Just changed from A4 B8 Avant to B9 Avant

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ROLO

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Hello

I've just changed our faithful A4 b8 Avant (2010) to a B9 avant (2016) and to be honest I'm a little disappointed but wondered if I'm not making a fair comparison. Our old b8 was a 2.0 tdi (caga) SE model and we'd done 175k miles in it! The only reason we swapped it was we had a steering problem and one night the steering wheel completely locked up whilst my wife was driving and this left her very shaken, she lost all confidence in the car and I too didn't want her driving it, the garage said it needed a new steering rack so as we'd had it for so long we decided on a newer car instead.

Now there's no doubting the new car is lovely inside, I love everything about the way it looks outside and the new tech inside is great. My problem is compared to the old car the ride is quite firm and twitchy and you can feel a slight vibration through the pedals/gearstick whereas in the old one you couldn't. Also this new one feels a lot slower than the old car did too.

I got this b9 as we wanted a manual (my wife doesn't like automatics!) it's the 150bhp one which I thought would be OK as the b8 was 143bhp and pulled like a train.

So old b8 (143bhp, 2.0tdi SE) floated down the motorway, pulled strong and no vibration from gearstick/pedals/steering wheel even with 175k on the clock.

New b9 (150bhp, 2.0tdi s-line) firm ride and twitchy on the motorway, feels sluggish and you get a vibration from the gearstick and the pedals. It is amazingly quiet though and feels very refined.

So am I comparing apples to oranges? Is the b9 a totally different thing to what I had before?

Many thanks for any info/thoughts.
 
The SE and S-Line are very different in their ride and handling. The S-Line models have firmer ride, faster throttle response, etc.

You will have adaptive suspension on the B9. On the central dash below the screen there is a row of charcoal buttons. The far left has up and down arrows. The middle of these is labeled select. Use these up and down arrows and on the dashboard screen you will see options to change the ride and temperament of the car. Dynamic is fast, firmer ride. Comfort is a softer ride, smother drive. And you may have Individual (B9 and B9.5 A5 S-Line have this, B9.5 A4 S-Line doesn't.
 
HMG1K said:
The SE and S-Line are very different in their ride and handling. The S-Line models have firmer ride, faster throttle response, etc.

You will have adaptive suspension on the B9. On the central dash below the screen there is a row of charcoal buttons. The far left has up and down arrows. The middle of these is labeled select. Use these up and down arrows and on the dashboard screen you will see options to change the ride and temperament of the car. Dynamic is fast, firmer ride. Comfort is a softer ride, smother drive. And you may have Individual (B9 and B9.5 A5 S-Line have this, B9.5 A4 S-Line doesn't.
Click to expand...
You're correct that S-Line models have firmer suspension and (probably) larger wheels, which affect ride, but adaptive suspension isn't standard. On a manual, drive select will change the throttle response and that's about it!

The car will probably feel less sluggish in Dynamic mode, but the difference could be down to the newer engine. For example I went from a Golf 2.0TDI (PD) to an A6 2.0 TDI (Common Rail) . The A6 was sightly faster on paper, but felt slower because power delivery was smoother. The Golf delivered all its torque in a big lump, which was entertaining and felt quicker, but obviously less refined!

Vibration could be caused by something simple like a wheel balancing or tyre issue. Tyre choice will affect how the car handles too.
 
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Your new B9 is an S line with sports suspension 23mm lower than standard. Your Old B8 se would have been on comfort suspension.

The sports suspension is always going to feel less floaty with little travel compared to SE suspension.
I suppose your old SE likely had chunky tyres perhaps 16/17’s compared to the 18/19’s on the B9?

With regards to the engine feeling sluggish, the newer 150hp diesel for me felt better than the older one in every way. Either something is wrong with your engine or you have an out of place settling.
 
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Hi Rolo,

I bought a B9 190 TDI last xmas and had concerns with the issues you listed bar the sluggish engine. I drive mine in dynamic which sorts out the throttle response.

The ride is twitchy, which is exaggerated by how quiet it is I feel. It glides along nicely until you hit a slight bump/undulation which doesn't unsettle it, but you feel it.

