S Tronic Gearbox reliable ?

[SilvioD]

Hey all, I have had a search for an answer but can't find anything specific, so maybe someone can offer an opinion?

Im looking at a 2013 A4 quattro S Tronic. Love the car but the reliability and costs involved in maintaining the S Tronic scare me a bit. Any thoughts please?

 

[ianv5]

Hey all, I have had a search for an answer but can't find anything specific, so maybe someone can offer an opinion?

Im looking at a 2013 A4 quattro S Tronic. Love the car but the reliability and costs involved in maintaining the S Tronic scare me a bit. Any thoughts please?

My 2010 2.0 TFsi quattro with 107000 miles on the clock is fine so far

 

[razza1]

Buy from Audi with a warranty is my 2p. Search my posts for why

 

[Dippy]

+1. Based on available reports problems seem to be mostly on pre-facelift cars and there is hope that Audi sorted the problems from 2013 cars on. Nevertheless as @razza1 certainly knows it can be expensive to resolve problems with the s-tronic gearbox so it would be worth investing in the extended warranty.

 

[keenu]

If it is 2013 then it still should have manufactures warranty until 2016 as that's at least 3 years. You can then buy extended warranty if you like for peace of mind.

I have an S-tronic on my 2011 A4 and had no issues so far.

 

[scotty76]

These kind of things are so hard to quantify as a punter without access to the statistics (and that really frustrates me). It's true people like @razza1 have had issues and that's bad, but it is so hard to know how many other people are out there with gearboxes with no issues. Only Audi know.

Forums tend to be a source of information for people asking about mods, banter and help with problems. What you don't tend to get is people saying "hey everyone, just a post to say my car is fine". There are periodic reviews but these are few.

FWIW I have a 2014 S4 with S Tronic and no issues so far. What I can also tell you is I have just changed job and am now doing a significantly less pleasant commute and the S Tronic is a massive plus, as I'm spending a lot more time in traffic.

A 2013 car has warranty until at least 2016. Year 4 & 5 warranty is an option so may come with the car, worth asking? I paid for year 4 so am good until 2018. After that I'll make a call.

 

[Crazyfool]

I wanted an A6 3.0 S-Line but I had so many reliability issues with my A4 I was hesitant. Then I read a post on here about the S-Tronic box packing up and costing £8k to repair! My decision was made, hence the E350 AMG Line. I

t maybe a single clutch system but you can hardly tell.

 

[Dippy]

What I can also tell you is I have just changed job and am now doing a significantly less pleasant commute

So less pleasant than scraping your wheels on the canal bridge at Theale?

 

[Dippy]

Hey everyone, just a post to say my car is fine

Maybe I have been lucky. I bought my B5 S4 new and then started reading about turbo failures, engine-out job costing minimum £3K. But I went and got a stage 2, ran it for over 10 years and over 100K miles and had no serious problems. Now I bought a new S5 and the tales of woe are new gearbox for £10K. But the reports are rare and by far most are for 2009/2010 cars. It won't stop me getting a stage 2 for the S5 and having even more fun!

 

[jdp1962]

So less pleasant than scraping your wheels on the canal bridge at Theale?

Ooooohhhh, that's harsh!

 

[chucky1]

I feel the same as Dippy. I had no problems with the s-tronic in my Oettinger tuned 3ltr Tdi before this beast. S-tronics? there are thousands of them out there. Other than perhaps Porsches PDK you'd be hard pushed to find a smoother slicker box. (I hope they crack that Simos sooner rather than later for you Dip).

 

[Crazyfool]

So less pleasant than scraping your wheels on the canal bridge at Theale?

That's a ****** of a bridge. I avoid it at all cost!

 

[mancdan]

Sorry to hijack but I had the "Gearbox Malfunction - you can continue to drive" light appear for the first time today whilst on the motorway at 65mph. It actually came on and went straight off 3 times in the space of 20 mins.
It happened on a journey from Manchester to York, but has not appeared again since and was ok on the return journey a couple of hours ago.
(2009 2.0 TFSi car has 103k miles)
Should I be worried and be contacting webuyanycar?

 

[razza1]

Get it scanned

 

[mancdan]

Will try with my carista app and see if that brings back anything.

 

[mancdan]

So just scanned with Carista and no fault codes found:

Engine
Part #: 8K2907115AJ
Component: 2.0l R4/4V TF
Coding: 010C000C240F0160 (hex)
[No fault codes]

Transmission
Part #: 8K1927156AA
Component: 0B5 20TFSIRdW
Coding: 000001 (hex)
[No fault codes]

There were other scans in the list which all showed no fault found - I just haven't included them in the above otherwise the post would be really long.

 

[razza1]

Should be ok then, maybe just a wobble, looks like you have the better mech unit 8K1 in

 

[mancdan]

Mucho gracias razza1, that's good to know. Is the 8K1 a different version as opposed to an 8Kx ?

 

[razza1]

8K0 is the early one, with poor heat protection so the board can melt more easily. The revised one has less issues, although still not perfect

 

[xpoweruk]

Wiki has some interesting figures
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct-shift_gearbox

 

[Chris Nelson]

http://audirevolution.net/forum/index.php?topic=2407.0

These are the figures off a poll i stumbled across. My only point is that they all arent neccessarily major faults it could be anything from a loose conection to a reset on vagcom

 

[jdp1962]

http://audirevolution.net/forum/index.php?topic=2407.0

These are the figures off a poll i stumbled across. My only point is that they all arent neccessarily major faults it could be anything from a loose conection to a reset on vagcom

It's also a poll with a high degree of self selection, as one voice did try to explain before being shouted down and abused.

 

[Pedrödelabongo]

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I kind of have my heart set on aparticular 2012 S Line Quattro with S Tronic.
The only problems I have with it is the service history. Audi did it as 18 and 27K miles, but there is no evidence of the gearbox service at 38K as people have said it needs. The seller (a respected local dealer) has serviced it as per the service book for the mileage.
He had no idea of this necessecity of the gearbox servicing, so he rang Audi when I was present to find out the history on the car and that was all the info he was given. The car is now at 58K miles
The car drives very, very well and I am torn between leaving it because of possible hassle with the gearbox a few miles down the line or thinking it might be OK if the gearbox oil and filter was changed now and getting it on a PCP (my thinking is that I'm only renting the car so if it does go wrong, it will be sorted by the lease company - would that be correct?), but will damage already have been done?

Apologies for it being a long winded post!

 

[razza1]

If you're getting a warranty then avoid it.
If you want to take the risk fine, but if it goes wrong you could be faced with a bill of up to £12k.
My old car drove fine when I got it...
You won't get any goodwill from Audi if the oil wasn't changed...
I'm not sure the pcp would cover it as it's not got the full service history it should have.
I'd avoid it tbh


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Pedrödelabongo]

£12k? Yeah, think it's best left!

Sent from my HTC One M9 using Tapatalk

 

[razza1]

Mech unit about £3.5k, or full gearbox £10-12k depending on where you get it done


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[razza1]

Believe me, it's not worth the stress


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dippy]

2012 will have the 2nd generation DL501 which had an oil filter delete and the remaining one became a serviceable part. In a way this means that missing the 38K service is even worse. @razza1 is biased (and for good reason) but I'd agree - avoid this car.