The point of S mode is if you want to go fast by having the revs idle higher and not have to worry about looking down to shift. Manual mode is ok, but for deceleration when you're going fast is laborious and distracts you from focusing on the drive and cornering.
Major lag in between gear changes on S3
- Thread starter James.B8
- Start date
S is good for lazy speed but crap for twisties where you want to engine break before a corner
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2016
- Messages
- 831
- Reaction score
- 788
- Points
- 93
I can understand doing it for the noise but can't see why the sudden uncontrolled engine braking that a dsg produces would be desirable whilst approaching a corner at speed.
Engine braking was only done in the olden days because brakes didn't really work very well and overheated after a few good goes in quick succession.
How's the car now you've hopefully got a few more miles on it? Or you traded it in now?
- Joined
- Aug 8, 2016
- Messages
- 831
- Reaction score
- 788
- Points
- 93
That S3 S Tronic was a loan car (with 200 miles on the clock) whilst Audi had my 1.8 TFSI in to cure a hard to find starting fault.
After having my car for six months and a string of loan cars they cut me a great deal on factory order FL car.
I ordered an S3 with a manual gearbox.
Sounds like exact same issue I had. Mine was caused by fuel starvation due to a faulty fuel pipe. Symptom started slightly but suddenly 4 weeks later got really bad. Basically accelerate fairly hard and a massive jolt almost like the car couldn’t engage the lower next gear. Felt like it was hitting a limiter. Massive jolt threw you forward too. Did it couple times then ok, booked into Audi for a week but they found nothing. Got car back but within a week did it again but this time 20 plus times in 30 mins drive. Booked into reading Audi and took chief tech out, did it straight away. Now fixed. Initially when it happened i thought it was a gearbox or clutch issue, but it wasn’t . As an analogy it felt like driving a manual car in first gear and not changing to 2nd gear but engine hits a limiter to prevent engine damageThis has happened on a couple of occasions recently but tonight was worse than ever trying to over take and in the end I had to back off (no thanks to the car speeding up to try and stop me getting passedwasnt even a “fast” car) as the lag was so bad I just couldn’t build speed.
This is when I’m in individual or dynamic with the gearbox in “S” and plant my foot down from around 20-35mph so usually in the low gears. Pretty sure it’s from 2nd to 3rd but I build speed and when it comes to changing up a gear the car completely drops back almost jolting me forwards that’s how aggressive this lag is. Once it’s done this it’s fine and will change into higher gears as normal.
I’ll be taking the car into Audi but just wondering if anyone’s experienced this before or what it could be?
The car is an Audi S3 Saloon s-tronic 65 plate.
Thanks in advance
Royalsteve, this is exactly how mine is not quite as severe as yours sounds - yet but occasionally I'll go to pull away, overtake etc and from starting start it will jolt forward kangarooing until it picks up smooth, might get 3-4 heavy jolts before it picks up correctly, tell tale sign is also pops and bangs are not there like they used to which could indicate fuel issue exactly as you've stated. I had it booked into Audi yesterday and because they can't reproduce the issue or see any fault codes they say they can't do anything, I even went out with a tech and tried to reproduce it but typically it didn't happen! Just been out of a drive on my lunch and it did it twice once on an incline pulling away from a roundabout and once on rolling acceleration in S mode. Is this sounding like all your other symptoms guys? Also royalsteve, which fuel pipe did they replace? Thanks
I'd ask your local dealer to speak to one of the chief techs at Audi reading, ray, to see it's the same or similar issue. They could at least check the fuel pipes are fine on yours. Ray is great.
These cars are complex so it could be anything. The jolt on mine was brutal though, enough to throw you forward in the seat a bit.
Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
is the engine properly warmed up when you guys get the jolt/lag?
Not sure if it applies to the s3 but on my other cars the oil needs up to temp before the variable cam timing can work and it feels like you hit a rev limiter earlier in the Rev range. it can also be the engine protecting itself as the oil and coolant hasn’t warmed up so throttling the power.
Not sure if it applies to the s3 but on my other cars the oil needs up to temp before the variable cam timing can work and it feels like you hit a rev limiter earlier in the Rev range. it can also be the engine protecting itself as the oil and coolant hasn’t warmed up so throttling the power.
I never drive any car hard from cold, quickest way to destroy the engine. I always wait until the car has reached 90c plus
Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
That would REALLY **** me off. Despite having to spend 1300 quid on a new clutch within a few months of buying my "audi approved" car Im still glad I went for the manual. I tried a DSG but just didnt like it, especially the way it changed down coming up to roundabouts. it felt a bit jolty and never seemed to be in the right gear for booting it.
Whilst my car is in being fixed Im currently driving an A5 TDI with 7 speed DSG and pulling onto the motorway it seemed to do exactly as described. Choose a gear too low, hit the rev limiter, decided not to go anywhere for a 1 second or so, then found another gear more appropriate and eventually decided to go. This whole process took several seconds which could be dangerous.
Conclusion: The DSG is fine for basic pottering around. On a diesel with very the low revs therefore engine inertia on changes feeling less jolty its ok, but if you want it to go I think it has to be done manually using the paddles otherwise its going to be pot luck on whether it actually decides to go or not.
Conclusion: The DSG is fine for basic pottering around. On a diesel with very the low revs therefore engine inertia on changes feeling less jolty its ok, but if you want it to go I think it has to be done manually using the paddles otherwise its going to be pot luck on whether it actually decides to go or not.
Ok, I spoke to ray today and he said the s3 has a saddle fuel tank and pump pushes the tank from the one you fill up to the one that goes to the engine. The pump failed and so was replaced, now seems to be fixed.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
