S3 - High Rev Gear Change Problem

[tobycruse]

As some of you may know after having the Sachs clutch and flywheel fitted i have had a problem with changing gear quickly at high revs.

I took the car back to AmD for Shaun to have a look at. He had a look at the clutch and flywheel and it all checked out. To problem seems to be with the syncromesh in the gear box. This would explain why it has happened on completely standard cars.

For the gear box to be fixed its going to have to go back to Audi as its a very expensive part to fix. The best bit will be convincing them that it wasn't all my modifications that caused the fault, just brought it to the surface.....

Any idea's as to what the best was about going about this is? Any help would be much appriaciated!

 

[Iggu]

As some of you may know after having the Sachs clutch and flywheel fitted i have had a problem with changing gear quickly at high revs.

I took the car back to AmD for Shaun to have a look at. He had a look at the clutch and flywheel and it all checked out. To problem seems to be with the syncromesh in the gear box. This would explain why it has happened on completely standard cars.

For the gear box to be fixed its going to have to go back to Audi as its a very expensive part to fix. The best bit will be convincing them that it wasn't all my modifications that caused the fault, just brought it to the surface.....

Any idea's as to what the best was about going about this is? Any help would be much appriaciated!

I think the onus is on them to prove your mods ARE to blame rather than the other way round.
S3BigAndy is the man to ask - he had a heavily modified car with a misfire problem and in the end got all his injectors replaced under warranty after challenging the dealer to prove the mods were the cause of the problem - which they couldn't do.
There is some EU legislation which protects consumers like us from firms trying to dodge warranties - although I don't have the details (your dealer will) the flavour is that if you replace parts with parts of equal quality the warranty cannot be voided.

Let us know how you get on.

 

[julians]

I think the only way you're going to get this done under warranty is if you put it back to standard and then take it in, which is easier said than done with a clutch/flywheel

Having said that, a different clutch isnt the easiest of things to spot (from an untrained greasemonkey perspective), so maybe they wont even question it if they cant see anything obviously different when they get it apart. I dont know how much different to standard the flywheel looks though, but the clutch assembly will hide most of it.

Did I read somewhere else that you have the quickshift mod? have you tried removing this to see if it makes any difference?

Maybe put all the usual bolt on bits (air filter,exhaust etc) back to standard and then take it in??

I can see why a dealer would refuse to cover it though, You're probably putting 35% more power and even more torque through the drivetrain than its supposed to take , compared to an out of the factory car and you've taken out some of the shock damping by switching to a single mass flywheel.

You cant really expect to run the car like that without some bits breaking ,for example you accepted that the standrad clutch couldnt take the torque so you fitted an uprated one that could,so why is it so hard to think that the gearbox may be the next weak link in the chain?

Once you've fixed the gearbox, maybe the haldex diff will be the next to break.... but then again maybe not, you're in semi uncharted territory.

 

[tobycruse]

Optimistic reply there Julians.

Everyone that has modified an S3 know that the clutch / flywheel is a serious weak spot. Its the same set-up as used in the MK5 Gti and that's only running 200bhp, so a standard S3 running 290bhp, what were Audi thinking?

Also, this gear changing problem has appeared on COMPLETELY standard S3's. Which is to say that this isn't connected to the new clutch / flywheel or the greater power the engine is producing.

I will be taking my car to my dealers in all its glory to see what they say. As said before, they have to prove that my mods have caused this problem before refusing to fix it under warranty.

It happens with or without the quick shift mod.

We shall see what happens at the dealer.

I think the only way you're going to get this done under warranty is if you put it back to standard and then take it in, which is easier said than done with a clutch/flywheel

Having said that, a different clutch isnt the easiest of things to spot (from an untrained greasemonkey perspective), so maybe they wont even question it if they cant see anything obviously different when they get it apart. I dont know how much different to standard the flywheel looks though, but the clutch assembly will hide most of it.

Did I read somewhere else that you have the quickshift mod? have you tried removing this to see if it makes any difference?

Maybe put all the usual bolt on bits (air filter,exhaust etc) back to standard and then take it in??

I can see why a dealer would refuse to cover it though, You're probably putting 35% more power and even more torque through the drivetrain than its supposed to take , compared to an out of the factory car and you've taken out some of the shock damping by switching to a single mass flywheel.

You cant really expect to run the car like that without some bits breaking ,for example you accepted that the standrad clutch couldnt take the torque so you fitted an uprated one that could,so why is it so hard to think that the gearbox may be the next weak link in the chain?

Once you've fixed the gearbox, maybe the haldex diff will be the next to break.... but then again maybe not, you're in semi uncharted territory.

 

[Iggu]

Optimistic reply there Julians.

Yep - the glass is always half empty for some folk.

 

[julians]

Just realistic I think.

It'd be a good result to get it covered on warranty, and encouraging for everyone else, so I hope it comes good for you.

And yes I agree with :-

"Everyone that has modified an S3 know that the clutch / flywheel is a serious weak spot."

but thats exactly the point, its only weak if you modify the car, apart from a few isolated incidents it appears to be fine if the car is standard (it even appears to be fine if you have just a remap - finger crossed) , the same could be said for the gearbox.

 

[PaulAr]

Just realistic I think.

(it even appears to be fine if you have just a remap - finger crossed)

Fingers crossed indeed!

I will be gutted if my clutch/DMF shits itself with a remap only.

If this became a trend then I really think the tuners REVO etc, should be thinking about what warnings they give to potential customers.

Cheers
Paul

 

[mnoble]

Good Luck, hope it goes fine.

anyone got opinions on S3 re-maps and stronic/dsg gearboxes?

as this is something i plan to look at (once mine is delivered)

 

[tobycruse]

It seems the possible solutions are:

Remove SMFW and replace with DMFW only for it to break in a matter of time.

Take car to Audi to fix the possible syncromesh problem.

Who else is driving with around 350bhp on a SMFW? Anyone else having the same problem? If not then i am led to believe that it isn't anything to do with the SMFW, more the transmission.

 

[Iggu]

It seems the possible solutions are:

Remove SMFW and replace with DMFW only for it to break in a matter of time.

Not guaranteed to happen this, Toby. JonnyC's old car had 420bhp with a DMF and experienced no problems after loads of miles - including after selling it to a new owner.

Take car to Audi to fix the possible syncromesh problem.

I see no problem with this - if they give you the knock-back due to your mods you still haven't lost anything.

Who else is driving with around 350bhp on a SMFW? Anyone else having the same problem? If not then i am led to believe that it isn't anything to do with the SMFW, more the transmission.

I only know of your car which has the SMFW personally .... I'd say get it to Audi, see what they say, and take it from there. I certainly wouldn't fanny about de-modding your car before taking it in though. That would be expensive madness.