Looking to buy an S4 Avant, advice please.

I've never had any of the sluggishness you seem to have experienced on my 2014 S4 so maybe they have indeed improved the gearbox software. What you definitely can do is catch the box out in certain situations. If you think about it the software has to take an educated guess at what gear you'll need next. If it's expecting an upshift and you suddenly floor it there will be a pause while it gets with the plan. :) You learn very quickly how to get the best from it.

From a standing start, if you floor it the changes are lightening quick. Far faster than I could manage.

Occasionally when approaching junctions or roundabouts I'll knock it into S by pulling back on the lever for a sharper response then back into D when past the junction.

As I said just a learning curve. You'll get it in no time.

Have a look at:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthre...n-DSG-Driving-Tips-and-Tricks#/topics/5989734
 
  • Like
Reactions: CrypticS3, Keef and V6_Man
I've never had any of the sluggishness you seem to have experienced on my 2014 S4 so maybe they have indeed improved the gearbox software. What you definitely can do is catch the box out in certain situations. If you think about it the software has to take an educated guess at what gear you'll need next. If it's expecting an upshift and you suddenly floor it there will be a pause while it gets with the plan. :) You learn very quickly how to get the best from it.

From a standing start, if you floor it the changes are lightening quick. Far faster than I could manage.

Occasionally when approaching junctions or roundabouts I'll knock it into S by pulling back on the lever for a sharper response then back into D when past the junction.

As I said just a learning curve. You'll get it in no time.

Have a look at:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthre...n-DSG-Driving-Tips-and-Tricks#/topics/5989734

Cheers @scotty76, this explains a lot specially the downshift delays that I get every now and then. Explains why.

Also, I noticed this morning that I was getting a little bit of jerk (on three occasions) when shifting up from 5th to 6th (4th - 5th and 6th - 7th) were absolutely fine. Any thoughts on why this could happen?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I've never had any of the sluggishness you seem to have experienced on my 2014 S4 so maybe they have indeed improved the gearbox software. What you definitely can do is catch the box out in certain situations. If you think about it the software has to take an educated guess at what gear you'll need next. If it's expecting an upshift and you suddenly floor it there will be a pause while it gets with the plan. :) You learn very quickly how to get the best from it.

From a standing start, if you floor it the changes are lightening quick. Far faster than I could manage.

Occasionally when approaching junctions or roundabouts I'll knock it into S by pulling back on the lever for a sharper response then back into D when past the junction.

As I said just a learning curve. You'll get it in no time.

Have a look at:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthre...n-DSG-Driving-Tips-and-Tricks#/topics/5989734

Wow, now that makes a lot of sense. After reading that and trying to go over what I was doing whilst getting increasingly disappointed with the experience I feel that I may have been doing a lot of the 'don'ts'. Lots of food for thought there and will read over it again to burn it into the limited capacity of my organic hard drive. Many thanks for bringing it to my attention.
 
Right. Might as well inform all you helpful people. I have now put a deposit down on a Car. Have gone with my initial instincts and been in touch with Alex at Fontain Motors and secured the Lava Grey S4 they have for sale. Alex was extremely accommodating and sent me some extra photos and a scan of the latest service sheet.

This was @longp2 's old car so it's a very well specced 1 owner car. Again the mileage although average was higher than I was looking for but you can't argue with the service history and having access to input from the previous owner. Was also impressed that they, without prompt informed me that the supercharger belt was due for renewal and they will be sorting that at no extra cost as part of the pre-delivery. I'm really looking forward to picking it up.

Thanks for all the advice and input everyone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: scotty76 and V6_Man
Congrats buddy and let the fun begin


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: CrypticS3
Right. Might as well inform all you helpful people. I have now put a deposit down on a Car. Have gone with my initial instincts and been in touch with Alex at Fontain Motors and secured the Lava Grey S4 they have for sale. Alex was extremely accommodating and sent me some extra photos and a scan of the latest service sheet.

This was @longp2 's old car so it's a very well specced 1 owner car. Again the mileage although average was higher than I was looking for but you can't argue with the service history and having access to input from the previous owner. Was also impressed that they, without prompt informed me that the supercharger belt was due for renewal and they will be sorting that at no extra cost as part of the pre-delivery. I'm really looking forward to picking it up.

Thanks for all the advice and input everyone.

I might give Alex a call and ask for a finders fee!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Keef, CrypticS3 and V6_Man
TBH @Dippy the comparison, if any would / should be the performance between how these cars responds to different tunes rather than which tuner can make your car go faster. I have seen the redline limiter increased after the map but didn't do a full vs slightly less comparison - maybe a quite night sometime soon
LOL - Let's not get into a "which tuner is better" discussion!

