4 days into ownership and first issue has arrived!

Mantio · Sep 18, 2019

As the title suggests..... the parking system plus has now stopped working. It's greyed out in the MMI and the light just flashes quickly on the central console when going into reverse.

Which i believe from doing some digging is likely to be a faulty sensor. Unless i've somehow managed to mess it up while fiddling about with settings! lol

One other question in relation to the launch control...... went out last night to test it.... turned off traction control / stop start. Went to put it into D/S and it seems should default to S.... it seems to stay in D rather than going in the S mode.

Is there anything else to do or a certain order to do things in?

Thanks for any suggestions to either things.

AndrewW · Sep 18, 2019

Any amount of sensors can cause the reverse parking sensors to stop, my old Octavia had a faulty ABS sensor and this stopped parking sensors working (apparently because they’re used to monitor vehicle speed whilst reversing?)

A diagnostic test will hopefully pinpoint an issue!

As for launch, what model/year do you have? Was the traction control fully off (held for a few seconds)?

Mantio · Sep 18, 2019

2014 S4 Avant.

It wouldn't actually surprise me if the roads have shaken one of the connectors off. The roads in Bristol are really bad in places. Like i say it worked for the first few days. It's book in on friday for the check though.

Is it worth buying ODB11 unit for checking things in the future? Seems like it might be.

As for the launch..... I got the message saying traction off warning blah blah in the DIS. Reading about it last night i think i hadn't got the stop start off which might be why it wouldn't let me do it. when I put my foot on the brake and accelerator it wasn't to try and creep forward which i'm guessing it shouldn't do when in launch mode. Having not had a car with it i'm not sure how hard you have to press the brake.

It just felt like it wanted the car to move as the revs weren't rising without it trying to push forward.... i didn't try too hard as din't want to do any damage in case i was doing it wrong.

AndrewW · Sep 18, 2019

Yeah car creeping forward means it's not in launch, it should freely rev up and stay at the same point until you let off the brake.

From memory you need stop/start off, traction control all the way off (hold for a good few seconds) and sport gearbox selected. The brake pedal needs to be depressed firmly, most things I've read suggest as far as it'll go.

OBD11 / Carista / Carly (I believe their new generic Carly covers VAG now, it used to be the green VAG specialist one) are all good tools to do VAG diagnostics but personally I prefer VCDS.

There's a VCDS map on here, if you take a look someone may be close to you and be able to do a full scan for a beer or two. Shame you're not up north or I'd have happily done it.

Mantio · Sep 18, 2019

thanks for reply.

its definitely not activating launch. just been and tried again following a video through the steps. i'm wondering if it's been launched a lot and has been disabled as i know there's some unproven thing that after X many launches the system disables it. who knows. i don't intend really using it but i still want it working. i'm sure they can tell me when they scan it on friday as it would show in there if it's not working.

i will take a look at the map and see if there is someone close.

i'm just wondering whether for £35 it might be useful. as much to know if a garage is trying to rip me off claiming other faults that aren't there as i could check them before going to get an idea. might save me £35 in garage fees as people love to find faults that aren't there to fix! ha ha

Dippy · Sep 19, 2019

FYI I have never launched my car. I'm sure its fun, but it does shock the transmission and I can't see the point in risking it. Yes it ought to be able to handle it but what if right after launching the DIS comes up with one of those horrible gearbox fault messages? That will be an expensive few seconds of fun!

With cars like this, diagnosing problems without OBD access is very difficult. I use VCDS to regularly check the health of my car, and it was essential for me to get support for FIS-control MMI. There are also a few things that can be reconfigured on the car with OBD access. I don't know much about the cheaper solutions but when I see posts on forums from owners with them, they always seem to have inferior diagnostics compared to VCDS.

Also you can use VCDS to check the launch counter - that number may also influence your decision about whether or not to keep trying to get it to work...

Mantio · Sep 19, 2019

that is true. It's not something intend to use really. I'd just prefer to have everything working on the car as it should be given it's new to me, but not a new car. Tbh it wouldn't surprise me if i'm not doing it right due to being to gentle with it or something like that. ha ha. But i definitely don't want to break it.

