Sluggish Move Off - 1.4 A4 Avant Manual

[Crazycarlo]

Hi all,

I am thrilled to say I’m a proud owner today of a 67 plate S Line Avant. Everything seems lovely and it drives well BUT moving away in 1st is somewhat tricky and very slow. It’s very difficult to build some momentum between balancing the clutch against the accelerator.. so much so that when you want to emerge out into a roundabout quickly you feel a tad anxious about the delay! Is this just a case of me getting a feel for the car or is this kind of the norm? 
 

thanks,

 

carl. 

Edited May 26, 2022 by Crazycarlo

[Stevey Y]

27 minutes ago, Crazycarlo said:

Hi all,

I am thrilled to say I’m a proud owner today of a 67 plate S Line Avant. Everything seems lovely and it drives well BUT moving away in 1st is somewhat tricky and very slow. It’s very difficult to build some momentum between balancing the clutch against the accelerator.. so much so that when you want to emerge out into a roundabout quickly you feel a tad anxious about the delay! Is this just a case of me getting a feel for the car or is this kind of the norm? 
 

thanks,

 

carl. 

Hi I think its more to do with the engine size as its a heavy car, even with mine you have to give it some revs and feed the clutch in sharpish then the only issue after that is trying to calm the sudden rush of power before you hit something else up the rear.

Steve.

[TheITGuy]

Hi Carl

I have an A4 with the same engine and gearbox combination and I also find mine sluggish when setting off from standstill - trying to join fast moving traffic on roundabouts, etc. there is a noticeable delay before the car gains momentum.  My wife, who very rarely drives my car has also commented on this behaviour and much prefers driving her A3 as it is much more responsive.

As Steve says, this is likely due to the car being quite a heavy beast for such a modest engine.  Once you get going, there is no problem keeping up with traffic.

Glen

[Crazycarlo]

Thank you both. After driving it some more, I can say that I’m much better at it now, it just takes getting used to and like you said Glen - once it gets going it is by no means a slouch! Pretty fast car… 

I noticed there was a tiny slip of the clutch at one point when accelerating up quickly through the gears at speed, where the rev counter suddenly shoots up and then regains power again. The clutch was replaced in March - which for a 67 plate and 26,000 miles seems somewhat concerning… 

[TheITGuy]

I haven't experienced clutch slip but I am getting an increasing amount of clutch judder when pulling away in first gear, noticeably worse when the car has been doing a long journey.  My local indie dealer suggests the flywheel is the culprit, so I'm looking at around £2K for a new clutch and flywheel.  Apparently this is a recurring issue with Audis with a manual gearbox.  Ho hum