Without going into a technical rant :) its all about balancing loss of acceleration during gearchanges vs tailing off of power at the top end. Our cars have very good power curves which means that it is worth redlining, especially since the s-tronic changes gear so fast. So as I'm sure you have found, your best acceleration will be in full throttle when the 'box changes up at the redline. In this 'condition' there won't be much difference between your car and @arad85 's.

The aspect that I have discussing is when not at full throttle (so NOT trying to go as 'fast' as possible). @arad85 's car will perform a bit better because his 'box will change higher. This is more a discussion about general driveability, not "making the car go faster". I tend to drive around town in ADS individual which puts the 'box in D and has the "dull" throttle response. When I want a more exciting time I switch to ADS dynamic which selects S and improves the throttle response. However when I'm not at full throttle the 'box will change below the redline and for me that means it's not quite performing as I'd like. As I have told @arad85 before, it's like I can drive the car at 80% performance or 100% performance, but not 90%.

In a way the APR TCU remap in @arad85 's car has turned D into S. Would you concur @arad85 ?

Cheers @scotty76, this explains a lot specially the downshift delays that I get every now and then. Explains why.

Also, I noticed this morning that I was getting a little bit of jerk (on three occasions) when shifting up from 5th to 6th (4th - 5th and 6th - 7th) were absolutely fine. Any thoughts on why this could happen?

Were you at constant throttle at the time? Remind us of the age of your car and the service status of the gearbox.

Right. Might as well inform all you helpful people. I have now put a deposit down on a Car. Have gone with my initial instincts and been in touch with Alex at Fontain Motors and secured the Lava Grey S4 they have for sale. Alex was extremely accommodating and sent me some extra photos and a scan of the latest service sheet.

This was @longp2 's old car so it's a very well specced 1 owner car. Again the mileage although average was higher than I was looking for but you can't argue with the service history and having access to input from the previous owner. Was also impressed that they, without prompt informed me that the supercharger belt was due for renewal and they will be sorting that at no extra cost as part of the pre-delivery. I'm really looking forward to picking it up.

Thanks for all the advice and input everyone.

I've not dealt with Fontain myself but it seems like a very good place to buy a car. With your knowing the history of the car as well I'd say you should be onto a winner...
 
LOL - Let's not get into a "which tuner is better" discussion!

Without going into a technical rant :) its all about balancing loss of acceleration during gearchanges vs tailing off of power at the top end. Our cars have very good power curves which means that it is worth redlining, especially since the s-tronic changes gear so fast. So as I'm sure you have found, your best acceleration will be in full throttle when the 'box changes up at the redline. In this 'condition' there won't be much difference between your car and @arad85 's.

The aspect that I have discussing is when not at full throttle (so NOT trying to go as 'fast' as possible). @arad85 's car will perform a bit better because his 'box will change higher. This is more a discussion about general driveability, not "making the car go faster". I tend to drive around town in ADS individual which puts the 'box in D and has the "dull" throttle response. When I want a more exciting time I switch to ADS dynamic which selects S and improves the throttle response. However when I'm not at full throttle the 'box will change below the redline and for me that means it's not quite performing as I'd like. As I have told @arad85 before, it's like I can drive the car at 80% performance or 100% performance, but not 90%.

In a way the APR TCU remap in @arad85 's car has turned D into S. Would you concur @arad85 ?



Were you at constant throttle at the time? Remind us of the age of your car and the service status of the gearbox.



I've not dealt with Fontain myself but it seems like a very good place to buy a car. With your knowing the history of the car as well I'd say you should be onto a winner...
I've bought three different A4s from Fontain between 2000 and 2010. Alway found properly professional and great to do business with.
 
  • Like
Reactions: V6_Man
In a way the APR TCU remap in @arad85 's car has turned D into S. Would you concur @arad85 ?
Not thought of it that way, but not quite. It doesn't drive like S mode where it will eagerly be putting you in a gear well into the power band. In S even on gentle throttle you will be 1 or 2 gears lower than you need be to drive comfortably. On gentle throttle, the TCU tune is barely different from stock. What it does seem to do is jump when you put your foot down. From memory of flooring it the first time on the motorway, it jumps from the 1800-2000 rpm that keeps you at 70ish and instead of holding onto the gear it drops to whatever gear is suitable for ~5k rpm, rapidly goes from 5k to 7k and then changes up to another gear at 5k and repeats. Standard S mode will drop the gear to about 3k rpm when you put your foot down IIRC. When I first did it, I was used to flooring it for a short while to get the car to downshift and for the acceleration to kick in. The drop to ~5k, subsequent noise (new exhaust too) and subsequent upshift at 7k took me by surprise to say the least.