I've looked on the map and there's a few guys in Bristol with it. Once I've had the audi specialist place check it this time and possibly do a GB service as well I can always see if they can help. Or i could end up just buying the system myself to so can check things over should they come up.

jdp1962 · Sep 20, 2019

I'm with @Dippy on this. Launch control is a toy that, even if it doesn't do specific harm, can't be beneficial. It has no use on real world roads, and is only to help post good acceleration times in road tests and provide bragging rights.

@Mantio I get that you want make sure it works, but what if proving it works results in something that matters more stopping working?

Mantio · Sep 20, 2019

That's true. It's really a case of it being cos the car is new to me I want to e sure everything is as it should be.

I dont intend to launch it. 1. Cos I'm not a 20 year old rude boy and 2. Cos I do t want to break it.

It's as much the satisfaction of knowing everything is working as it should be really.

Like u say you dont use it in real life driving. And I dont intend dragging the car ever.

It's in now having diagnosis run on it so will see what comes from that.

Dippy · Sep 20, 2019

Of course I have no idea if LC works on my car as I have never tried it!

Mantio · Sep 20, 2019

Ha ha.

So... it does have it. Vcds shows the car has never been launched in its life. Which is surprising for a 5 year old one.

The stop start isnt working as the car doesn't think the alternator is charging the battery but is is. So needs more checks to sort that although I would turn it off anyway so not fussed by that.

And the parking sensors have a short somewhere across the back. So I might see if I can get to them and check the connections over the weekend.

But nice to know theres no other faults and nothing causing any damage or that the car hasnt been thrashed in its precious life.

V6_Man · Sep 20, 2019

Mantio said:
Ha ha.

So... it does have it. Vcds shows the car has never been launched in its life. Which is surprising for a 5 year old one.

The stop start isnt working as the car doesn't think the alternator is charging the battery but is is. So needs more checks to sort that although I would turn it off anyway so not fussed by that.

And the parking sensors have a short somewhere across the back. So I might see if I can get to them and check the connections over the weekend.

But nice to know theres no other faults and nothing causing any damage or that the car hasnt been thrashed in its precious life.

Start-Stop can be deactivated via Carista/VCDS. If it isn't working it might be that the previous owner had it disabled... I have it disabled on both my cars as I find it annoying and I am sure a few others here do too (some and not all)

jdp1962 · Sep 20, 2019

V6_Man said:
Start-Stop can be deactivated via Carista/VCDS. If it isn't working it might be that the previous owner had it disabled... I have it disabled on both my cars as I find it annoying and I am a few others here do too (some and not all)

I reset Stop/Start to default off, using Carista. I don;t have VCDS; @NHN refused to sell it to me for fear of the damage I would do.

AndrewW · Sep 20, 2019

I understand what you’re saying RE it’s there so you want to to work, I’d think the same. Unfortunately they didn’t start adding it until 2011 and mine’s a 2010. I‘d probably only use it a few times but nice to have.

interestingly VCDS still shows a launch counter on mine (obviously at 0) despite it not having launch.

V6_Man · Sep 20, 2019

AndrewW said:
I understand what you’re saying RE it’s there so you want to to work, I’d think the same. Unfortunately they didn’t start adding it until 2011 and mine’s a 2010. I‘d probably only use it a few times but nice to have.

interestingly VCDS still shows a launch counter on mine (obviously at 0) despite it not having launch.

IIRC some tuners can add / enable LC as part of the TCU tune however, what I am not sure is if it is from 2010 onwards or MY11.

AndrewW · Sep 20, 2019

V6_Man said:
IIRC some tuners can add / enable LC as part of the TCU tune however, what I am not sure is if it is from 2010 onwards or MY11.

Thanks, TCU tune is on the cards in the next couple of months so I'll as about it!

scotty76 · Sep 21, 2019

My car is 5 years old. I've never launched it. Not unusual, just never felt the need.

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