The gear stick goes straight into the gear box, hence why it sometimes feels like it's some form of vibrator (apologies for the crude comment, but it really does!). It's a 'quirk' of the car.

If it helps, I've got used to it. It's just a bit different. I owned a Golf GTI prior, so can imagine your observations are even more stark to your old Audi A4.
 
Totally agree about the 'tingle stick' as every a4 b9 diesel manual I've driven had this 'feature'...
 
Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated. I'm slowly getting used to the new car and do like it, just such a contrast to the old one but I think the old one was probably more tired than I realised as everything on this b9 feels stiff/taught. Glad to hear the gear lever thing is normal, feels terrible though in a car that's otherwise well put together. We've got our first big journey in it tomorrow, a 550 mile round trip in a day, so that should test out the comfort!
 
ROLO said:
Hello

I've just changed our faithful A4 b8 Avant (2010) to a B9 avant (2016) and to be honest I'm a little disappointed but wondered if I'm not making a fair comparison. Our old b8 was a 2.0 tdi (caga) SE model and we'd done 175k miles in it! The only reason we swapped it was we had a steering problem and one night the steering wheel completely locked up whilst my wife was driving and this left her very shaken, she lost all confidence in the car and I too didn't want her driving it, the garage said it needed a new steering rack so as we'd had it for so long we decided on a newer car instead.

Now there's no doubting the new car is lovely inside, I love everything about the way it looks outside and the new tech inside is great. My problem is compared to the old car the ride is quite firm and twitchy and you can feel a slight vibration through the pedals/gearstick whereas in the old one you couldn't. Also this new one feels a lot slower than the old car did too.

I got this b9 as we wanted a manual (my wife doesn't like automatics!) it's the 150bhp one which I thought would be OK as the b8 was 143bhp and pulled like a train.

So old b8 (143bhp, 2.0tdi SE) floated down the motorway, pulled strong and no vibration from gearstick/pedals/steering wheel even with 175k on the clock.

New b9 (150bhp, 2.0tdi s-line) firm ride and twitchy on the motorway, feels sluggish and you get a vibration from the gearstick and the pedals. It is amazingly quiet though and feels very refined.

So am I comparing apples to oranges? Is the b9 a totally different thing to what I had before?

Many thanks for any info/thoughts.
Click to expand...
I’ve got the 2.0 tdi 190ps FWD A4 avant B9 (2017) and the first thing I’ve noticed when I started the engine was the vibration you most likely ask about.. I even got the dealers mechanic to drive around in it to have a feel.. he came back saying that this is normal as it’s a “diesel” ! My reply was that “ It’s also an Audi” and that the Skoda superb that I’ve part exchanged had 148k miles and was not vibrating like that .. Anyway I had a little dig about it and apparently the reason behind the vibration is that the B9 generation has its engines mounted longitudinaly and t
ROLO said:
Hello

I've just changed our faithful A4 b8 Avant (2010) to a B9 avant (2016) and to be honest I'm a little disappointed but wondered if I'm not making a fair comparison. Our old b8 was a 2.0 tdi (caga) SE model and we'd done 175k miles in it! The only reason we swapped it was we had a steering problem and one night the steering wheel completely locked up whilst my wife was driving and this left her very shaken, she lost all confidence in the car and I too didn't want her driving it, the garage said it needed a new steering rack so as we'd had it for so long we decided on a newer car instead.

Now there's no doubting the new car is lovely inside, I love everything about the way it looks outside and the new tech inside is great. My problem is compared to the old car the ride is quite firm and twitchy and you can feel a slight vibration through the pedals/gearstick whereas in the old one you couldn't. Also this new one feels a lot slower than the old car did too.

I got this b9 as we wanted a manual (my wife doesn't like automatics!) it's the 150bhp one which I thought would be OK as the b8 was 143bhp and pulled like a train.

So old b8 (143bhp, 2.0tdi SE) floated down the motorway, pulled strong and no vibration from gearstick/pedals/steering wheel even with 175k on the clock.