Anything over 20-30% throttle and it does downshift quicker IMHO. Can't remember if it redlines on partial throttle upshifts (I'll try and remember to check next time).

I find I don't need to floor it that often now :racer:
 
  • Like
Reactions: V6_Man
LOL - Let's not get into a "which tuner is better" discussion!

Without going into a technical rant :) its all about balancing loss of acceleration during gearchanges vs tailing off of power at the top end. Our cars have very good power curves which means that it is worth redlining, especially since the s-tronic changes gear so fast. So as I'm sure you have found, your best acceleration will be in full throttle when the 'box changes up at the redline. In this 'condition' there won't be much difference between your car and @arad85 's.

The aspect that I have discussing is when not at full throttle (so NOT trying to go as 'fast' as possible). @arad85 's car will perform a bit better because his 'box will change higher. This is more a discussion about general driveability, not "making the car go faster". I tend to drive around town in ADS individual which puts the 'box in D and has the "dull" throttle response. When I want a more exciting time I switch to ADS dynamic which selects S and improves the throttle response. However when I'm not at full throttle the 'box will change below the redline and for me that means it's not quite performing as I'd like. As I have told @arad85 before, it's like I can drive the car at 80% performance or 100% performance, but not 90%.

In a way the APR TCU remap in @arad85 's car has turned D into S. Would you concur @arad85 ?

Fair point and it is something I wasn't aware of before. Again, would be really interested to try an APR tuned car and also talk to MRC when I go for minor tweaks after I have had the exhaust upgraded. Let's see if they can do anything.

QUOTE="Dippy, post: 3002508, member: 284"]Were you at constant throttle at the time? Remind us of the age of your car and the service status of the gearbox.
[/QUOTE]

It is a 14 plate and has done 20,776 miles to date. So, the gearbox hasn't been serviced yet. Minor service was carried out in Jan this year @19,000 miles.

If I recall it correctly I believe I had lifted my foot off the pedal while changing the gear manually. But I need to try it again as it has only happened 3 times and doesn't happen every time. I also believe it was also not on full-throttle but partial. Will try again over the weekend and report back.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Interesting to see the SC belt needs changing. Don't recall seeing that in the maintenance schedule. Looking back over the forum I see this was discussed before and I even replied to the thread. I have no recollection of that. Old age. :D

Anyway I see Fontain do the SC belt change for reasonable money so I'll keep that in mind.
 
  • Like
Reactions: V6_Man
@arad85 - I maybe overestimated the changes, but clearly APR have adjusted shift points for part throttle so certainly your D is no longer like ours.

@Tashfeen - if you think you had lifted the throttle whilst changing gear than indeed that could have made the transition rougher.

@scotty76 - not to overly concern people, but not only do the two belts gradually deteriorate but so does the rubber in the crank pulley too - there have been cases of it failing so it's worth having it inspected for play when the belts are changed.
 
  • Like
Reactions: V6_Man, scotty76 and arad85
Cheers @Dippy. After reading @scotty76 thread last night that was my conclusion as well. I might have done that and if so, then you are absolutely right. I will try again. Also, your redline thing has got me interested and I am definitely going to try it. The only problem is as and when you do it, you are hardly looking at when the gear changed your focus is on the road. Will ask a friend to sit and observe and if possible make a video - better be safe .


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: Keef
@CrypticS3 nice work!
At those prices I should've sold my S4 to Fontain doh!

@Keef, was in Sulhamstead yesterday for a meeting (Bottom Lane) and as it is closed due to road works the navigation said 'Station Road' and I suddenly recalled your post. Was ****** nervous going through Swing bridge and I am sure people behind were slightly annoyed as well . I did call a colleague to warn but he had already hit the barrier on his BMW X6, he was really ******.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: Keef
@Tashfeen sorry you've lost me mate!
Suspect you might mean @scotty76 post as I'm guessing that's the bridge with bollards where he smacked his wheel??
 
  • Like
Reactions: V6_Man and scotty76
@Keef, was in Sulhamstead yesterday for a meeting (Bottom Lane) and as it is closed due to road works the navigation said 'Station Road' and I suddenly recalled your post. Was ****** nervous going through Swing bridge and I am sure people behind were slightly annoyed as well . I did call a colleague to warn but he had already hit the barrier on his BMW X6, he was really ******.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Ah that'll be me your talking about...

http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/threads/my-s4-thread.240053/page-3#post-2484911
 
  • Like
Reactions: V6_Man
  • Like
Reactions: Keef and scotty76
Right. Might as well inform all you helpful people. I have now put a deposit down on a Car. Have gone with my initial instincts and been in touch with Alex at Fontain Motors and secured the Lava Grey S4 they have for sale. Alex was extremely accommodating and sent me some extra photos and a scan of the latest service sheet.

