, from around 30-40mph to get past slower moving traffic. This still has the 1-2 second delay.

Will be interesting to know if others are still experiencing the same issue as you?

[AlexR]

I agree with Wooks. Have mine in ‘Comfort’ most of the time and have no pull away issues. 
 

Does the gearbox ‘learn your style’ and optimise accordingly? If so, does it do this separately from ‘scratch’ for each of the modes’

My car is swift off the mark and handles the approach to, and pull away from, junctions and Roundabouts with ease.

Fully agree that there appears to be room for further improvement in pick up when accelerating from between 30-50mph upwards. Still a slight delay in my opinion but better than before. Given the name of the update I wonder if it was focused on pulling away from standstill or near standstill.

[Jenna]

Like Alex, my car is mostly in comfort but I have got use to changing the gearbox into sport mode as I approach the roundabout, it’s not an issue to me as the pull away problem has now been fixed, I still get the lag at around 30mph but I’m ok with it as what I lose in lag I get back with smiles from the acceleration! 
As the nights are drawing in now I was reminded how fantastic the HD Matrix lights are, it’s like daylight was back as I entered a dark country road, the curtain parting lights from the centre outwards was awesome and arguably the best LED’s on the Market, also added the 4 ring door puddle lights, these are such conversation point in garages and car parks etc, get yourselves some of these if you don’t have them already, 30 seconds to swap out but get the genuine Audi ones!

Wookes, I have not had the camera issue you mention above, although I was in the hand car wash the other day where the boys use the all over foam (not sponge) and noticed on the MMI these white glass symbols being held by a hand half tilted with water droplets pouring downwards over all the cameras, they look like the Cadbury choc advert white glass - bazaar!

I went up a no entry by accident the other and this loud large no entry sign lit up the Virtual cockpit, scared the life out of me, amazing, I didn’t even see the signs.
I have noticed since the MMI update that my Maps seem to be continuously updating (symbol top right on MMI) and when I have google maps on the screen on the MMI and get a WhatsApp message along the bottom, the MMI flickers off and back on again when the WhatsApp message disappears off the bottom, it does not happen if you have Waze on in Apple car play mode though.

Still all good with the car though, had the Merc’s etc, Audi for me every day👍

[Rodge123]

Very informative thread guys, thanks for all the info.

I’m having this same delayed acceleration from stop with my 2019 A6 40TDI. Never owned a diesel or Audi before so wasn’t 100% if was normal.

As others have mentioned, it’s actually quite dangerous at times.

Have mentioned it to my main dealer here in Ireland, car is in for new tyres and loose door seal fix in new year.

Problem is that it doesn’t happen all the time, I can’t seem to pinpoint any pattern for why it happens sometimes. Can just see the dealer saying we couldn’t reproduce the issue when test driving it!

Does anyone know if these ECU updates are available for the C8 40TDI?

Thanks

[Jenna]

Hello Wookes63, AlexR, et al,

I see there is a new Gearbox update from Audi available! This is in addition to the 2053287/11 ECU update most of us had last year on our 50tdi’s, the new update is called CK23 - anyone had this update yet? I hear it’s by batch number, I am going in for a service in 1000 miles time so will enquire, reading some feed back appears to be the fix we have been looking for!