New b9 (150bhp, 2.0tdi s-line) firm ride and twitchy on the motorway, feels sluggish and you get a vibration from the gearstick and the pedals. It is amazingly quiet though and feels very refined.

So am I comparing apples to oranges? Is the b9 a totally different thing to what I had before?

Many thanks for any info/thoughts.
Click to expand...
 
Zocko said:
I’ve got the 2.0 tdi 190ps FWD A4 avant B9 (2017) and the first thing I’ve noticed when I started the engine was the vibration feom the gear stick you most likely talk about.. I even got the dealers mechanic to drive around in it to have a feel.. he came back saying that this is normal as it’s a “diesel” ! My reply was that “ It’s also an Audi” and that the Skoda superb that I’ve part exchanged had 148k miles and was not vibrating like that .. Anyway I had a little dig about it and apparently the reason behind the vibration is that the B9 generation has its engines mounted longitudinaly and the gear box (manual) is mounted right behind the engine with the stick on top of it hence the vibration (my old Skoda had it’s engine mounted transversaly and it had linkages to the stick wich absorbed the vibrations) Are the B8 models mounted with longitudinal or transversal engines?As for the power delivery I’ve also noticed ghat there’s quite a bit of turbo lag but when it kicks in it gains speed easily and the fact that it’s so quiet makes you wanna keep an eye on the speedo , I ‘m thinking I’m doing about 50 but the speedo has a different opinion (70) lol. I have a couple of mates (A4 and A6 tdi manuals ) and they have the exact same gear stick vibrations , we can’t feel vibrations through the pedals though.Depending on hiw bad it is you vould have a look at the engine /gearbox mountings, good luck cheers
Click to expand...
 
As far as I am aware, all the A4 models (including B8) have longitudinally arranged engines. The A3, Golf, Skodas etc. have a transversely oriented engine.
 
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Squib Meister said:
As far as I am aware, all the A4 models (including B8) have longitudinally arranged engines. The A3, Golf, Skodas etc. have a transversely oriented engine.
Click to expand...
Good to know I’ve expected more from Audi than a “vibrator” on the central console
 
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Zocko said:
I’ve got the 2.0 tdi 190ps FWD A4 avant B9 (2017) and the first thing I’ve noticed when I started the engine was the vibration you most likely ask about.. I even got the dealers mechanic to drive around in it to have a feel.. he came back saying that this is normal as it’s a “diesel” ! My reply was that “ It’s also an Audi” and that the Skoda superb that I’ve part exchanged had 148k miles and was not vibrating like that .. Anyway I had a little dig about it and apparently the reason behind the vibration is that the B9 generation has its engines mounted longitudinaly and t
Click to expand...
I have the same engine....I had the car in to be looked at around 10 times due to vibration though the pedals when it was in warranty!

Constantly told it was normal, but the problem is I'm super sensitive to it. Sometimes after long motorway drives my feet would be tingling for hours afterwards.

The wasn't ideal when my usual, pre covid commute was 40mile each way motorway journey! Strangely enough since I stopped doing that every day, I haven't noticed it on my very occasional motorway journeys since! Maybe the fact I was doing it every day, twice per day meant my feet never got chance to fully 'heal' or something.

And yes...the exact resonance I felt though the pedals, was also felt though the gear stick...I've also come from a b8, b8.5 and finally b9 and was shocked at this 'progress'!

Sent from my SM-G998B using Tapatalk
 
I love the car appart from the vibrations through the gear stick (not through the pedals in my case ), the stupid presense that pinched the brakes 2 times in a week when I was totally in control( I turn it off now every time I start the engine as it stresses me out )and the fact that there’s quite some turbo lag when you want to pull out in 2nd gear at low rpms it doesn’t deliver decent power until around 1800 rpm( not ideal and have to be aware of it) According to the manual ,being in dynamic triggers the presense more often then in comfort mode ) Also I couldn’t find an Avant with standard suspension ( bought 2nd hand and looked at about 10+ cars) ... all of them have sports suspension :( I like how it stick to the road in bends but for the UK roads it’s quite a bumpy ride , cheers
 
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