This was @longp2 's old car so it's a very well specced 1 owner car. Again the mileage although average was higher than I was looking for but you can't argue with the service history and having access to input from the previous owner. Was also impressed that they, without prompt informed me that the supercharger belt was due for renewal and they will be sorting that at no extra cost as part of the pre-delivery. I'm really looking forward to picking it up.

Thanks for all the advice and input everyone.
Ah you pipped me to it @CrypticS3 . I was toying with that one, let the mileage put me off. It's an amazing car, drives like a dream and looks far younger than its age. Very well looked after by @longp2 ...!! I think if I had been on here earlier this week and done what you did getting the lowdown from him I could well have gone for it. Probably the best example 12 plate around. You'll love it!
 
  • Like
Reactions: Keef and CrypticS3
Ah you pipped me to it @CrypticS3 . I was toying with that one, let the mileage put me off. It's an amazing car, drives like a dream and looks far younger than its age. Very well looked after by @longp2 ...!! I think if I had been on here earlier this week and done what you did getting the lowdown from him I could well have gone for it. Probably the best example 12 plate around. You'll love it!

I very nearly did the same thing. Not to mention the missus was grumping about the interior colour. After getting in touch with longp2 and verifying it's history I bit the bullet and called them. Had a good chat with the sales rep (Alex) and he was kind enough to sort some extra pictures and a copy of the latest service sheet as it wasn't economical to travel from the north of Scotland to Heathrow area just for a viewing. After that I pulled the trigger and hopefully it should be ready to collect very soon.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Keef and V6_Man
I very nearly did the same thing. Not to mention the missus was grumping about the interior colour. After getting in touch with longp2 and verifying it's history I bit the bullet and called them. Had a good chat with the sales rep (Alex) and he was kind enough to sort some extra pictures and a copy of the latest service sheet as it wasn't economical to travel from the north of Scotland to Heathrow area just for a viewing. After that I pulled the trigger and hopefully it should be ready to collect very soon.

Right decision mate. My journey was in completely opposite direction. Euston to Aberdeen (Caledonian Sleeper) and drove the car back and it was worth it without viewing and try's driving the car.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Right. Had confirmation that the cars checks, SC belt change and Fresh MOT were completed today. Flight has been booked for this Saturday morning so just 2 more sleeps and I'll be winging my way down south to pick up the car. :yahoo:

Then I have the 600 mile drive back home to get to know it :readit:
 
  • Like
Reactions: Keef, scotty76, jdp1962 and 1 other person
I am sure you'll have one of those memorable journeys on your way back. I remember coming out of the dealership and putting my foot down to join the dual carriageway and I was like WTF. I had never driven an S4 before so wasn't sure what to expect but it was ****** awesome


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: scotty76 and CrypticS3
Hmmm call me cynical, but a couple of new members in the past few days, all posting on threads with lots of links to DSR leasing!
Coincidence ???

I'm with you Keef. I've been removing the posts as an when I've found them. It's all very suspicious and smells distinctly like tinned ham.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: scotty76 and Keef
I've sent you a PM. Tell your misses that my misses picked the seats and they look great!
Hahah! My missus was also responsible (partly at least) for the interior colours in ours. The S4 we test-drove had standard alcantara seats, and when I asked her what she thought, she wasn't keen "Don't worry", I said, "I'll fix it so ours has full leather". What I didn't say was that she'd just given me the green light to spend an extra £1,500 on Supersport seats.

Then we had to pick colours, so I asked her if she wanted the same dark grey leather as our existing car. Her reply was "Can't we have something a bit cheerier?". So I ticked the configurator box for silver inserts, showed her the image and said "What, like that?" :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dippy, Keef, V6_Man and 2 others
So what question do you ask her so that you are allowed to get a remap? :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: V6_Man and jdp1962
So what question do you ask her so that you are allowed to get a remap? :)

You don't. If she asks any questions as to why the car feels different you deny all knowledge.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cyhliu, V6_Man and jdp1962
So just tried this on on the missus.

"Do you know how the internal combustion engine works?"
"Nope"
"Ok then, never mind" (Start browsing tuning shops)

Nuff said really :sly:
 
  • Like
Reactions: V6_Man
I've explained how the factory optimises the car's computer to post good emissions test results, I then explained that it can re re-optimised to develop its full potential.